street sweeping and missing book pages

Yesterday, before my weekly trip to the grocery store on the micro-route bus, I took this photo in the middle of the street. The city of Minneapolis was towing vehicles again, so they could sweep the streets of leaves and other debris before snow arrives. As usual, however, they are sweeping too early. There are still a LOT of leaves left on the trees. This process is an annual attack on poorer residents of the city. I'm sure that rich people have big garages or long driveways on their large properties, so they never have to worry about this city process. It's poor people who have to park in the street and risk getting towed.

Yes, I'm still miffed after my own encounter with the government stealing my car. I don't even have a car any more, but I was still angry on behalf of other people as I watched a tow truck take 2 vehicles away from somewhere north of me. This policy won't even help keep leaves from blocking drains before snow arrives, because obviously there are a lot more leaves waiting to clog those drains. All this process does is siphon more money from poor people and harass them with interruptions to their schedules. The city could have left those vehicles alone, swept around them, and still had basically the same amount of leaves on the street by the time it snows. That policy would leave poor people unharassed, though, so of course we don't choose that course of action.

In lighter news, I had a dream last night. I know I've had other dreams this year, but usually I never remember them but for a few seconds after I wake, if at all. That's why I record here the dreams that I do remember, because they are unusual in that sense.

I was in a classroom, taking a test. There were 2 students per desk. On my left was someone I knew from high school. We were both near high school age, but this was a college test in a math course. I don't remember which math course it was, but we were taking the test directly from a course book and writing our answers on a separate sheet of paper. (Paper book and paper sheet! How quaint.) I encountered a problem, though, because several pages were ripped out of my textbook, so I couldn't find the test questions.

I told my classmate that I was going to find the instructor to ask permission to photocopy the pages from his book, so I could take the test, "Since that seems the most reasonable thing to do." I didn't find that instructor, but I did find another one and a teacher's assistant both around another desk. They asked me if I was missing pages from my book, and I said yes. They said it was a common problem happening today. I returned to my desk without a photocopy, still wondering what I should do, since it seemed I was going to fail this test.

Some administrator (not an instructor) stood before the class to lecture us about something vague, like academic integrity maybe? I had the sense that the teachers and administrators knew this would happen, but I'm not sure how. Did they know when we purchased these used books (cheaper than new books) that the books were disfigured already?

I woke. I guess I failed that class because I couldn't find the test questions. I don't know what happened afterwards.