Friday, March 1, 2013

I'm ready for a race to blow off this steam

A few weeks ago I got a $115 parking ticket in Brooklyn, apparently I blocked a fire hydrant.

The problem is one, I live in Syracuse, and two, the license plates associated with the ticket were turned into the DMV last fall.

NYC's 311 is useless.  After calling a few times and getting nowhere, I spoke to a woman at the DMV, who said this happens often, where the person who wrote the ticket had put down the wrong plate number.  She gave me a form that said the plates were destroyed, I mailed it in, and that was that.

Well, I got another letter from Brooklyn, saying my case was decided, and I'm guilty.  311 said I can dispute it, to send in another letter from the DMV. I was told that it could take 75 days to resolve the matter, and until then, I'll continue to accumulate fines.

Great.

When you go to pick up your bib for a race, do you ever get nervous that it won't be there?  I'm running the Tipp Hill Shamrock Run tomorrow, it's always a good time, and even though it's only four miles, the course has some tough spots, including a one mile hill leading to the finish.  Yesterday I went to pick up my bib with my friend A, and lo and behold, they couldn't find my stuff.  The first guy who told me he didn't have it looked nervous, so he called over a woman with a binder, and she couldn't find me either.  Then they called the Race Director over, and he couldn't find me.  I actually went old school this time, and mailed in my registration with a check (hey when you're out of work and you can avoid the extra online fee by using a check, that's what I'm going to do).  Long story short, I called the bank, they confirmed that my check was endorsed/deposited by the race, so I was in.

It's going to snow all tonight and tomorrow, which might get messy, so I'm not going to stress too much over time, I'm in it for fun.

Which I really need because after I got home from getting my bib, I found this in the mailbox:





Happy Weekend and Happy Running!


8 comments:

Big Daddy Diesel said...

Ugh, talk about adding insult to injury

Good luck at your race

misszippy said...

Red tape nightmare! Ugh.

Have fun slipping and sliding around tomorrow--you'll be in good company, right?

giraffy said...

Wow. Is NY punking you?!

Have a great race tomorrow, and be careful!!

Unknown said...

Ugh... one thing after another! :(

I mail in my registrations too sometimes. I hate paying the active.com fees. I'm so cheap! Good luck tomorrow!

ajh said...

That ticket is the pits. I read about somebody fighting a similar thing and all the energy they had to put into it. What a pain. Good luck in your race. Jury duty? I loved it when I did it. It surprised me.

Michelle said...

Seriously jury duty on top of it all! Ugh!

Have fun tomorrow and good luck!

Amy said...

Ugh! I got a speeding ticket on my last week of work with my old job, driving a company vehicle. I absolutely wanted to fight it, but it was not worth the hassle of going to court 120km from home, dealing with work on top of that, and the further penalties if I lost my case. I just paid up and hung my head. Have fun at your race tomorrow - Take it out on the pavement!

Ara said...

Grrrr...that's got to be SO frustrating. I'm sorry. I hope things get better. Have fun in your race.