Punishing Our Health Care Heroes

I'm a registered nurse. I help you and your family members get well when you go to the hospital. At any time, and especially during this COVID-19 pandemic, I help people you love die with dignity and with as little suffering as possible.

When I get home at 2:00 AM to my home in Quail Valley, I need my parking space. I do not need a neighbor or a stranger to have parked their car or truck in my numbered parking space. My family, which includes teenage children, are fast asleep. If my parking space is already occupied, I have to go driving all over the neighborhood to try to find an open space out on Quail Valley Boulevard. Then walk home in the dark. There are not many open parking spaces after 5:00 PM in Quail Valley.

Before I leave for a night shift, I like to leave an orange traffic cone in my parking space so that folks know that I will soon be using it.

The Quail Valley Homeowners Association (QV HOA), issued a "property violation" against me, for having a traffic cone on my property. It is taking me several months to pay off this fine.

--Told to Steven Sellers Lapham, 2021
The blog series "Living on Cuckoo Court," tinyurl.com/CuckooCourt