Safe until Thursday....

Out of several thousand dwellings in this here hood, I'm guessing there are about eight with off-street parking. Renters definitely don't live in any of these places. Parallel parking and block-circling is a competitive sport, with rules.

For nine years I laughed at those who were required to worry about such things as parking stickers and the vagaries of April-to-November: street-cleaning season. In last month, I have been forced to eat that laughter with a butter knife:

Rule #1) If you easily find a parking spot at 10:30 p.m. on a Sunday night, it is probably too good to be true. Chances are 99.8 percent you are on a street that gets cleaned at 8 a.m. the next morning.

Rule #2) When parking at 10:30 p.m. on a Sunday night and you find a spacious spot only a block from your place, you should probably end the phone conversation you're having with your father and look at surrounding signage.

Rule #3) After you have disregarded the above-two rules, get out of your house prior to 8 a.m. the next morning.

Today at 8:10, as I made my way on foot towards my morning coffee and bus, I came upon an idling street cleaner at the nearest corner. In front of it, two tow trucks. In front of that, a long empty row of parking spots all the way to F Street, with the exception of my white Mazda 626. As for that: a man in a dirty work shirt was circling it, looking for a tow hold.

I sprinted. I kow-towed to the tow man. He let both me and my car go.

The upshot is because everyone on my block had already gone to work, I then found a spot right in front of my apartment......where the sweepers don't come until Thursday.....