Mullfoto of the Day

Ok. This is a pretty good story.

On Saturday I took the Skippy Scooter out for a spin. It is called the Skippy Scooter because anyone riding it should be named "Skippy." I said this to Mullpal Becki Donatelli the other day when I rode it to her office and she said I should be wearing a bow tie. I said if I were wearing a bow tie, I'd have to call it the "Tucker Scooter."

I was meeting the Director of Standards & Practices for lunch at Landini's in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia so I parked the scooter at the top of the block leaving plenty of room for a car behind me. When I came out you can see that the SS had attracted a number of bigger two-wheeled vehicles which took up the space behind me.

As I was getting myself together to ride home, the owners of those motorcycles came out, put on their black helmets (mine is a very bright Mighty Morphin Power Ranger Yellow), and started vroom-vrooming their bikes.

I didn't want to be outdone, so I got on the SS and started vroom-vrooming myself, although because the SS has a 150cc engine it's more of a purr-purr.

The three bikers put their machines in gear and pulled away from the curb in formation to head up King Street. The SS doesn't have gears, so I opened the throttle and moved smartly away from the curb right behind them.

For about 18 inches.

Look at the picture again paying close attention to something sticking out from the rear tire. You can just make out the chain which is locked to the rear wheel. In my zeal to vroom-vroom away with the big boys, I had forgotten to unlock it so I went about 18" before it wrapped itself around the rear axle causing me to stop fairly quickly.

The bikers saw what had happened, did a U turn and pulled back into the curb and watched me, for about 20 minutes, rolling around on the street, attempting to untangle the chain and lock, which I finally did.

Without comment (and without having offered to help), they pulled away again. I waited until they went beyond the corner up King Street.

Then I purr-purred home.

Catchy Caption of the Day

Actual Caption:

A cat relaxes in the morning sun on a terrace near Kiel, northern Germany, as temperatures reach 18 degrees Celsius (64.4 Fahrenheit) on Monday morning, June 1, 2009.

If this is Global Warming ... I'm for it.

(AP Photo/Heribert Proepper)