pound
In every place, there are things that are unreasonable. About two years ago, Jessy and I decided to go on a trip to Ocean City, New Jersey. We decided to take Jessy’s car since my car is too small and her car has a GPS. It took about 8 hours for us to get there. I would never drive again that long in one day. Maximum number of hours I can drive in one day is 7 hours. I do not know how people can drive such a long distance in one day in the United States. But I think it is very common to drive a long distance here since the country is so big. Seriously, everything is big in America. 🙂
We stayed there for about 4 days, lying on the beach and playing a few rounds of golf. It was very relaxing and fun. But, we had no idea that the unbelievable event was waiting for us. Coming back, we were so happy that we were getting closer to home. As I was parking Jessy’s car, I realized that my car was not there anymore. As soon as we got out of the car, we started to walk around, looking for my car. But, we could not find it. “Oh, no! My car is stolen! What the heck!” said I. I looked down and that was the moment that I noticed that something was not the same. The road had been all scrapped and under the construction. Later, I learned that this is very typical in Pittsburgh. During summer, there are always road works to fix the potholes created during winter because of all the salts spread on the roads to get rid of snow.
Apparently, there was a road work during our absence and I found a few papers flooding around the road. So, I grabbed one and started to read it. It says, “The road will be repaved. Please move your car to other places or your car will be towed at your cost!” And, at the bottom, there was a date of notice and enforcement date. The notice date was just one day before the enforcement date, which means it was just one day notice and they towed not only my car but also all of the other cars parked on the street. How unreasonable it is! It gets even worse.
Car pound (source: www.post-gazette.com)
There was a phone number on the paper and I called them to get my car because I needed it to go to work as soon as possible. And, they gave me another number to call to get my car back. It was the number of the Pittsburgh pound. Now, what is pound? pound is one of the units of mass or weight. Or, if you are in UK, it is their unit of currency. But in this context, it is a place where all of the towed cars are located. The full expression is “car impound lot” or “car impound yard.” When they told me, “You should call the pound with the phone number I gave you.” I was like, “What the heck is pound here? Is it the name of parking lot or what?”
Well, what can I do? I went to the pound and payed around $120 to get my car back. Wait! It is not the end of the story. About 4 months later…. Read again! 4 months, not a few weeks or a month. It was 4 months later. I got a mail from the Pittsburgh Police in which they said I need to pay $100 fine because of illegal parking. Can you believe it? What is wrong? I could not believe what just happened. This time, I could not accept it. So, I went to the court by myself and fought about it. The judge said, “You already paid a lot for getting your car back and it is not reasonable at all for you to pay it with that short notice. You do not need to pay the fine at all.” I won. What a victory! Can you imagine that a non-native English speaker goes to the court all by himself and explain what happened in front of a judge and other police officers? I am telling you! Living in a foreign country is not easy at all. In fact, it is very challenging.
So, if you think about moving to a foreign country, you better be well prepared. 🙂
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wow I don’t remember this story at all, way to stick it to the man
stick it to the man. In this context, “the man” is someone with authorities such as Police?
in any context “the man” is always an authority figure. Usually a government entity, but could also be your boss or company.
I remember we say, “You are the man.” many times. The man here also means like you are the boss? I thought it means “You solve all of the hard problems. The smartest guy!”
Hell, if you really felt like it, you could probably go after the City in small claims to recover your $120 impound fee. That’s pretty ridiculous that they’d give only one day’s notice.
In the US, folks shed pounds at the gym. In the UK, folks shed pounds at the bar!
Yeah, you should have had your impound fee refunded. Follow Colin’s advice, and then you’ll be able to do blog posts about the following:
sticking it to the man
laying down the law
kicking ass and taking names
raising hell
You gotta give my explanations of those expressions one by one.
You’re killing me T-bone. Do I get a commission for this?
sticking it to the man – To take some action intended to defy a source of oppression such as globalization, commercialization, big business or government. (from allwords.com)
laying down the law – To scold someone; to make something very clear to someone in a very stern manner (from thefreedictionary.com)
kicking ass and taking names – Phrase used in reference to someone or something that is having multiple successes in succession. kicking ass – Kicking someone or something’s ass, beating, defeating an opponent at a task. taking names – Recording a list of future contestants who will have also be beaten or defeated in the defined task. (from urbandictionary.com)
Raising hell – To object something strongly.
To stirr up trouble.
To intend to cause a strong impact to something. (from urbandictionary.com)
Thanks, man! I appreciate it! How about a drink for a commission? 🙂
I thought about it but you know what the life I used to have? 🙂 I was too busy and forgot.
Shedding pounds means “lose weight”? If so, how people in the UK can lose their weight at the bar?
I think I got it. In the UK, it measn they spent money at the bar.
Another similar use of pound is “dog pound”
You can also “pound face” or “pound a beer”.
These means simply drinking? Or maybe drinking heavily? I think I need another post about expressions with pound.
“Pound face” means to beat someone up. We often use it when we play Ultimate. We might say, “Alright guys … let’s go pound some face!”
“Pound a beer” would be just how it sounds – you’d finish it as quickly as you can. It would be equivalent to “chug a beer”.
Apparently, there are so many expressions having the word, pound. I will definitely add another post later including all of these ones. Thanks!
Good for you!
Speaking of pound, there is also the verb “to pound out”, as in to produce something quickly that needs to get done, usually to meet a deadline, even if it isn’t your best work. I need to pound out this report before tomorrow’s big meeting.
May I offer some plural and singular corrections?
“playing a few round of golfs” — to my knowledge, golfs is never a word. playing a few rounds of golf
“During summer, there are always road works to fix the potholes created during winter because of all the salts spread on the roads to get rid of snow.
Apparently, there was a road work during our absence…”
During summer, there is always road work to fix the potholes created during winter because of all the salt spread on the roads to get rid of snow.
Apparently, there was road work during our absence…
I’m not sure how to explain these corrections since it is a subtle difference in usage. This site talks about countable and uncountable nouns. The only common use of “works” as a countable noun that I can think of is “works of art”, as in many paintings. “Road work” is always singular since it is an uncountable noun in this case, even if you’re talking about all of the projects in the city.
Patty, You are more than welcome to correct my English.
Golf one is my mistake. Thanks for pointing it out. But, the road work one is hard because I think road work can be countable. (Conceptually, it sounds like countable.) But, once again thank you so much for the information! I really think you can be a great English teacher. What is your major now?
haha my major is materials engineering — the complete opposite of English! I don’t really like to write but it is a necessary evil.
I am actually surprised. Materials Engineering! Do you like English, though? Next time you visit Pittsburgh, tell Carol and Jake that you need to hang out with me and Jessy. I would love to meet you.
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