Last week I had a meeting downtown at the VCU-MCV Hospital. Knowing parking is an issue down there, I left my apartment 40 minutes early. Okay, that's a lie. I left 30 minutes early, but still with enough time to go two miles and be at my meeting. You may remember I've had parking issues downtown before, but this time I figured I'd park at my usual place and walk a half mile to the hospital or, worse, in the hospital parking lot.

Of course, I remember my usual place is street parking, which is limited to two hours, and I have class after my meeting, so I need three hour parking. I decide to park in the public lot. So I park. It's 1:14. I have 16 minutes to walk half a mile and up three flights of stairs to my meeting. I walk over to the device to pay for parking. I click I'll be there for three hours. The machine asks for me $14.