I have a problem. Well, I don’t view it as a problem, but it was enough of a problem to get me into trouble!

We have these parking meters in my neighbourhood, they are a bit on the ancient side. One meter serves two spots and you need to fill it so the correct spot has the quarters needed.

After parking my car, I pressed the top of the two buttons (left) and entered my quarters inside, it ate one of my coins and I had to give it an extra quater to make the 9.5 hours I needed before 6pm. Then, I pressed the bottom (right) to make sure that I didn’t put the quarters into the incorrect section. Satisfied I took my things from the car and rushed to the train station.

When I came back that evening, I noticed a bright yellow envelope on my car. Immediately annoyed  – because I was certain I fed the meter with two extra coins! I read the ticket, it was issued at 5pm, surely something is wrong here, I was certain that I put enough coins in. Then I looked at the meter and noticed the faint arrow around the left button, it was pointing away from my car.

Apparently Left-Right Confusion is a thing, not that me knowing that it’s a thing will get me out of a ticket. Can you imagine my case? “No Judge, I just have this thing called Left-Right Confusion where I mistake my left from my right. Nothing to worry about, just a minor thing.” Yes, I really don’t think that will go over well enough. No, I think I’ll just ride my bike to the train station instead.