Here's what happened.
Around noon I needed to head to Moore to xerox course books and do general prep for my classes that start tomorrow. Guess what it's doing outside? Snowing. I decide in the interest of prioritizing my life I should go to Moore first, then search for car - on bike. The snow was just quietly falling straight down. The snow from last night had melted and this snow was lightly covering everything, it looked so beautiful, and really, how bad could it be? On a bicycle, snow is not fun. Those sharp little ice points in snow flakes really hurt when they land in your eyes. And one of my brakes was completely frozen. Coming over Spring Garden bridge by the Art Museum, I had to use my feet as brakes or go shooting out into the wrong traffic.
I got to Moore to find there had been a water main break on the third floor, right outside my office. Not only could I not get to my office, but I was not going to be able to put anything in there, or teach in my designated classroom tomorrow. Okay - instant plan B: Go find car, worry about what to teach the darlings later. (I'll be fine, the advanced students get to make a box, and the beginning students will make a single section pamphlet. It's all under control).
So I rode my bike down Bainbridge, 10 blocks (just in case) then I back tracked on Fitzwater and Christian, came back on Catherine. I'm a little past the four block radius thing now. It occurs to me that the PPA (parking authority) would have put my car someplace where it could sit for a while without getting a ticket, so I sort of whizzed past the 2hour limited parking sections. After an hour and a half of snowflakes in eyeballs, I'd had enough. I went to UArts, the nice guard let me use the phone, (I'd left my phone at home - of course), and I called the PPA again.
Then the circus really began.
I asked if they could tell me where my car was. She asked what my tag numbers were, I told her. She said, "We don't have a record of that car." She then proceeded to tell me the PPA had not moved cars from Broad on Sunday. !!! She said I should call the police, 911, and talk with them. Can you believe that the only way to contact the police in Philadelphia is with 911? That should be an emergency number, right? Oy! Well, I called, apologized, and told my story. The operator told me to "call this number." It was the number for PPA. I told her I'd already talked with them and I was supposed to call her. She said, "Well, I guess you'll have to report it stolen." !!! Ugh. I couldn't believe it. Who would steel my 10-year-old car from RIGHT IN FRONT OF UARTS! No one. But I played along, and an officer came to UArts so I could report it stolen.
I have to say, she was very nice. I've kind of decided that if one owns up to screwing up - people are a lot more willing to help. I flat out said, "I blew it! I had the dates wrong in my head, looked at the temporary "no parking" sign and thought I was okay because of the times." She was very nice, took my info etc. and told me she'd see what she could do.
Half an hour later she came back in and said, "Get your stuff, let's go see if your car is where they said it might be." That's how I ended up in the back of a police car. Did you know there's no upholstery in the back seat? I had no idea. Just hard plastic. Probably easier to clean - ew.
As we drove she railed about people not doing their jobs etc. She also told me there were several cars missing that had been in the same situation I was in. She put 2 and 2 together and figured my car was on 13th and Washington, no where near a four block radius. Well, by the blessings of I don't know who, there it was, sitting right on the corner of 13th and Washington. Thank goodness!!! I thanked her profusely and must say, I'm so glad my car wasn't stolen. Let's hope it wasn't a premonition. . . .
In other news: I finished covering the book and got the peg in only to discover, I don't have the right size drill bit to rivet the peg in place. Must remember to pick up 1/16th size bit tomorrow.
The only thing that irritates me is that I didn't get the front and back covers centered on the boards. They are too far to the left. Maybe I can do some more blind tooling to even things out.I also needed to do a small, quick, knitting project. At the Stitch and Bitch last weekend someone introduced me to ravelry.com. Oh dear. This site is amazing. They have a ton of free patterns and this one was on there.
This is 1 1/2 balls of yarn I got in Germany. The pattern is SO easy! Knit a 7"x22 rectangle. Knit seed stitch for 1 inch on the edge and knit stocking net in the middle. Use five buttons on the edge. This yarn is thick enough that there are big enough holes for me to just push them through so I didn't need to make button holes. Ta-dah!Okay - I'm going to bed now. Eyelids drooping…
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