Afterwards I cruised down the always creepy George Washington Parkway to drop by school. Records office was closed, so no luck on picking up the handout I needed, but I did meet this girl dragging a Segway across the faculty parking lot. I had to ask, and she said that the battery had died. I told her she could just go into the law school, but she didn't seem to want to lug it up the stairs. Not sure why, it didn't look that large. I felt sorry for someone with a dead Segway. I mean, someone tinkering with a dead Honda CBX can be cool, especially if it's rusted out with a ridiculously high odometer. But Segways just look stupid to begin with, so someone dragging around a dead one is like a lost puppy out in the rain. On Christmas.

I remembered that there was an outlet on the patio, so I walked her over and showed her. She could plug in without needing to drag the thing up on the patio, which pleased her a lot as lifting it was something she seemed desperate to avoid. She couldn't tell if the outlet was good (it looked pretty shabby) because the Segway didn't have a "charging" light (bad, bad engineering) so I plugged in my laptop adapter which does have a light. Yep, it worked.

At that point she must have decided that all my helpfulness was just an attempt to get her number, so she started making a cell phone call without saying anything more than "thanks so much." I was hurt. The very idea that I would consider someone with a Segway is still a bitter taste in my throat.

In conclusion: Segway = dumb. Get a scooter.
posted by weiss @ 4:54 PM