I love living in the city, but it does have its drawbacks. One of the biggest hassles is what's known as "on street parking." We live in a condo without a garage or a driveway, so we have to park our car at curbside. Unfortunately, so do most other people in the 'hood, which means that finding a parking space can be a trial, especially at night. To make matters more complicated (far more complicated), on some mornings we're not allowed to park on one side of the street, on other mornings, the other side. This is because the street cleaners have to do their thing. Get in their way, and you get a $29 ticket. Consequently, as a work-at-home type, I often spend part of my lunch hour moving the car from one side of the street to the other, just so I won't have to move it the following morning.

I went outside to do just that today, but the car was . . . gone. For a while, I was frantic, thinking it had been stolen (which actually happened to us once a few years ago). I walked up and down the block, hoping that maybe I had forgotten where I parked it. I was getting ready to call the police, when I spotted the car parked down another street--and my wife gettting out of it. It seems she had left work early and, instead of coming upstairs to our condo, had hopped into the car for a short shopping errand. Mystery solved. Just another day in Anecdote City.