Our first fight:(
Jul. 29th, 2013 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogWell, not really a fight, me and Iggy, but an aborted mission. Today should have been his first time beyond our county and area code, but instead it turned into a Not Now moment.
The plan was there: Eleanor had him fully charged before I left today. I would take him downtown here for court, then off to RIT to meet up with Emily where a hi-tech charging station awaited for the car while we fought with dragons over her still-unsettled final-year financial aid (all of that well within his 100-ish mile range for a starting full charge); then I'd make an afternoon court appearance in downtown Rochester, head off to my office there where several additional chargers are on the grid within a few blocks; and head happily home.
Today's "happily" did ultimately arrive from other sources (including a client's opponent from last month and a slobbery black-to-chocolate lab named Gloria), but Iggy was safely back here for most of it.
A mere moment of verklempt at the start of the trip did us in. Just as I turned onto the short stretch of the 290 that leads to either Rochester (to the left) or downtown here (to the right), a client called me, one I couldn't blow off; she has an important conference on Wednesday and I needed to talk with her and schedule an appointment with her. Which I did- just as I stupidly got several hours ahead of myself and got into the eastbound rather than westbound ramp onto the 90.
Fortunately, I noticed almost immediately, so the detour was only one of about six miles (had I passed the first eastbound exit, the next one would have been 20 miles down the road). But: (a) even after bailing at Exit 49, I was almost assured of being late for court, and (b) I watched Iggy's charge meter fading faster than expected, from his 100 start to just below 80 by the time I got downtown and parked him in a Too Small (for anyone but him) space outside court.
Court itself wound up being too long and too unproductive; at some point, Emily called while I was waiting to go in (the judge was running even later than I was), and she told me we didn't have to tilt at windmills on campus over the financial aid status. I told her, in turn, that if that was the case I'd probably ditch the car and go back to gas power for the rest of my rounds. She, soon thereafter, talked to Mom, who was afraid I was on electrical fumes and called me, offering to switch out the cars downtown. Not necessary; Iggy was still in the 60tj charge percentile by the time I got back home, but he never would have made it to Rachacha on that much of a remaining charge without worry.
So I downed another 37 bucks of fossil fuel in my own car by the time I got there and finished my second, equally useless, court appearance (both wound up adjourned on account of last-minute BS appearances by opponents). But I picked up one unexpected payment in the day's-end mail; confirmed a bigger-than-usual one from a regular customer (with a cute Lab dog slobbering on me to boot); and got to see the kids and their cute kitty who wasn't in Grumpy Cat mode today. And, the financial-aid picture seems to be resolved for the coming year, so that's off the plate, too.
Iggy's maiden interstellar voyage will have to wait. No pictures from outlying areas, as Eleanor requested when I left in him (I can see him becoming a Flat Stanley of sorts, especially because he'd probably fit in the back of a standard USPS truck, if not a corner mailbox), but on some day-off day when I don't have to worry about client phone calls and commitments, he'll find his way to his stations and will get home just fine:)
The plan was there: Eleanor had him fully charged before I left today. I would take him downtown here for court, then off to RIT to meet up with Emily where a hi-tech charging station awaited for the car while we fought with dragons over her still-unsettled final-year financial aid (all of that well within his 100-ish mile range for a starting full charge); then I'd make an afternoon court appearance in downtown Rochester, head off to my office there where several additional chargers are on the grid within a few blocks; and head happily home.
Today's "happily" did ultimately arrive from other sources (including a client's opponent from last month and a slobbery black-to-chocolate lab named Gloria), but Iggy was safely back here for most of it.
A mere moment of verklempt at the start of the trip did us in. Just as I turned onto the short stretch of the 290 that leads to either Rochester (to the left) or downtown here (to the right), a client called me, one I couldn't blow off; she has an important conference on Wednesday and I needed to talk with her and schedule an appointment with her. Which I did- just as I stupidly got several hours ahead of myself and got into the eastbound rather than westbound ramp onto the 90.
Fortunately, I noticed almost immediately, so the detour was only one of about six miles (had I passed the first eastbound exit, the next one would have been 20 miles down the road). But: (a) even after bailing at Exit 49, I was almost assured of being late for court, and (b) I watched Iggy's charge meter fading faster than expected, from his 100 start to just below 80 by the time I got downtown and parked him in a Too Small (for anyone but him) space outside court.
Court itself wound up being too long and too unproductive; at some point, Emily called while I was waiting to go in (the judge was running even later than I was), and she told me we didn't have to tilt at windmills on campus over the financial aid status. I told her, in turn, that if that was the case I'd probably ditch the car and go back to gas power for the rest of my rounds. She, soon thereafter, talked to Mom, who was afraid I was on electrical fumes and called me, offering to switch out the cars downtown. Not necessary; Iggy was still in the 60tj charge percentile by the time I got back home, but he never would have made it to Rachacha on that much of a remaining charge without worry.
So I downed another 37 bucks of fossil fuel in my own car by the time I got there and finished my second, equally useless, court appearance (both wound up adjourned on account of last-minute BS appearances by opponents). But I picked up one unexpected payment in the day's-end mail; confirmed a bigger-than-usual one from a regular customer (with a cute Lab dog slobbering on me to boot); and got to see the kids and their cute kitty who wasn't in Grumpy Cat mode today. And, the financial-aid picture seems to be resolved for the coming year, so that's off the plate, too.
Iggy's maiden interstellar voyage will have to wait. No pictures from outlying areas, as Eleanor requested when I left in him (I can see him becoming a Flat Stanley of sorts, especially because he'd probably fit in the back of a standard USPS truck, if not a corner mailbox), but on some day-off day when I don't have to worry about client phone calls and commitments, he'll find his way to his stations and will get home just fine:)