Debt to Society: PAID

Remember my conviction for crossing a closed street in the presence of the red hand? Who can forget that? It's one of the greatest miscarriages of justice since Sacco and Vanzetti. There I was crossing against the light on a closed street. What are you supposed to do with that? Well, in the Seattle Police's case, they gave me a ticket along with a little bit of taunting. I fought it all the way to municipal court, where I found out that common sense and law do not intersect. Is this ringing a bell? Well, following my loss in court, instead of paying a fine, I chose community service. I got six whole hours of it. My place of servicing was the Center for Wooden Boats on Lake Union:

OK, so it's not in Belltown (which is landlocked), but it is fairly close. But honestly, with yesterday's wonderful weather, it was so very nice to be near the water. In my case, I was above it in the CWB's office:

See, there it is, in the middle of all those boats. Some are made of wood; others are not. Unfortunately, I had nothing to do with the boats, because I spent almost all of my 6 hours performing admin tasks and sprucing up the office. I performed some clerical chores and did some light swabbing (that's how sailors talk, you know) and general straightening. The people were all quite nice, but they all seemed to be very scarce when the public would come in to ask about sailboat rental. I couldn't exactly tell them that I was prison labor, could I? Luckily, these problems eventually resolved themselves.

So yes, my faith in this organization is not shaken now that I've come into contact with them. They're good people devoted to preserving wooden boats. They're also really into teaching landlubbers (another nautical term I learned) how to sail. If you have any spare money or time, I recommend that you give it to these folks. They could use plenty of both. Here are some of those wooden boats:

As I mentioned, it was a super-fabulous day yesterday. Time flew by and I was a free man. My thanks again to the CWB for letting me work off my crime and not letting my status as an unrepentant crossing-against-the-light person (the street was closed!) poison their opinion of me.

And now that I have regained my freedom, I think I'll just sit around all day and do nothing.

Your Tax Dollars Take a Break

I was walking back from my conviction for crossing against the light yesterday when I spied this law enforcement trinket in front of the Starbucks at 2nd & Lenora:

I gotta say that even though I'm still rather miffed at the law, I really like their wheels. This particular number belongs to Parking Enforcement, AKA the Meter Maids. I saw one of these earlier waiting for a light, got all excited and started asking its operator questions. Here's how it went:

Me: Wow, is that new?
She: Yes, sir, it is new.
Me: Is that some kind of all-terrain Segway?
She: No, sir, it is not a Segway.

The light changed and she rolled away. Clearly, she wasn't nearly as thrilled as I was about the encounter. I guess getting yelled at by irate motorists 20 times a day will do that to you.

So is this the wave of the future for the Meter Maids? I've seen them riding bikes and Segways - in addition to their traditional three-wheeled carts - but will this be part of their enforcement arsenal? If I may proffer an opinion here: as you're no doubt aware, this is Seattle. It rains a lot here. I know, I know, by national rainfall averages, we're way down the list. Annual rainfall has no bearing on my argument. My only point is that it drizzles here for weeks on end. That is beyond dispute, no? OK, so this slick little thing, as you may have noticed, doesn't have a roof. Am I to assume that it will only be used in clear weather? If so, it will see about 80 days of action a year. Is that a wise investment? I mean, it looks expensive - with those mag wheels and such. What's wrong with the carts? They still strike terror into the hearts of those who park overtime. Although my heart swells with civic pride at the thought of our Meter Maids having such cool gear, I'm asking myself whether they're really necessary. As usual, my mind says no, but my heart says yes.

What do you think?