Monday morning first thing i went out to drive the Prius down to Luscious Garage (check out her blog on the site. It just gets better and better) to determine why i had to come limping home Saturday night at 10 MPH up Noe Street after a way more exciting than usual trip over Altamont Pass, through Oakland, and over the Bay Bridge.
So i turned the car on and once again looked at all the displayed warning icons, but when i put it in gear and set out i immediately noticed that it seemed to be driving normally after its 36 hour rest. Checked the displays and sure enough, the motor was functioning again, and even as i looked it recharged the second bar of the battery indicator. By the time i got to the garage, the battery was two-thirds charged.
They kept it for two days and could not duplicate my problem, but i promised them i had not hallucinated that trip up Altamont Pass at 30 MPH on the shoulder, etc. So we’re just going to observe the patient while i continue to drive, especially since Carolyn speculated that simply turning the power off and back on again may have been what cleared the problem.
I’m almost excited over anticipation of a recurrence.
Almost. Although ideally if it occurs again it won’t be during the trip to Canada i’m thinking about this summer.
And why is it that “a trip to Canada” sounds so vastly more exotic than “a trip to Vancouver”?
Speaking of false alarms, this afternoon i couldn’t decide whether i had in my hand the keys for my old, defunct Segway or the new one i got last Saturday, so i touched them to the old Segway and the damn thing sprang to life!
What???? i squealed and jumped on it and rode down to Walgreens. You can imagine my disappointment when i came out of Walgreens and it wouldn’t start, especially since i’d forgot to bring my locking cable and worse yet, looked over to the right to see the 24 pulling out of its stop so there wouldn’t be another one for thirty minutes.
So i pushed the Segway a quarter up the first little block and fell exhausted. Tried the key about twenty times to no avail, pushed it another five meters and collapsed again, tried the key again a few times, and the damn thing started again. Got me almost home before it died again, but i’m thinking i may be able to use the old NiMH batteries on it since they’re better than the Lithium ones on the new Segway. That way i can postpone figuring out the hazmat shipping to get the lithium ones rebuilt.
All watched over by machines of loving grace.
And damn. I thought i was being clever with that allusion to a Brautigan poem out of the sixties. Then i checked to make sure i got it right and discovered that the line had been grabbed in the eighties for a rock band and last year for a BBC documentary.
Meanwhile, here’s an arty shot of the GLBT Center on Market