A Miracle at City Hall

Three things, in increasing order of improbability. Someone out there has read Kafka. That someone absorbed the lessons Kafka had to impart. The person has a position at, or influence upon, the City Hall of the city where I now live. It took me all of fifteen minutes both to pay the city property tax on my car (never mind the fact that I had to pay one at all) and to obtain a parking permit for my new neighbourhood this morning. There were no lines, I had to talk only to two people (the clerk and the cashier), and both payments, although different creatures legally speaking, were handled in the same transaction and by the same person. I did not have to fill out a single form, and I even got credit for a portion of the money I paid to Arlington last year. The most amazing thing is that I had neither a utility bill nor a lease agreement to offer as proof of address. In a feat of creativity, I offered up a copy of the deed of trust, and they took it with only a minimal furrowing of the brows. Strictly speaking, the deed does not prove that I live at the stated address, it only proves that I owe someone money for the property at that address. But the fact that both my name and the address were listed on it was evidently enough. Way to go! Would that every interaction with the local government in all locations was that painless.