I was riding shotgun with my friend Mark in Austin when a cop lit us up for going 5 over. He gave Mark a warning and let him go, but then I remembered when I got a $180 ticket for the exact same thing two months ago on the same street. Why does one driver get a pass while another gets the book thrown at them for the same minor speeding?
She screamed at her 7 year old in the Target parking lot last Saturday and nobody blinked. I told my nephew to stop running into the street a little too loud and my mom called me aggressive. Has anyone else noticed their family having totally different rules for different people?
I live in a small town in Ohio where the street parking ban runs from 2 AM to 6 AM during winter months for snow plows. Last week my neighbor parked his car on the street one night because his driveway was blocked by a delivery. He got a $40 ticket taped to his windshield by 6:30 AM. But the guy who owns the apartment building two doors down has parked his big F-250 on the exact same street every single night for the past 3 months. Nobody ever touches it. I called the city office to ask about it and the lady basically told me they only enforce based on complaints from neighbors. So it's not a rule, it's a "who complains about who" situation. Has anyone else run into this kind of selective enforcement in their town?
I parked on a residential street near downtown Austin last Saturday and got slapped with a $60 ticket for being 2 inches into a no-parking zone. Meanwhile, I watched a Tesla with dealer plates sit in a fire lane for 20 minutes outside a coffee shop with NO ticket. Then an Uber driver double parked right in front of a cop and the cop just waved at him. How come regular people get dinged for tiny mistakes but fancy cars or business vehicles seem to slide? Has anyone else noticed this playing out differently depending on what you drive?
Last July in Phoenix, my kitchen faucet started dripping and I put in a maintenance request. Landlord showed up the next day, fixed it in under 10 minutes, no fuss. Then the AC unit went out when it was 112 degrees outside, and it took him 3 weeks and five phone calls to even send someone out. I get that drips are annoying but sweating through 3 weeks of 90 degree indoor temps felt a little lopsided. Has anyone else noticed landlords jump on cosmetic stuff but drag their feet on the things that actually ruin your day?
I was the type who thought helmet laws were just nanny state nonsense. Figured if adults want to crack their skull open that's their business. Then I hit a patch of loose gravel going maybe 15 mph and went over the handlebars. Landed right on my temple. The helmet cracked clean through. Without it I'd probably be eating through a tube right now. The double standard part? I still see cyclists in Richmond blowing through red lights and dodging cars with no helmet and nobody says a word. But if a kid rides around the block without one you get the cops called on you. When does personal responsibility kick in for grown adults too?
My brother swears by these things for his home office setup, but mine just kept killing the power to my whole TV and gaming corner - anyone else find smart strips are either a lifesaver or a total scam?
I moved out of a place in Denver last March after living there for 2 years. When I got the deposit breakdown, they charged me $450 for repainting the whole living room and $200 for carpet cleaning. The paint had a few scuffs near the baseboards and the carpet was just dirty from walking, nothing crazy. I called them out on it and pointed to Colorado law that says normal wear like minor scuffs and carpet dirt isn't chargeable. They pushed back hard saying I should have patched holes from one picture frame. But I had drilled nothing there, the holes were already in the wall when I moved in and I had photos from day one. After I threatened to take them to small claims court, they dropped the charges and sent my full deposit back. Has anyone else had a landlord try to claim normal wear as damage?
I parked in the 'family only' spots at the Whole Foods in Austin last weekend because my kid was with me. An employee walked up and told me those spots are only for families with TWO kids or more. Meanwhile I saw a guy park his single-occupancy Tesla in the handicapped spot without a placard and nobody said a word. Has anyone else dealt with these weird parking rules that seem to target one group over another?
I went to renew my license in Phoenix back in March and they said my birth certificate was good to go. Fast forward to July after 3 more trips and 9 hours total waiting in line, turns out I needed a certified copy from the hospital instead of the one from VitalChek. Nobody at the counter ever mentioned the difference until a supervisor finally glanced at it for 2 seconds. Has anyone else dealt with getting totally different answers from different workers at the same office?
Found the receipt for the cleaning fee in my lease file last week. They charged me but I took photos of the caked-on grease. Has anyone else fought back on move-out fees with hard proof?
Last week, I'm out walking my dog in my neighborhood in Cleveland, and I see this 12-year-old kid ring a doorbell and run. The homeowner came out laughing and just waved. When I was his age in 2008, I did the same thing and the guy chased me down the street and called my parents. Seems like adults are cool with kids doing stuff now that they'd punish us for back then. Has anyone else noticed this shift in how kids get treated for minor crap?
Last winter I moved into a house in Buffalo and a guy next door warned me to insulate the outdoor spigot with newspaper and tape. I thought it sounded dumb and ignored him. After a 3 day freeze in January, the pipe burst and cost me 400 bucks to fix. Has anyone else got cheap advice that turned out to be dead on but you dismissed it?
So I had roaches in my kitchen last summer in Austin and my dad kept saying just spray Raid along all the baseboards like he did in the 80s. I listened to him for two months and the roaches just got worse plus the smell was awful. Turns out I was just scattering them deeper into the walls and the spray was eating away at my vinyl flooring seams. Finally called a real exterminator who used gel baits and now I'm out $400 for new flooring. Has anyone else had older relatives give pest advice that backfired big time?
My son got sent home last Tuesday for wearing a hat with a logo on it. But I watched three girls walk past the office in crop tops and ripped jeans and nobody said a word. I looked up the actual policy online and it says no 'distracting clothing' but the examples are all about boys' sagging pants and hats. Found a study from a teacher's blog that said girls get dress-coded 3 times less than boys for the same type of violation. That stat in black and white made me realize the rules are just aimed at one group. Has anyone else noticed this at their kid's school?
Last month my neighbor got a $200 fine for having a small patch of brown grass near his mailbox after that heatwave we had. Meanwhile the HOA board president has had a broken sprinkler head spraying water onto the sidewalk for like 6 weeks now and nobody says a word. I called the management company to ask about it and they just said they'd "look into it" but nothing happened. It really ticked me off because it's not like the guy with the brown grass was being lazy, we all had trouble keeping things alive in that 95 degree stretch. So I took a photo of the sprinkler and emailed it directly to the board with a note asking if the same rules apply to everyone. They finally fixed it three days later but never answered my question about the double standard. Has anyone else dealt with an HOA that plays favorites like this?
I was at a small gym in Austin last year, paying $45 a month, when the owner put up a sign saying no deadlifts because they 'scare the members.' Fine, whatever. But then I saw his friend drop a 315-pound deadlift right in front of the front desk, and nobody said a word. I asked the owner about it, and he just shrugged and said, 'He's been coming here for years, he knows what he's doing.' Has anyone else seen this kind of favoritism at a local gym?
So there's this guy two houses down who lets his pitbull roam the neighborhood. It's been in my yard a dozen times, chasing squirrels, digging up plants. I called animal control twice, nothing happened. Then my cat got out last Tuesday, first time ever, and a cop shows up at my door within 4 hours with a written warning about 'at large domestic animals.' The pitbull was literally standing on my porch that same afternoon. Has anyone else dealt with this kind of selective enforcement in their town?
He swore people in the office work harder, so I compared my 45 remote hours to an on-site coworker who only logged 22 real hours a week - who's really slacking and does the location even matter?
I was at Planet Fitness in Austin last Wednesday and watched a dude in a lifted truck pull into the only handicap spot. No plates, no tag, he just stretched his legs for 2 seconds and ran inside. When I asked an employee, they said they can't do anything because it's not their lot, but I've seen them ticket people for leaving a water bottle on the bench.
Last month I got a $150 fine for mowing my lawn at 8pm on a Saturday, but the neighbor in the house he owns can rev his truck at 6am and nobody says a word, so has anyone else had cops actually enforce rules on one side and ignore the other in your neighborhood?
Last Saturday at the annual company picnic in Portland, the guys all headed home right after eating while the women were stuck scrubbing trays and hauling trash for an extra hour. The owner said it was just 'how things get done' when I asked him about it. Has anyone else had a workplace pull this kind of outdated division of labor crap?
I work at a high school in Columbus and last week a VP wore ripped jeans and a hoodie while the principal wrote up a new teacher for having a visible tattoo. If the rule is "professional appearance" it should apply to everyone in the building, not just the people who aren't tenured yet. Anyone else see this at their school?
Last Tuesday I was out watering my front lawn around 7pm and noticed my neighbor two houses down doing the exact same thing. We both have the same odd-even water schedule in Phoenix. He's been watering on odd days for weeks. I did it once on an even day back in June and got a $75 ticket. I asked him about it and he said the code enforcement guy just told him to check the calendar next time. Why does one person get a warning and another gets slapped with a fine? Has anyone else run into this kind of uneven enforcement with local ordinances?