I was just…….

This is what most people start their excuses with when approaching a parking officer. we all joke about it. 

I was just…a few minutes late.

I was just… dropping something off.

I was just… picking something off.

I was just…waiting for someone

I was just…eating lunch

I was…just here for a minute (while in a red zone, bus stop or handicap spot)

and so many more. I often wonder if these people would say to an officer pulling them over.

I was just going 10 over the speed limit. I was just going to register my car next week. I was just going the wrong way because it was more convenient. I was just waiting until payday to get my insurance.

Funny thing is if someone comes up to me and says, “I am sorry I messed up.” I am much more likely to give them a break. Take responsibility for your actions and learn from your mistakes.

 

Back to Work

Well, my quarantine is officially over as of yesterday. It has been two weeks since my coworker that has it has been in the building. I have had no symptoms so am safe from that exposure. I got an email from my boss yesterday explaining our new work schedule. The Colorado governor has said that all essential businesses need to go to 50% staff. I truly believe that my boss is trying to look out for us and keep us working as much as possible. At first, I did not want to go back but I am comfortable with what he has come up with.

Three of us will work one week. One of us will work four hours every day, the other two will work 8 hours. One will work on meters (maintenance) as well as enforcement. The four hour guy does a lot of the accounting for the department so he will do mostly that but if he has time, will do enforcement. I will have one small thing int he morning and then enforcement the rest of the time. We will not be enforcing meters but things like red zones, bus zones, handicap and other safety issues. I can handle that. I will have no reason to touch a meter. We will have staggered arrive, lunch and departure times so we will have no interaction. I can do my job with very little to no human interaction and not be terrible to people that are struggling right now. I just hope there are a lot of people walking their dogs so I can love on them. I am sure looking forward to hugging people again.

 

Officially Quarantined

As many of you know, I am a parking enforcement officer. For some reason, the city where I work has deemed us official. I have been very uncomfortable with this since things started closing down. Many places stopped parking tickets over a week ago. I even had a local police officer tell me yesterday that they are hardly pulling anyone over anymore so why are we writing tickets for a meter? I normally have no guilt about writing tickets because they are all avoidable. I don’t know who I am writing a ticket to most of the time but I assume if they are coming downtown and have a life that lets them drive, they can probably afford to pay their meter and/or $25 dollar ticket. Since this illness started spreading in the states and things started closing down, I have not felt the same way. They may have just lost their jobs and have no idea when/if they will be back at work. Last week, I wrote fewer and fewer tickets every day because the guilt for even managing parking in a ghost town was unthinkable to me. By the end of the week, I was actually only looking at plate registration and things like red zones.

Last Monday, when I got to work, I heard that a gentleman that works downstairs was home with with a fever. It definitely put me on alert and told my boss that I wanted the guy to take the full fourteen days before he came back but my boss said it wasn’t up to him. He told me this other guy had spoken to my boss and told him it was a sinus infection and he was getting better with meds. The next day, I got a text from another friend that knows the sick guy. He tells me that the sick guy AND his wife are home with flu symptoms. I tell my boss this and he tells me that he had just spoken to him and it was a sinus infection. Fine. I wasn’t happy with that but figured there was nothing that I could do or say so let it go. We had only tested about 30 people in our and a neighboring county at that time so we had “no cases”. I knew that was BS but what can I do? I did my job reluctantly and badly. The guy never came back to work last week.

Friday, a couple of my fellow officers stayed home with sick family members. My boss told them that they could come back when the family member had felt okay for 3 days. One was back yesterday, the other today. The other guy still wasn’t at work. I figured he was just being smart about it since I hadn’t heard anything. Just before I got off yesterday, I received another text from my friend. He told me that he had a friend in the hospital with suspected Covid-19. I asked if I knew the person as we have a lot of mutual friends. He told me it was a co-worker of mine. I immediately thought to the sinus infection guy and asked. He didn’t deny it. I immediately knew that I had been possibly exposed. I didn’t say anything to anyone at work. I figured I would let the bricks fall where they may. I was stressed all night. I have been sneezing and have a slight runny nose. My seasonal allergies returning or not? My stomach has been upset and bothering me. I have anxiety disorder so anxiety or Covid?

I woke this morning and talked myself into going to work. I was thinking on the way in, how I could avoid writing many tickets and how long before the health department shut us down. I logged in and checked my email. Behold, an email from HR telling us of possible exposure and to go home. Boss called and said for us to wait for him but to clean out the fridge with anything we have in there. When he got there, he also told us to take any and everything home we may want as we have no idea when we can come back. The guys last day of work was the 13th. The virus can live on metal for up to 72 hours so it may have been alive in the building on the 16th at the latest from him. That would put us on day 8 assuming no one else in the office gets sick, we have just under a week but if anyone else gets sick, it will be extended. I have not had any super close contact with this man but we do get to work at the same time every day and we often walk in together and I would say we have started a friendship. I hope he is okay and know that I probably did not get it from him with direct exposure.

So now, I am quarantined and I guess parking enforcement is NOT essential anymore. The town will survive without any tickets being written for a bit.

 

I Needed That….a fun flirtation

Here it is, two weeks before I delete my dating profiles again. I have been really not that interested in anyone for a while. I haven’t been flirting. I look at Match and feel discouraged because men will look at and like my profile but not message me. I message them and they never respond. I have pretty much decided that it isn’t worth it. My married guy doesn’t have time for me. He is there for me in crisis but we haven’t had a date in ages. R is a great friend but I am finally past wanting more than friends or FWB with him. Even if he were to change things, I don’t think we are right long term together I put myself out there in person, too. I attend events, I volunteer. I do not just sit at home all the time. I haven’t had a date since May. I have had a total of four dates in 2019. I have not been feeling negative about myself at all. I have just not found anyone worth my time or effort.

Yesterday, I wrote a ticket to a car with an expired meter. My machine ran out of paper so I had to change it to reprint. When it was printing, these two guys come running around the corner, one with a hand full of change. They very nicely asked me to not write the ticket but I had already but since they were so nice and obviously running back to pay the meter, I decided to see if the owner could get a warning. There was no way he came running because he saw me so he really was trying. Sometimes, the call to the office can take a bit so I always talk to the people while we wait. They told me they had just had lunch at this one place and were on their way to the book store to get presents for their kids. (nice and reads and encourages reading, good but probably both married) One goes on to mention his wife in the conversation, the other mentions that his wife passed away a few years ago. His account comes back clean, I give him a warning and the conversation continued for a few minutes. They gave me hugs and I mentioned a beer sometime and laughed. I said, I am single, you are single…. They told me where to go to join them sometimes and the widower asked me to stalk him. I actually told them that I have this little fantasy that I will meet the “man of my dreams” just like that. The friend said that is was a Hallmark movie moment. I am sure it was just fun flirtation but it encouraged me that maybe there are a few decent single men with jobs and teeth in this town after all. I walked by his car later and left him a note from his “stalker” saying if he really wanted to have that beer to call me and left my number I have not heard from him and that is fine. It was fun. I wonder……..

 

My Honor is Important

I had a friend get a parking ticket the other day. She posted it online and said something along the lines of thanks to our town. She had a friend post about how all government workers are corrupt and how horrible it was that he got a ticket once when he was fifteen minutes late for his paid meter. FIFTEEN MINUTES LATE and he was angry that he got a ticket. That is pretty black and white. We walk by, the meter is flashing zero, it is expired. We even have a five minute grace period on the meters so when we start the ticket, it has been expired AT LEAST five minutes. If it is a normal easy ticket, it takes me about 90 seconds to 2 minutes to write a ticket so that is SEVEN minutes. He went on to say how all parking officers pick and choose who they write tickets to and don’t write to their friends. I ended up engaging in conversation with him. He said that all people are corruptible and then admitted that he definitely is. I was glad to see that he could admit that he is that way but was really saddened that he thought that everyone was and that anyone in a job with any power at all doesn’t do things fairly.

My thoughts on the corruptible are this. My mother raised me to have honor. From Merriam Webster there are many definitions of honor but these are the ones I am talking about.

1a: good name or public esteem : REPUTATION

8a: a keen sense of ethical conduct : INTEGRITYa man of honor

b: one’s word given as a guarantee of performance

I told him that I had honor and he went on to ask what that had to do with anything? I guess he doesn’t understand that my honor is my value to myself. I need to be able to look myself in the mirror. If I tell someone that I am going to do something, I damn will do my best to do it. If I PROMISE, it will get done. I don’t make promises easily or often. I don’t break promises, which is why I stayed in an unhappy marriage for so many years. I have had jobs dealing with a LOT of money. For one year, I did the deposit for a local store every morning and would count thousands of dollars in CASH daily. It never crossed my mind to pocket any of it, though, realistically, it would have been easy to do on occasion. We were allowed to be off up to $5 a day. That could add up. I have worked in the medical field and know very personal information about a lot of local people. I have known secrets of many people I know, their spouses, their kids. I have never been tempted to tell them and currently, I write parking tickets for a living. I do not do any favoritism. Honestly, the majority of the time I have no idea whose car it is when I am writing a ticket but if I do know, I will watch for them to see if they are coming but when I am writing other tickets, I always am watching to see if anyone is coming. I must ask, “Is this your car?” at least a dozen times a day. If they say yes, I stop, if they say no, I continue. I have written a ticket to ex-bff/bff and almost completed a couple more. I definitely knew it was his car. I wrote I am sorry on his ticket but I still wrote it. I wrote a ticket to another friend and he texted me minutes later thanking me for not putting our friendship before my responsibility. R has a business here in town and has not only told me to give him tickets if he deserves them but to any of his employees, too. No one gets preferential treatment. If I walk by a car and do not give them a ticket and someone else sees the meter is at zero they may think I am playing favorites but there has to be a reason. My kid walked into her business after seeing me yesterday and told her co-workers that she hoped they were all paid because I was out there. The bartender told her that he doesn’t mess with meters anymore because I am ruthless. I adore this young man. I have booted people’s cars that I like. I don’t want to but I do. I had one young man came up just as I was finishing his boot. I told him I was upset that he made me do it as he hugged me. I waited with him while he had the police office come and write the summons for court to get the boot off instead of paying right away.

There are many reasons we don’t ticket an expired meter. We got a call the meter wasn’t working. Our equipment isn’t working. They have a handicap placard or plate. They have a pass for the area they are parked. There are even a few people in town high up that have a pass that they can park anywhere in town on business and not pay. Many of them pay anyway but not all. We don’t know if they are on business so we assume they are following the rules. We have no way of knowing. The last one that I can think of right now is if they have a government plate. They can park free almost anywhere. I have had people stop and ask me why I didn’t write a ticket and if asked politely, I have no problem stopping and talking to someone about the whys. There are times that I could write someone several tickets and stop at 2 so as to not be extra mean but I will not walk by an expired meter without writing a ticket without cause. The other tickets we write are mostly black and white either: If you are parked the wrong way, parked in a red, green, handicap, or loading zone, parked in a motorcycle spot and you are not driving a motorcycle, your vehicle registration is not displayed or not current. Even the out of space is pretty black and white but that is one ticket that we do have some officer discretion. Some of us are more strict than others. For me, it depends on where in town, how busy it is, if it looks like they tried, if it is a safety issue, if they are keeping others from parking legally and probably more. Honestly though, if you are on the line, you are out. We are supposed to look at the lines basically like a wall. You cannot be parked ON the wall. You are supposed to be INSIDE the space and that is not just the tires, it is the entire car, and the kayak on the top, or the bike on the back, of the wood sticking out the back, etc. If you need to take two spaces, take them and pay for both. We will NOT give you a ticket for that. We WANT you to be safe and make it so others can be safe, too.

It does sadden me that this man thought that everyone is corruptible. I know many are. I have seen it, we all have. We see about bad cops, bad government officials and others all the time but there are still people with honor and integrity in the world. We shouldn’t assume that someone doesn’t have honor just because of their job. There are good and bad everywhere and in every line of work. I personally have three friends locally that have had their businesses embezzled from. I cannot imagine doing that to anyone. My honor is worth much more than any money or power.

 

A Day in the Life of a Parking Officer

It is so funny how many people think that my job must be just awful. I get asked two things on a regular basis: how much I walk in a day and how much do I get yelled at. The answer to the first question is anywhere for 8 to 10 miles in an average day. The second answer is surprisingly low. I don’t know if it because we usually stop when someone gets to the car when we are writing a ticket or if it is because it is the small town that I work in.

I start work at 8 am most days. I get to work, get on my PC, check mail and check the board for my route for the day and to see if I collect money and what my jeep schedule is for the day. We collect from every meter every week. We have three different routes and an hour in a vehicle every day. I also have an extra duty that I try to track down the owners of vehicles that the registered owner doesn’t come back for some reason. I work on that every day for a few minutes but when depends on my other schedules.

For collections, we have three people go out, we have a cart and bags. Two collect in bags and dump in the cart while the third collects directly into the cart. We take to the bank and make a deposit of a LOT of coin. This takes a little over an hour every day that we collect. Please, use credit cards. We can track to see if you made a payment if for some reason it doesn’t go through and it makes everyone’s lives easier.

In our town, we have three different routes. One is quite slow and can be very boring. Not very many people or dogs or tickets. The other two, there are a lot more people to talk to and dogs to pet so even on a slow ticket day, they aren’t boring. It takes me just over an hour to walk each route, depending on people, dogs, and tickets. There are some dogs I see almost every day., people I talk to often. I help people with the meters if they don’t know how to use them. I answer questions about the town on what to do, where to eat, where to find items. I spend a lot of my day talking to tourists about various things. Because I carry dog treats, there are dogs that see me and immediately want to see me. There are a few that will drag their owners or bark until I get to them. There is one little pug, Loki, that gets so excited when he sees me that he just talks to me until I am out of sight again. I have had dogs come up to me and sit while I am writing a ticket and just wait for me patiently. There are also people that I have gotten to know well with this job, citizens, business owners, employees, etc. Everyone assumes we are hated but I get told all the time how much I am liked. If someone makes it to the car before I finish a ticket, unless they are being an asshole, I stop the ticket. I often will give someone a high five. Today, a gal and her daughter were late because they were in the book store. I told them to set a timer on their phone next time and put more time on, especially if they were at a book store because I know how dangerous they are. Next thing I know, the lady and I are exchanging book recommendations. I ask people all the time what they are reading and suggest books and even had a lady send a note with one of my co-workers once of books that she wanted me to read.

Even the homeless people can make my day brighter (or worse) There are a few guys that are in town a lot. I worry about them and talk to them all the time. I tell them to be careful. I ask how they are doing. We had one die in town the other day and I was talking to a few today and told one how I was afraid it was him because he has been so bad lately. They appreciate me treating them like they are human. (Surprise, they are)

I figured out one day how much time I spend writing tickets. On an average day, I write between 25 to 35 tickets. It takes me about 90 seconds to write a ticket That is less than an hour of my day doing the only bad part of my day. I don’t enjoy writing most tickets but if you are illegally parked in a handicap spot or using an expired placard, I do enjoy those. The rest of my day, I enjoy. I say I get paid to walk around my favorite town in the world, meet people, and pet puppies. I have written up to 72 tickets in a day twice. It is rare but it does happen.

I usually do a route then come in and take a short break, check my email again and go out and do it again. I go in the Jeep once a day, usually. We have a vehicle that has a license plate reader. We cruise around city limits and write tickets for things not at the meters, like stop signs, plate registrations, parked too close to intersection and other codes. We also have the camera read plates for cars on the boot list. If it reads a hit, we call it in, boot the vehicle and boot it, if eligible. We often get “caught’ doing this and even with this I rarely get yelled at. I actually have had two young men apologize for making me do it. They were so sweet that I actually felt bad. When someone yells at me, it makes it easier to do. If someone is sweet or, even worse, cries, it is terrible for us but we are just doing out job. With the jeep and the walking, I usually do my route 2-3 times a day.

I do get yelled at occasionally but I have more often gotten hugs, high fives, compliments, thanks for doing my job, and even have had a couple of people buy me a coffee just to be nice. I had no idea that I would love this job so much. I often wonder how different it would be in a city. Would there be a lot more yelling and anger or proportionality about the same? I know so many people in town. I know everything that is going on. I know almost every regular dog and they know me. There are kids I see try to imitate statues in town. A child that stopped in the middle of the road because the sign changed to stop. I had a little boy so scared of parking officers that his grandmother asked me if I would talk to him. Now, when he is in town, he is excited to see me. I feel better physically than I did 20 years ago and my mood often gets better within an hour of being at work. How many people can say that.

For those of you that hate us, remember we are doing our job. Without parking enforcement, it would be chaos and you would have a much harder time finding a spot to park. I personally would love a day that no one parked illegally and I could just get paid to walk, talk and pet puppies. It could happen as every ticket is avoidable. Put in that extra quarter and set a timer on your phone. I bet it has one. Remember if you do get a ticket, it is not personal. Follow the rules. Don’t park in a handicap zone unless you are legal to do so and make sure your placard is readable. Don’t park in a yellow, red or bus zone. Park on the right side of the road, keep your car legally registered and check your stickers occasionally. If I don’t see a valid registration sticker, I will write the ticket. I don’t know if it wore out or if someone stole it. Don’t leave your car running. Park within the lines, if there are lines. If you have a lot permit, make sure it is visible. Never assume parking is free when traveling, slow down, read signs, ask questions. If you do get a ticket that you think is invalid, you can probably protest it without being a jerk. Remember, it wasn’t personal. Someone was doing their job. Maybe the meter wasn’t working and we are human and can make mistakes, if there was an error made.

Happy parking and remember that we parking officers are human and have feelings, too. We are trying to make it easier and safer for you, not make your life miserable.

 

Excitment at Work

My job is not boring. I love my job and I say it every day BUT my job is not usually exciting. I tell people I get paid to walk around my favorite town, meet people and pet puppies. I write tickets but, in reality, it is such a small part of the time. I answer questions, I advise on where to eat or shop. I help people with their meters or where to park their vehicles. I write tickets because it is the job but it not my favorite part of the job. I have gotten to know many business owners and employees. I have gotten to know many of the homeless. Occasionally, I have had to call the police for something. There was one accident last year, a couple of guys passed out, a dog fight, and one time on a citizen that was following me down the street screaming at me about his ticket.

Today was an exception to my normalcy. About 1030 this morning, I was writing a ticket on a car for an expired meter when a man walked around the back of the car. He stumbled and leaned on the car. I wasn’t sure if he was about to cross the street or if it was his car. I also wasn’t sure why he stumbled. I wondered if he had a medical condition, tripped, or was drunk. I went over to him and asked if he was okay. He said yes and I asked if it was his car. He also said yes. I told him that his meter was expired so he needed to pay or move. He said he would move. I still wondered if he were okay and asked him again but at this time, I was unable to do anything besides ask him. I only saw him take two steps and had no grounds to call the police. He got in his car and I went on. Toward the end of the same block, I had a woman stop me and pointed to a car and said o me that he just hit the bike rack. I looked up and he was trying to parallel park into a spot with a motorcycle in it. I tried to get the driver to notice me and stop but he didn’t. He backed right into the motorcycle and knocked it over. While I was going to the front of the car, I realized it was the same car/guy from about ten spots back. I was also switching my radio over to the police channel and called them to tell them that I had just witnessed an accident. The driver had no idea what he had done and when I told him, I could tell he wanted to leave but I told him that the police were already on their way. They had called me back and asked for the license plate so I told him that if he left, we would find him. The biker came out and picked up his classic Harley. He actually was pretty calm considering someone had just run into his bike. The driver kept trying to convince us that everything was okay and that there was no damage on the bike, which there was. He even went back to his car and started it up again. I told him that he couldn’t leave and got in front of his car. If he had been thinking correctly, he could have gotten around me but he didn’t even try. I had been watching him and realized that he was stumbling more like a drunk than a medical condition so I called dispatch again and told them I thought he may be drunk. The police showed up, I gave my statement, checked on the bike again and wished the biker luck and left. When I came back by on the opposite side of the street, the bike and biker were gone and so was the driver but not his car. I asked the policeman what happened and sure enough, the guy was quite drunk and was arrested. They were towing his rental car. He sure had a good day and the bike was rideable. I knew that I would help people with this job but I never expected to catch a drunk driver. I was thanked by the police for what I did. Needless to say, I didn’t get as much walking in as I normally do this morning but I was productive.

That was my excitement but then I did have one more incident that will stick with me. I was writing a ticket to a car right after lunch and had equipment issues so didn’t complete it before the driver got there. She thanked me for not finishing it and said she had had a terrible day. I told her I was sorry and asked what happened. Turned out, they had a large group of people came up from Texas and were on a hike. The gentleman that planned the trip fell off a cliff in front of them all and died. You don’t expect people to tell you something like that when they say they had a bad day. I was so glad that I didn’t finish that ticket. I had no idea what to say except that I was sorry.

Needless to say, I am emotionally exhausted tonight. I still love my job but today was by far the most stressful day I have had so far. I sure could use some arms around me tonight but I have my poodle to snuggle with.

 

Just Call Me Socks

The first Christmas after I started my job in parking enforcement, my eldest daughter decided to start buying me socks for my stocking. The first year she bought me some Star Trek socks. 

 

I wear a uniform at work and I usually wear shorts. When I would wear these, I would get occasional comments from people about them. On Fridays, I can wear a sports shirt so I always wear a Bronco shirt and Bronco socks. I always get comments on those, too. 

When I told my daughter, I guess she decided to make socks a tradition. She has continued to buy me socks. This year she bought me several fun ones, Justice League, Alien, and Wolverine. I have so much fun with these. Every day, I wear fun socks and I get comments from people of all ages. Kids, old women, old men, adults, young adults. I even had one lady a week or so ago thank me for wearing them. She said that I make people smile with my socks.  There are days that I get “I love your socks.” from dozens of people. I get told I am cool. I get told I am awesome. I get smiles and thumbs up. Yesterday, one of the delivery drivers in town told me that he is going to start calling me Socks so I guess I have a new nickname.

I am going to continue this tradition of fun socks. I told my kiddo yesterday that I need some Marvel socks. I also need to get some ankle socks for the summer that are fun but still visible. My Walking Dead ones that she got me are no show so they aren’t as fun.

 

Parking advice- license plates

Occasionally, I will give out advice that really should not need to be given to my friends on Facebook. They all relate to my job in the parking world. I have decided to start sharing those here.

I am going to start with license plates. Most states in the US require s registration sticker on the vehicle AND for the plate to be readable. That applies even when you are NOT in your state. Unless you are from New Jersey or Pennsylvania, no matter where you are, you need to have visible proof of your registration on your vehicle. I don’t know if there are any other states that don’t require it at this time. That means if you are driving on our roads in Colorado, you can and may be pulled over by the police. They can run your plates to find out if you are registered and generally will just give a warning if you are registered. If you are PARKED, we can and I WILL give you a ticket in my town. Parking enforcement officers cannot run your plates to see if you’re registered and the law is that it has to be displayed. That means that even if you have it, you are breaking the law if it is not displayed. I will write a ticket if your year or month sticker are missing. You can prove your registration and maybe the ticket will be voided but I view these more as a warning to fix it before you get pulled over. If the police write you the ticket for registration, it is a much higher fine AND a moving citation so POINTS on your license.

The things I cannot write a ticket for but you can get pulled over for are things like a dirty plate that is unreadable or a worn out plate. I will politely tell you if I see you to replace your plate if needed. I will wash off a plate to read the registration. A police officer can give you a ticket for either. I have personally been pulled over for a temporary plate that was unreadable in the back window of a car.

My recommend that you look at your plates regularly. Every time you wash the windows, wash your plates and your lights. If you think about it, they are as dirty, if not worse, than your windows. You will also be keeping an eye on the plates wear and tear and if your stickers are valid. Many times, people that are expired say they never received the notice from the state but things get lost in the mail sometimes, it is put in the wrong box, you misplace it, etc. There are many reasons why we may not remember to register our cars but it is OUR responsibility. Take responsibility for yourself and your car and do what you can to avoid this ticket. Remember, we are just enforcing rules and all of the tickets I write are avoidable.

 

Spreading kindness

We never know when an act of kindness can be real important to someone. My middle child taught me this years ago. She randomly compliments people all the time. One day, I had a friend tell me that she had met my kiddo at the movie theater the night before. My kid worked there at the time. My kiddo complimented her and Nikki so appreciated it. I don’t remember what the compliment was but I am sure Nikki does. After that, I try to do the same with people all the time. With my job, I see so many people every day. It is not uncommon for me to tell someone that they have a great smile, nice shoes, nice hair or something along those lines. The people always perk up when I do this but sometimes, it comes back to me.

Today, I had a gal stop me and say my name, which is not a common name. She reminded me that a while ago, on her birthday, I had written her a ticket and she came out right afterwards. We have a policy that if we choose to, we can call in and request a warning for someone. They are allowed one per calendar year. She was nice at the time so I did this for her. When they were checking her account, she let me know that it was her birthday. When she was telling me this, it came back to me. It was several weeks ago. I told her that I was hoping that I could dismiss it for her for her birthday. I knew that there was something else to the story but I didn’t remember what. She reminded me how she is also going through a divorce. I did what I always do. I gave support. I asked her if she had a good support system. I told her that if she needed to talk to find me at work. We are a small town. I don’t remember all the conversation from a few weeks ago but we continued it today. She told me how much my kindness that day helped. She was having a hard time. First birthday separated is hard for sure. She told me how she tells everyone about my kindness and thanked me for being there for her. We chatted a few minutes about things and then went about our days. I went back to patrolling and almost cried. I am so glad that I was able to cheer her day and give her hope. I love my job in that I can do that. Yes, I write tickets but in the time of my work day it is such a small part. I do things like this more often. It also made me remember how the kindness of others helped me five years ago when I was going through my divorce. We need to remember to be kind to people. We never know what is going on in their lives. A small gesture that means nothing to us, can mean the world to them.