You know how you have those days when everything goes wrong and you sit there in despair. Well, i have to remind myself that sometimes things fall into place.
I had been stressing out over completing my preparations, but then KLM confirmed that i was set up to bring the Segway along as a handicap assistance device. Whew. And then after a little back and forth managed to get Walgreens to issue me some meds in advance since i won’t be here when the prescriptions are due to be renewed.
And then after some frightening delays Battery Refill down in Ontario came through yesterday with the recelled NiMH batteries for the Segway. The company tends to run a little slow, but they do good work. Besides, getting your batteries recelled is much cheaper and greener than buying new ones. I put them through phase 1 of the conditioning procedure overnight. Then i went out this morning with the intent of running them down, forgetting how accustomed i’d become to much weaker batteries. I took a scenic route over to the Alemaney Farmers’ Market in the southeast part of the city and from there rode pretty much due north over the top of Bernal Heights and thence down Harrison to Star Stream. The last few times i’ve popped in for one of Remi’s obscenely delicious cinnamon rolls, she hasn’t been there, but i caught her this morning in between customers and got the good news that she and Mary have now moved out of partnership with Star Stream and are on their own as Goody Goodie Cream and Sugar (website a work in progress since they went out on their own, and it does not yet mention the delicious sandwiches), still at 1830 Harrison and still with fabulous food in reasonable portions.
Oh yes, i traded her a jar of Tayberry Pasilla Jalapeño Jelly for one of those damn cinnamon rolls and then continued on down Harrison to the Embarcadero. Over to Pier 24, which was so barricaded up that i couldn’t get into the area outside the door where i want to take another pic. So then in a big loop to the east of the bridge underpinnings before finally cutting west over to Market, returning home after couple of extra loops around the block, brought the Segway in and left it running propped against the wall for an hour and the batteries still were not fully discharged. Had to run it around the block another time to run it down. The phase 2 double charge cycle is now underway, and i’ll run the batteries completely down again tomorrow.
Last Thursday i met Gloria at the Seed Bank in charming downtown Petaluma, where we enjoyed the store for a bit and then went across the street to a good Thai restaurant. From there, we drifted over to a little park, split a delicious almond cheese tart with coffees from a little pie shop Petaluma Pie Company run by a delightful young couple, and talked for a couple of hours. Wonderful to unwind with old friends.