Bureaucratic Intelligence IS an oxymoron

For those of my readers who live in Wichita Falls, I am going to perform a public service and announce a silently passed city ordinance that is the epitome of idiocy.

I just had a truck load of wood, cardboard, and trash from our recent move. It was all contained in boxes and strapped down with bungees. However, for our fair Gotham, that is not good enough.

As part of a new city ordinance passed by our City Council (not sure if this was part of the New and Improved City Council 2.0 or not) all loads terminating at the Transfer Station must be covered entirely by a tarp or some other covering. If you do not meet this criteria, you will either be turned away without remorse or charged $25--with a similar lack of remorse.

This new ordinance is plastered all over the entry to the Transfer Station (which doesnt help me when I'm loading my truck on the other side of town, btw). The kicker is that the ordinance states that the objective of the law is (obviously) to keep all loads contained. So, I argued with the gentleman at the weigh-in station that I had actually conformed with the objective of the law because nothing had fallen out during my drive all the way across town, so please allow me to drive the additional 300 feet to properly dispose of the load. Instead, he turned me around to potentially lose all this ever-so dangerous debris as I returned on the 7 mile trip back to my house.

I asked what I should do if I don't have a tarp. I had more bungees and tie downs and could sufficiently cover my load with them. Perhaps that would work? After all, I was only going another 300 feet...

No.

He said I could use anything that I had to cover the load: a tarp, old carpet, a blanket, anything. Now, I ask you, which is more dangerous: allowing me to continue for 300 feet to dump the debris or drive all the way back from my house with old torn carpet and bedsheets haphazardly covering my truck?

Clearly, someone important got hit by something coming out of someone's truck while that second someone was on their way to the Transfer Station. Also, clearly, the someone who got hit doesn't drive a truck and/or understand the beauty and simplicity of the open bed design which allows the contents of the bed to extend well beyond the 6.5' x 4.5', 5-sided container. Instead, they would rather we all drive a hybrid Toyota Prius that bottoms out when we sit in it and never emits any harmful materials from the engine or the enclosure of the vehicle itself.

Oh well, as is usually the case, one idiot has ruined it for us all. Hopefully this saves someone a trip to and from the Transfer Station.

Jorin