Mayor Bill Smith is lucky he's leaving poolitics (or so I think I read in the paper today, though some other Smith poolitician is also leaving so maybe I am mixed up) because I sure ain't gonna ever vote for him. Not after today. He's always whining about how nobody ever comes to our downtown core, and blah blah blah. I go there all the time, living a short walk away, but today for various reasons I chose to drive and actually pay for parking, something which seems like a particularly silly waste of money to me. So I found a meter and inserted a couple of bucks, buying myself an hour and a bit of time. It turns out I needed slightly more than that so I returned later on to put more quarters in, and was a little surprised to discover that my car was not there. The meter showed 7 more minutes, so I concluded that my car had been stolen, rather than towed. Then I looked closer and saw a small, innocuous white sticker on the side of the meter stating that that particular spot was a tow-away zone between the hours of 3:30 and 6PM, and of course I arrived at 3:30. So them **%^$#*&$#s towed my car.
Cost $96 to get it released from the police impound lot, and then to add insult to injury they gave me a fifty dollar parking ticket on top of it. This is particularly disheartening since I am less than a month away from a RTW trip and am trying hard to save money, rather than just give it away to stupid and inept bureaucracies. And they wonder why no one ever wants to come downtown? But on the plus side Mayor Bill Smith is welcome to come looking for me in the Himalayas if he wants my fifty bucks cause I sure as hell ain't paying the ticket. Apparently he'll have the time (and the momentum) to come looking for me.
Anyways, thanks to my girlfriend and mom for helping me get everything sorted out in record time, and for soothing my addled and angered bear nerves. Or bearves, as we call them.

EDIT: turns out I was mistaken and that other Smith guy is leaving, not Mayor Bill. So don't vote for him! Vote for Homie Bear! At least now he won't be able to come looking for me in Nepal or India or somewhere. Haha! I'll send you 50 rupees in the mail, how's that?