And So Goes My Scooter

Not my new one, my old, late 90s fad one.

That's right, I too had a Razor Scooter. (The Shaper Image kind with the brake and wheelie bar.) I really, really wanted one, and finally I got my wish in 2000. I rode it around campus a little until I got one too many "nice scooter" comments. Such comments were not complimentary; they were spoken using a tone that led me to believe that people did not, in fact, think my scooter was nice.

And so the scooter lived under my bed for the next 5 years until yesterday night when Zhi from Craigslist expressed interest in it. He wrote me an email saying that he "would buy it off of you if you still have it cuz 10 buckz is good price." And a little later in the 3 sentence email that he would take "the 14 down to where u are n take it off your hands for 10 buckz."

He likes the letter z, but only sometimes. Hands is apparently ok to end with an s.

Anyway, when I told him I didn't live near the 14 line, he asked which line he should take, then quickly wrote back that I should "forget the last message ... i will MUNI myself ... to 16 n mission then take the 33 bus n get off @ 22nd potrero ave ... should be there by around 6 15- 6 30 or so."

He showed up at 6:37pm in all his 17 year old, greasy, acned glory and apologized for being 7 minutes late. Holding up his MUNI trip planner printout, he explained that "The MUNI just don't run on time. I mean, it said I would get here at 6:30. See? [Pointing to that line.] And It's 6:37. It was late."

I told him it was no problem and exchanged the scooter for $10. Apparently noticing our scooter bond, he reminisced, "I used to have one of these before. It was a real good scooter, but I let it go for $5 one day because I got hungry for a sandwich." To which I could only reply with a smile and a nod.

Before heading home he asked how to get to 24th and Mission. I pointed toward 24th and told him that when he got there to take a right and he would eventually run into Mission. He said, "Cool. I was planning on jumping on this thing and gliding home."

And I'm sure he would have done just that if the little, tiny wheels of a Razor Scooter were any match for San Francisco streets.