It's a dumb thing: Parking Ticket

I had a great day today, but I did a Dumb Thing- I took the big truck into Portland and tried to park it.
When I left Albany, I knew that parking would be difficult to find, but I thought I would just find a lot or garage and walk a little bit if I had to.
Nope. The lots have spaces the size of Smart Cars, not Stupid Trucks. The garages had ceilings six to seven feet high.
Finally I found a big spot on the street really close to the restaurant where I met my friends. And it had a meter nearby that looked like the one in the picture.
Let me be clear: I am not an idiot. I can operate a BlackBerry, a computer and even set the clock on the DVD player. But this machine really intimidated me. I had to put my debit card into the machine before I told it how long I wanted to park. I hit the Maximum button, and told it to print me a sticker which I affixed to my window.
After lunch, I fed the meter again.
After that, I did not.
After that, I got a ticket- and that's the Dumb Thing. If they are going to pay a person to go around and check to see if we have paid to park, why doesn't that person just put Parking Bills on our window? Why get the courts involved? It's Dumb.
Parking Tickets: a Dumb Thing.