Monday, November 07, 2016

Yes, It's Swing Shifts

     And thus I am awake at what, to most people, is the middle of the night, or at least very late.  It's early from where I sit, though none too early; there's breakfast in front of me (simple "breakfast hash" of fried potatoes, bacon and an egg), a couple of pairs of jeans in the dryer, and an entire Monday ahead, stretching out for hours.  Of course, to me it's "Tuesday," since I had Monday on Sunday, and no Sunday at all.

     For two pins, I'd bundle up and ride the scooter -- at least until I remember the several pins in my knee and the difficulty of reading downtown's pockmarked road surfaces by headlight and streetlight.  It's chilly enough to keep all but the most desperate of desperadoes indoors, and that's kind of tricky to weigh, too.  Four and a door feels safer than two and none, though it is largely a notional sort of safety. Tuesday may rain but the remainder of the week is forecast to be sunny and seasonal.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"For two pins, I'd bundle up and ride the scooter -- at least until I remember the several pins in my knee and the difficulty of reading downtown's pockmarked road surfaces by headlight and streetlight."

From what I recall from the pic you posted a while back, your scooter is a vintage type (or a reproduction of vintage) that likely uses a standard-for-that era incandescent bulb.

There have been *massive* improvement in mountainbike - roadbike lighting in the past decade or so. Real, actual HID lighting like the type used in high-end automobiles, and some very advanced blowtorch LED headlamps.

The good thing about them is they require no use of vehicle electrics, if you happen to have 6 V electrics on the scooter. They have their own Li-Po batteries and have runtimes of up to several hours (dependent on battery size).

The raw amount of their photon output is phenomenal, they can equal automotive lighting with their beam throw.

Below is a video of the output these things are capable of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lTPixt9210

mostly cajun said...

I used to love the backshifts - me alone against the world, the only electrician in a plant with three powerhouses, a 69 & 13.8 kV distribution system, 8,000 three-phase electric motors, and it was ALL mine.

MC