Feet & Inches.

I parked on the sidewalk.

Yeah, I did that. In fact, I did that many times.
Here's how.
And here's why.
And here's why I won't be doing it any more.

The how is easy. When we pull up to our spot, I veer slightly to the right until I feel the 2 right wheels raise up a couple of inches. Not up to the yard on the other side of the sidewalk. But about a foot or so onto the sidewalk. (Please note that that leaves about 3 feet of available sidewalk, should anyone need to walk the 6 feet from the front of our car to the back).
So that's how.

As to why... You may remember me mentioning at some point a few months ago that our pretty blue car got side-swiped while parked in front of our house. (Well, it's the house we rent from. That's why we don't actually get to park on the big driveway attached to the house).
So.
Due to that side-swiping that led to a totalling of the car that led to a whole bunch of money being applied towards the search and purchase of a new car.... I now choose to help our neighbours. How do I help them? Well, since I thought maybe the car-hitting-neighbour was potentially not the only neighbour to find our car in its way, I've been helping everyone out. You know... by putting two of our wheels part way onto the sidewalk.
No big deal, right?
I mean, I get that that's better for cars but worse for pedestrians. I get that. But I also get a thing or two about our society. I mean, let's be real: I see many many people driving around here. I see almost no one walking. Terrible, really. But it is what it is.
Anyways... that's the why.

As to why I won't be doing that any more... fifty dollars.
(That's like 30 Tim Hortons' or like 4 Starbucks', if that helps).
I thought for a while that for sure if the neighbourhood police (like the actual ones who have uniforms and get paid for it, not the ones who go for a walk every 2 months and then feel its their duty to call the real cops to rat out their neighbour who's parked on the sidewalk) heard my reasoning, they would care. And they would understand. And therefore they would, you know... cancel the ticket.
But they won't.
And besides, I've had an epiphany.
The letter of the law is where it's at.
That's one of the reasons why I won't be doing it any more.

But here's my other reason.
I want to be a teacher again some day.
And when you're running a classroom, you have rules. And sometimes students break them.
And when they break them... I don't want to have beholden myself to hear a whole story from every student every time they feel they have a great reason for why they should be allowed to break the rule.
There's just no time for these things.

So I paid the 50 bucks.
Because you know what else?

You're not supposed to park on the sidewalk.