Friday, April 18, 2008

Lunch with Swifty

Power went out at the building where I work today. So what could one do when one needs a computer to do almost anything? I went for a quick ride on Swifty, scoping out a better, less annoying route to the mall. She performed great. I needed to go to Sears to get a garage door opener remote control. I knew the choices would overwhelm me, but I just had to get an idea of what I needed to know to get the right one. That would be so cool, to buzz up to the garage on Swifty and have the door open automatically! Big thrill, but cool nonetheless.
I'm learning to ride the machine much more skilfully and I'm more familiar with the best routes. I noticed right away that I have a little trouble controlling the bike's path when I'm speeding up to merge into a street and when I'm slowing way down to check out an intersection to see if I can go across without stopping. Can't wait for the weekend for a free-form ride, so I can go wherever Swifty takes me.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Frosty Swifty!

So I took a couple of days off, one of which happened to be record-breaking cold in the morning - 34 degrees yesterday. In April, in Tallahassee, Florida! And today I woke up and turned on the web and it was 37, so I'm thinking, no way, the truck will be nice and warm. But then I thought, hey, summer's coming, I'll have six months of sweaty weather, better take my frostbite when I can get it. So I got it, all right. Oh, not actual frostbite, I guess, but goldurn was it cold. And not only my hands were cold, so was my body even though I was wearing a wool peacoat. Swifty did seem glad to be back on the road, though. She performed well through the mall, although one clueless morning coffee-ed up phone-user almost went through a stop sign right into us. Nobody's expecting an (almost) sixty-year old electric scooter driver in the mall at quarter past seven.
Which reminds me, I went into World Market to buy some wasabi peas and wine. They asked me for my ID! This has happened before, but not lately. So I got quite grumpy, especially when the salesgirl mentioned something about them wanting to be "non-discriminatory". Talk about pushing my buttons! So I said, "There's nothing wrong with discriminating between logic and nonsense!" Harrumph! Why do stores do that? It's like the airport security searching soldiers' shoes and grannies' sewing baskets. Not only is it a waste of time, it's an insult. Now that I think of it, the wine at World Market isn't any better than anywhere else. So next time I'll just buy the wasabi peas. Those I can't live without.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Swiftcurrent betrayed?!

OK, so I took the truck to work today. Big deal. It was cold - really cold. It was 52 degrees at noon, it might break the record of 36 tonight. So a nice warm truck was a lot more appealing after my second cup of coffee than a too-invigorating zoom on my favorite electric bike. I'm sorry, Swifty, nobody ever said you were the perfect vehicle for every situation. I don't have any gloves and my hands got quite cold yesterday. In New Hampshire you'd only be usable two months a year. And Tallahassee stays quite cold even after equinox. I can tell you're mad, but look at it as just a little rest, eh? Now Canada, there you'd be useless! HA! Oops, I didn't mean that, I apologize, OK, don't look at me that way. (just what I need, an oversensitive electro-bike. Well, she's new. She'll grow out of it.)