Go Ped A Go GO

What with classes and rehearsals, I've been back and forth to school at all sorts of funny hours. I'm trying to be good and not drive but it is hard when winter has suddenly arrived along with snow, ice and bracing winds.

My fearless mother has no problem with the winter weather. She throws on her puffy winter coat which engulfs her down to her ankles, wraps a thick scarf over her hatted-head and walks miles in the cold all day long. She is some sort of a 72 year old Abominable Snowman. So when I tell her I have to go to class she always advises, "Why don't you walk! It's good exercise!'

But, being late as I always am, walking takes too long. And my bike's tires need air so...my preferred mode of transport of late has been my trusty Go-Ped scooter.

The first Go-Ped I ever saw belonged to my friend Pete. I was visiting him at Tippett, the VFX house I used to work at and he had this dandy little scooter to get him back and forth between the buildings. I gave it a whirl and was instantly hooked. They sell all sorts of tricked out motorized varieties but I wanted the old-fashioned foot powered type.

After visiting the Go-Ped website and shelling out $140, I was eager to receive my new bright red scooter in the mail. Oh boy! When it arrived, our love affair began immediately. At the time I was working South of Market at a non-profit called the Film Arts Foundation and living across the bay in North Berkeley.

Each morning, I would scoot through the gourmet ghetto of North Berkeley that I called home to the BART station, usually grabbing a brioche from the Cheeseboard on my way. I read comics on the crowded train to the Embarcadero and prayed there wouldn't be an earthquake while we were passing underneath the bay.

Then I would carefully maneuver my scooter through the crowds of business people cluttering Market Street to the seedy hood of FAF (the gay bar Studs was on the corner and had a great karaoke night). After work, I would scoot up to the Mission for burritos or the Castro for drinks with friends.

Scooting was the perfect way to get around in the city. After spending hours searching for parking on countless frustrated evenings, the scooter became the only way to get where I needed to go. Sure, it was clunky and dorky as hell, and I almost wiped out on numerous occasions, and it made my feet ache from all the frantic pushing, but it got me where I needed to go and it did it fast.

Years later, I uncovered the scooter again and began zooming around my Oakland neighborhood. The high school kids would laugh and point but it might have also been because my Australian Cattle Herder, Sheila, was pulling me like a sled dog. Sheila spent most of her day locked up in a cement backyard so she was always ready to GO FAST. We hit speeds of up to 20 mph as she gleefully swooped me around turns and up curbs. The fact that we didn't kill anyone on one of those trips still impresses me.

Up until recently, there haven't been many occasions for scooting now that I live in Vermont. It seems easier to bike or walk places. But once again, the scooter has become quite useful getting me back and forth to school. Even if it is especially hard scooting in the dark when big potholes become rather treacherous, and in the ice and snow where there are plenty of occasions to wipe out.

Today I had a scary scooter adventure riding down uber-steep Main St after class (Jesus, that was truly terrifying, my brakes don't work too well) and all the way up Pine St to my mechanics.

The wind was so bad that I could barely move forward at times, it was doing such a great job of pushing me back and angrily blowing my hood off my head. My scarf was doing a poor job of blocking the frigid gusts from stinging my throat and my exhaled warm breath kept fogging up my glasses. My throat and chest burned as I breathed in and out. Just how exactly do you exercise in the cold!?

I cussed out loud but the wind just merrily carried it away. Still, when I finally arrived to pick up my car, winded and pink-cheeked, I felt proud that I braved the weather on my scooter and saved the ozone layer just a wee bit.

I'm sure I'll wipe out big time one of these days (no doubt in front of a large group of very cool people), but in the meantime, I am having a blast being one of the oldest students on campus riding a ridiculous little scooter around town at all hours of the nights.

Give us a wave if we cross your path, or just honk and laugh quietly to yourself.