Yay!

[mariness]

Some of you may have noticed that I've been a might...what is the word? Twitchy? Testy? Triste and glum? No, this is not because of the overwhelming Tiger Woods coverage (although that hasn't helped, and while I'm ranting, media, this story may well be titillating [or, more specifically, could have been until you went into media overload] but a wealthy athlete sleeping around is not shocking, surprising, or anything of that nature, so, shut up) but something more fundamental:

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, the battery for my trike died. Completely.

Bye for now, only source of independent transportation!

I took it calmly, I thought, immediately heading to purchase a replacement, which turned out to be trickier than I thought, since almost everyone was sold out. Sunday was ok, since I was fairly sick anyway. Monday my mother and I headed out, so that was ok. Tuesday I was sick, so, again, ok. Wednesday and Thursday and Friday it rained and rained and rained, which if not exactly ok, at least brought me some splendid rains (I like rains) and comforted me since I couldn't have used the trike anyway. By Sunday I had not left the house since Monday and was...

twitchy.

Finally, on Tuesday, the replacement battery appeared.

It had, I kid you not, a hole in it.

Not from FedEx ground – the box was intact. No, someone had, for reasons that remain unclear, used a metal cutter to cut a square hole in the battery. Initially I was under the hopeful impression that this was a Deliberate Sort of Hole, but a quick comparison to the old battery showed that something was wrong, and the general consensus was that it would not be wise to get the hole wet. Very unhappy calls were made. A second battery – precharged – was shipped out overnight. (Which just goes to tell you that no, you should not put holes in batteries, because I gotta tell you, the FedEx rates for overnight air shipping of a 50 pound package? Not cheap. And no, not paid by me, either.)

I hadn't really expected it, especially since it didn't arrive until late afternoon, but I squeaked. I was dizzy. I knew better. It didn't matter. I got a neighbor to put the battery into the trike, and slightly dizzy, took off just for the sake of taking off…

…to find myself almost careening into a peacock.

(Admit it. You were expecting a squirrel to leap in here, weren't you? I did see quite a few, all attempting – attempting – to look as if they were merely collecting acorns in the most innocent of ways. But we all know better, don't we?)

Life is much improved. Still dizzy, but much improved. Which isn't to say I won't be ranting soon about something.

Comments

[technoshaman]

Yay battery! I gotta wonder about that peacock, though. They have little bitty heads with little bitty brains. Easily swayed by dastardly squirrels. :) :) :)

[jesse_the_k]

Holey Battery Death, Batgirl!

So sorry to hear about your unfortunate events. Do you have a deep cycle battery (aka marine battery)? They're designed to be discharged and then recharged a lot. A car battery, on the other hand, assumes it's getting a trickle charge from the alternator most of the time. Car battery in your trike probably wouldn't last very long.

Good battery FAQ as well as five other battery-wisdom-for-DME-users articles there.

[mariness]

This is a very, very specific lithium-ion battery designed for this tricycle only - I mean, I assume it could power other things if I needed it to, but I haven't tried. It's designed to be discharged/charged frequently since it is not getting any power from the trike motor. The battery is also designed to fit under the seat where (in theory) users can "easily" slide the battery in and out. (My neighbor and I strongly disagree with the word "easily" here - the battery weighs a ton and has to go in at a very specific angle.) The battery is designed to last about a year with "proper use"; the last one lasted 11 months, so, not quite a full year, but at least something. Next year, I'll try to buy a replacement battery in October, so I'm prepared.

I probably could hook up the motor to some other type of battery, but I'm not that electronically inclined and I'm a bit worried about messing up the motor or the battery. Plus, the current setup somewhat keeps the battery and motor out of the rain when weather reports fail me as they often do around here.

[jesse_the_k]

Sheltering battery from the storm is indeed important. Lithium batteries are the ones most susceptible to burning up, so maybe the hole was from spontaneous combustion? If so it was a blessing in disguise—better in transit than under your bum.

I thought Florida's weather was basically: don't like? wait five minutes, we'll bring something else.

[mariness]

If by "spontaneous combustion" you mean "metal cutter" and "soldering iron" then, er, yes!

(The hole was square and clearly cut by human tools. No one has explained why, but battery two was hole free, so yay.)

Oh, and the best way to keep this battery going, according to the manufacturer, is to keep the throttle low, which sounds like good advice to anyone who is not trying to outrun a rain cloud :) One of the two times I usually crank the throttle up. (The second time is if I'm carrying ice cream.) I try not to ride in the rain for lots of reasons - one of the reasons I'm staying in today whatever my mental itching - but it has been known to hit me despite weather reports promising sun. Sigh. And yes, you have well summed up Florida's weather.

[jesse_the_k]

Gee, when I'm carrying ice cream I just stop and eat it :,)