The Age of Electric, Part 2

A few weeks ago Erin purchased a much anticipated electric scooter. He was gleeful about his newest toy, but it was too cold to take it out on it's maiden voyage right away. By the end of the week though, he could no longer take the anticipation of cruising his man machine through the early morning streets. The time had come. He donned his questionably shaped helmut and mounted the beast. With a quick turn of the key, the motor purred and he was on his way, ready to open up the throttle and let it rip. Regrettably he had never had his scooter out on the open road, having only test driven it around the stores rather large empty parking lot, so he had no way of knowing what was about to happen next. Down to the end of our street and around the corner was as far as he made it when the battery started to crap out and the engine began to wind down. He tried to open the throttle but this only caused the wee engine to bogg down even more. His scooter slowed and he was forced to pedal the rest of the way to work. No problem he thought the battery must just have lost some juice from sitting in the shed all week. I'll just plug it in at work for the day and charge it up. It'll be good to go. After a whole day of charging, however, it was NOT good to go. Less than two minutes homeward bound and that baby gave a repeat performance, once again forcing Erin to pedal all the way home. Not just pedal - mind - but, because of the awkward positions of said pedals, he was pedalling like a monkey riding a unicycle at the circus. It wasn't pretty. He was heckled. Defective scooter was promptly returned for refund the following day. Ever the optimist, Erin has opted for the two year bus pass from the "Cash for Clunkers" program, instead of the rebate on an eco scooter. The bus stop he needs is a short walk from our house and has the bonus of being right next door to the local mental health association club house ensuring he'll always have someone interesting to talk to while he waits. He really couldn't be more pleased with this alternate ending to his granola-cruncher dream. And in the end, isn't that the most improtant thing?