The past few weeks were fairly quiet for the Scorpion, as it chilled comfortably at Anthony’s place awaiting some much needed battery diagnostics. There are several cells in the pack at the end of their life so the range has dropped below the “useable” category. With the Scorpion slated to join other SEVA members displaying at the Greenwood Auto & Hot Rod Show next Saturday, there is some urgency to getting this sorted out this week. Since Anthony lives across town and is away on business most of the week, it was going to have to come back home if any work is going to happen.
The trip from his place to mine is about 7 miles on the shortest route (how did we survive without Google Map). My workplace is about half way in between. The first leg (to work) is 100% downhill. The second leg (home) is 100% uphill. Not trusting the weakened pack to take me all the way up the steep grades to my place, I plotted a multi-staged trip to get the car home. 
I would pick-up the car from his place on Thursday, drop it for an overnight stay at work, charge the next day while I was working and drive it home for some Father’s Day quality time. Sounds simple enough, but there were multiple complicating factors.
I would pick-up the car from his place on Thursday, drop it for an overnight stay at work, charge the next day while I was working and drive it home for some Father’s Day quality time. Sounds simple enough, but there were multiple complicating factors.The first complication was getting to Anthony’s. I’ve been riding my bike to work lately, since we only have one other car and it is used by “the girls” (my wife and two daughters) during the day. After years away from bike commuting, I’m really enjoying the return to the saddle. Plus I desperately need the exercise. Most of the ride is either along a lakeside bike path or through a hilly forrest ravine... a fine scenic Seattle commute. Riding the couple of miles up to his place wouldn’t be a problem, but trying to haul the bike with me in the Lancia definitely would (note to self: dig Yakima rack out of storage and fit it to the Scorpion). Without my bike, I’d have no way to finish my trip home. Fortunately, a coworker was heading that way just as I was about to depart, so I hitched a ride. Problem solved... providing I could get the car back to the office.
The second complication was that no one was home at Anthony’s. The car was outside under it’s cover, but the keys and charger were secured in his garage.I knew the access code, so getting in was not a problem. However, when I tried to close the garage door, it would reach the bottom and bounce back up. Crap. I couldn’t leave the place open, so I cleared everything from it’s path and ran it up and down a few more times. 
I guess it could sense my growing anxiety, because it finally cut me some slack and stayed down. I wiped the sweat from my brow, loaded the car and was off. On the way out of his alley, I noticed some smudgy smears with loose feathers around on the dash. I’m guessing Anthor’s cat had a little avian feast in the car at some point. Let’s hope it consumed the rest of the evidence.
I guess it could sense my growing anxiety, because it finally cut me some slack and stayed down. I wiped the sweat from my brow, loaded the car and was off. On the way out of his alley, I noticed some smudgy smears with loose feathers around on the dash. I’m guessing Anthor’s cat had a little avian feast in the car at some point. Let’s hope it consumed the rest of the evidence.The ride to the office was a painless downhill cruise. I did stop to air the tires along the way since the right-front has a slow leak. Glad I did because the rest were at 40psi, uncomfortably close to the 45psi max labeled on the tires. That’s what I get for trusting the gauge on a fill station compressor. A quick air-bleed to level them out and I was away.
The next complication was the chronically-limited parking at the office. The building we are in sits between two pay lots. With the multiple construction projects going on nearby, parking is in short supply and the lots fill up daily. On top of that, there is only one spot that will allow me to reach the single exterior outlet on our building. The only time I have a chance at that spot is after everyone else has left for home. 
Since it’s a pay-lot, it also requires $5 cash (which I’m typically short of) to avoid a ticket or tow. I pull into the lot just after 6:00 and my spot is gloriously empty. Better still, there’s $5 in my wallet for the paybox.
Since it’s a pay-lot, it also requires $5 cash (which I’m typically short of) to avoid a ticket or tow. I pull into the lot just after 6:00 and my spot is gloriously empty. Better still, there’s $5 in my wallet for the paybox.With the first leg of the trip completed successfully, I toss the cover over the Lancia, hook Oliver’s dogs trailer to the bike and start pedaling home. Oliver is the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel that comes to work with me everyday whatever the mode of transportation. A quick call home reveals probably the biggest complication... time... time... time. There is never enough of it and I have now used up more than the wife finds acceptable. It’s 6:15 and my uphill ride home (with trailer) is a 45 minute affair. She recites sections 23 and 42 from her “I Hate Your Car” Manifesto as a preamble to the full reading it will receive later. I then begin the sweaty haul home.
The long ride home affords plenty of quiet time to contemplate the tasks that remain before the Scorpion’s ready for next weeks show. If all goes well, my little EV would be home this weekend for some battery work. Unfortunately, “well” is not how things have shaped up, as you can read in Part 2.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
