Getting Back to Normal

After all the lead up to the NYC trip and then the whole 9 days, last week was quite a letdown. 

But the regular old "normal" is still pretty amazing, right?

I was interested in seeing how the new iphone camera would do with the moon. Still not great, but getting better. 

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Movie & Dinner night with Sammi & Jason 

Sunday afternoon, I'd found a great parking spot ahead of lunch with Amber and Phantom of the Opera after. Parking on streets is free on Sundays. I'd found the perfect one, right next to the Sculpture Garden, along with several other cars, leaving one "lucky" space left. 

on my way back to my car after the show, the sunset was illuminating the stained glass in the chapel across the street. The round things in the foreground were pieces of the big tree that will be put together and lit up later this morning. They were working on this when I parked, but had gone for the day.

And then I turned towards my lucky parking space. 

Only to realize there were two big 18 wheelers in all those lucky spots. 

I stood there quite stupidly for a minute, agape.

And the first thought that pops into my head is, the car has either been stolen or towed. 

AND MY HADESTOWN CD with 8 of the cast's signatures is there!!

Yes, I was more concerned about this than the vehicle itself.

Then I called Amber, who had driven separately and had left me at the doors of the theater to head for the parking garage (because she had not been lucky enough to find free street parking.)

She told me where in the garage to find her and on my way over there, I saw the "Information Office" of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts with a woman at the desk. So I popped inside. 

"I think my car must have been towed."

I explained the space, that there were other cars and meters along the spaces, and since it was free on Sundays, thought it was fine. 

She called security, who asked, "were there bags on the meters?" Well, yes, all the cars in front of all the meters where I parked had bags over them, which I'd interpreted to mean "free on Sunday -- don't feed the meter."

But no.

That's secret downtown code for, "Yes, meters are free on Sundays. But not bagged ones." Bagged ones, which have absolutely nothing written on them, mean you can't park here.

The Denver Police had towed them all to make room for the 18 wheelers now in those spaces. (Which are loaded, I was told, with all the rest of the holiday decorations to be unloaded in the park.)

Turns out, there is something called a "short tow."

My car wasn't in the system, so it had not been towed away to a locked up impound lot. 

It had likely been moved to another parking spot (without a bagged meter) and ticketed. 

So . . .  how do I FIND it?

Amber has joined me in the office by this point. 

The officer who would know that information is on a call and can't be reached. But most of them in that area are moved over to Sixth street. 

So we head out to find Sixth Street and see if we can spot it, while I leave my cell with Tiffany, who I am now on a first name basis with, so when the officer calls back with the info, she can relay it to me, if we haven't located it first.

By the time we get to Amber's car and out on the main street, Tiffany is calling. It's less than a mile away at 600 Curtis Street on the Auraria DU campus. We get turned around and find it, managing not to get run over by the Light Rail that cuts across one of the green lights we are navigating in the dark. 

There is my car, with the ticket on the windshield. 

With profuse thanks to Amber, I get out and tell her, "I am not even looking at the ticket until I get home."

The whole way home I am thinking, this is going to be an expensive lesson. 

The ticket?

$25.00

About what I would have paid at the parking garage.