I got the idea for this story after I saw this funny photo blog at LAist  in which South Bay photographer and Flickr user jakerome  documents the fun of parking in Hermosa Beach (a beach community in the Los Angeles area):  "No overnight parking. Except for residents. No parking at all Monday 10 until 2. 1 hour parking during the summer months, from 8-5, unless you have a resident OR day permit."

I'm a lucky one: I can park a guest in my garage, or in one of the few guest parking spots in my little tiny gated neighborhood. Or, visitors can park on the street outside, which thankfully doesn't have any requirements for street sweeping, or summer weather, or whatever. But I used to live on a street where street sweeping happened on one side of the street one morning from 8-10, and the next morning from 10-12 on the other side of the street, so woe to the hapless person who forgot which day of the week it was.