Wrong Movie!

Wrong Movie! - Actually, I was going to write about something entirely different this week, but life more or less just played another incident into my hands which would just be too good to let slip by without addressing it. Unbelievable! About 6 weeks ago as we were in the beginning phase of our moving process, I parked my car in front of our new home. Totally unaware of that ominous law of no parking throughout the whole village between 3 and 6 am, we just left my vehicle there for two consecutive nights and kept going back and forth in our van and truck. On day three a friend drove by and informed us about two tickets on my windshield. After learning about that strange parking restriction, I got mad and wanted to know why we hadn't been told before. "Oops, I forgot", was all that we got. Well anyway, I was on fire and stormed into the police station to find out about the next few steps. I was told to see the Town Council next door and plead not guilty. This we did, and so we received an official court date notice in the mail which was suddenly postponed from mid to end October. Alright, two nights ago as we were sitting with approximately 30 people, most of whom were dealing with much more serious matters such as eviction, small crimes and claims, I was listening to the judge as he was handling the first few cases and well, quickly got a really bad feeling. Once it was our turn, my husband got up and stepped forward. Now, get that. The judge swore him and both police officers in just like in a trial! For God's sake all that monkey court over two stupid parking tickets! Honestly? When asked why the car had illegally been sitting on our street for two nights, my significant other replied that we had simply not spotted that traffic sign. The judge replied that that was everybody's excuse, and that's when I lost it and raised my voice asking to be allowed to give testimony as well whereupon I was immediately interrupted and ordered to remain silent. In the second cop's report it said that my car had been parked at a different address which of course was not true. After all, why would I keep it on the street after receiving the first ticket? Anyway, I was on the verge of exploding since I was not given a chance to explain that it had all been my fault. Thank God, my husband kept his cool and just went with the flow. His reaction "Just do whatever you need to do" was apparently enough to somewhat change that judge's arrogant demeanor. In the end one ticket was dropped and the other one had to be paid. No matter what, I was and still am livid, to say the least! We are no scumbags like the folks next door who should have been evicted by now for failing to pay their taxes and other outstanding bills and who should be trialled for child neglect, congregating, starting bon fires, and breaking other laws. We are good citizens with neither criminal records nor any traffic violations other than that one ridiculous ticket, but we really felt treated just as badly if not worse than those small- scale crooks in court. I am really upset! How about taking care of that low- life crowd next door instead? Just two nights prior they all got in a fight with a friend who despite his severe state of intoxication had dropped by to confront one of them accusing that guy of having busted his truck windows and stolen his tools. That same lad, who doesn't even officially live here, had illegally started a camp fire in the backyard on a gusty night only about ten feet away from us and had to be told by the police to put it out immediately. Okay, so three cops arrived and just laughed that drunk's slurred accusations off while waiting for the cab to pick him up which by the way took over an hour. The entire time ten people were standing on the porch and loudly discussing "things" between 10 and 11:30 pm. Just fantastic! We couldn't help overhearing how the accused troublemaker was bragging to that one cop about having video- taped the moment he got punched in the face by the drunk friend who had already been whisked away in a cab. The cop affirmatively shook his hand and stayed around for more of that moron's incredible flattery as far as having handled the whole situation so very well. Tell me, how bad is this? No doubt, I truly feel I must have got stuck in the wrong movie as we would put that in my language.