Trying to follow city rules

Sometimes, you just can’t win for losing. You try to follow the rules but someone tells you you’re doing it wrong. For example, I recently purchased a new sofa. Which meant the old sofa had to go. I could have taken it to the dump, but I don’t have a pickup truck at my disposal. So I checked with the city of La Crosse’s rules on disposals, which say furniture can be picked up curbside, for a fee, from Harter’s. It should be put on the curb the night before the scheduled pickup. I contacted Harter’s, paid the $27 fee over the phone, and made arrangements to have the furniture taken away. It would be removed from my boulevard six days later. I dutifully placed the couch on the curb the night before the scheduled collection in an effort to follow the city’s rules. It was removed as promised. But that is not the end of the story. Days later I received a letter from the city directing me to correct what it called a nuisance. The nature of the nuisance was clear. An 8 by 10 photo accompanied the city’s warning. It was a picture of the sofa, taken just hours after its placement on the curb, and just hours before it was collected. I was threatened with a tax lien if I didn’t correct the nuisance, which by the time I received the warning and accompanying photo was long gone. If the city really wants to show its concern over my boulevard, it could remove the pile of leaves that have been sitting there for months. That would be correcting the real nuisance.