Someone sprayed me in the face with pepper spray. And my $300 battery was stolen.
....
But let's start at the beginning.
....
I went to northern edge of my city following some trail that was about 16 miles away and reached the very end. That was pretty cool.
So I came back, stopped by Wendys to get something to eat/drink (all of the fountains on the path didn't work, and I was thirsty.), and I decided I want to go through the University and I found that they had developed a footpath across the river - that is totally awesome! So I'm in this neighborhood that's at the bottom of the hill that I live on and I have to cross the highway to start climbing the hill. As I approached the walking pathway's entrance that goes over the highway, this little dog greets me right at the entrance and I couldn't see him until I was about 5 feet away from him. I had basically three choices here: I could stop and runaway in the opposite direction (bad choice: the dog knows you're running away from it and being stopped makes you far more vulnerable); I could jump onto the 35mph street and make like a bat out of hell (bad choice: don't want a dog chasing me down a 35 mph street going in the opposite direction of traffic); I could go jump onto the neighborhood street and just hope that the dog didn't chase me as it's not *too* obvious I was running from it.
Well, that choice wasn't a good choice either: basically I was frocked no matter what.
So I was riding at 3-4 mph going around this corner, and this dog starts barking at he's right at my ankle looking like he was getting ready to bite. Typically dog's who chase you run alongside you, but no, this dog was right next to my ankle getting ready to bite. So I grabbed my pepper spray and tried to spray the thing but there was a snag, it wouldn't spray. I thought what the hell, so I started shaking it trying frantically to get it to work, and the things spray right in front of me and the wind blows it back right in my face. Instant hell on wheels!!!
My eyes were burning like frocking hell, and the dog ran off.
What a cruel irony.
So here I was sobbing like no other, in a neighborhood apparently infested with vicious dogs running around, and I had snot hanging down to my chin.
I was completely blind; I opened my eyes for a split second
and the pain level went from hell to hell times infinity. The pain wasn't just in my eyes, it was also in my nose and mouth, but the eye pain was by far the most noticeable.
Since I couldn't see, I couldn't really walk anywhere, at least not right away. So, I tried asking people for a cell as they're walking by (one guy didn't), I had at least five vehicles pass me who didn't help me at all, and it became pretty clear I was going to have to seek help. Mind you, I'm blind and my eyes burn like hell.
So I grabbed my bike (fumbled around a lot to find it, yes), pushing it on the street trying to skirt the edge of the sidewalk just to make sure I was walking on the sidewalk, and I came across an intersection! Didn't hear any cars around (this neighborhood is usually pretty quiet), there was a church across the street, so I'd bolted across hoping I wouldn't trip and use the bike to detect the edge of other sidewalk. I tried pushing the bike up the steeples' steps, got to the top, and started knocking on the door...
No one answered.
Freaking A.
Now, my other option is to start knocking on doors but there's a problem. All of the houses in this neighborhood have fences around them. It's not hard to understand why, there's lots of dogs walking around in this neighborhood, apparently. (This was my fourth time through this neighborhood, and the second time I came across a dog, so I figured it out eventually...) And furthermore, I'm not entirely sure if these are people you want to be talking to. I'm not saying that they wouldn't help, but the chance of getting some "bad person" who'd take advantage of some blind person seemed a bit higher than normal.
So there was a bunch of kids walking around in a little gang, and asked them if they had a phone. Of course they did! Awesome! So we went to the nearby fire station, and apparently no one was home, and called 911 to get some help. The kids went off and the fire truck came by about five minutes later. They took me in, did the eyewash thing (I was having my doubts that water would help that much - water isn't exactly known to play well with oil), and I suddenly could see! It didn't hurt anymore!
Thank you guys, so much!
Oh my God, so wonderful.
And I didn't get a $1000 ER bill either!
I asked the guy to throw away the pepper spray because I'm pretty sure I won't be using those again (I think I'll use a foghorn along with a specially designed dog spray; it seems like loud noises deters all but the most serious dogs. Dog spray isn't actually that bad to humans.), and so instead of throwing it in the trashcan, he just sprayed it down the wash basin!
Well it turned fun at that point! About five seconds later, I notice I was choking on this stuff that was burning my lungs and presumably others, so everyone started evacuating the fire station!
Well that turned out fun, lol.
I left and got my bike...
And my batteries were stolen.
Now, considering that these kids helped me and the batteries are about three years old (I got plenty of use from them), I didn't really care that they stole my batteries... But it sure would have been nice to get home! I mean, I did, but climbing the dreaded hill with a 20 pound motor without assistance wasn't exactly looking like a fairytale ending to a not so fairytale day. But, it really wasn't a *big* problem, just a minor annoyance.
(I did think that there was the chance someone was going to steal something; it's not too hard to rob blind person... But, dude, I didn't care at that point. I just needed help, and I think of their theft as payment for their services.)
What's really annoying is that I don't have batteries for my solar trip!
I suppose I could use my lifepo4 battery, but...
Yeah...
That shit ain't powerful. That is, it's not exactly ideal for mountain climbing and that's the primary advantage of an electric bike - mountains are turned into molehills. Once you turn the "really hard stuff" into easiness, long-distance riding really isn't that hard as riding on the flats isn't hard at all.
So I'm looking at ordering more batteries. It's not really that expensive, but... It's like the other batteries looked like they had at least five more years left from them, so it seems kind of like.. Yeah... I wouldn't have to buy more batteries if they weren't stolen...
And the thought of buying more batteries and going on a trip seems like something I don't want to afford right now.
So, today was a rather amazing day! I reach the very end of the trail!
Accomplishment uno.
Then... a dog chased me, I accidentally sprayed myself in the face, and then some kids stole my battery.
This dog... Like seriously... It was like this dog was waiting for someone to come by, knowing that people like to use the pedestrian walkway sometimes. Then he saw me and said, "gotcha!".
What an asshole.
(I think I also learned to avoid that neighborhood at *all* costs. There is a reason why it's quiet, and why the only people walking around it are gangs, lol. Not vicious gangs, well not most of them, anyways...)
------
On the trip, I also encountered a couple riding a tandem recumbent bicycle! That's pretty cool. Those things have the advantage of being able to go pretty fast on the flats with the low aerodynamic profile and the dual human power source. They were riding it in the area that was pretty hilly though...
....
But let's start at the beginning.
....
I went to northern edge of my city following some trail that was about 16 miles away and reached the very end. That was pretty cool.
So I came back, stopped by Wendys to get something to eat/drink (all of the fountains on the path didn't work, and I was thirsty.), and I decided I want to go through the University and I found that they had developed a footpath across the river - that is totally awesome! So I'm in this neighborhood that's at the bottom of the hill that I live on and I have to cross the highway to start climbing the hill. As I approached the walking pathway's entrance that goes over the highway, this little dog greets me right at the entrance and I couldn't see him until I was about 5 feet away from him. I had basically three choices here: I could stop and runaway in the opposite direction (bad choice: the dog knows you're running away from it and being stopped makes you far more vulnerable); I could jump onto the 35mph street and make like a bat out of hell (bad choice: don't want a dog chasing me down a 35 mph street going in the opposite direction of traffic); I could go jump onto the neighborhood street and just hope that the dog didn't chase me as it's not *too* obvious I was running from it.
Well, that choice wasn't a good choice either: basically I was frocked no matter what.
So I was riding at 3-4 mph going around this corner, and this dog starts barking at he's right at my ankle looking like he was getting ready to bite. Typically dog's who chase you run alongside you, but no, this dog was right next to my ankle getting ready to bite. So I grabbed my pepper spray and tried to spray the thing but there was a snag, it wouldn't spray. I thought what the hell, so I started shaking it trying frantically to get it to work, and the things spray right in front of me and the wind blows it back right in my face. Instant hell on wheels!!!
My eyes were burning like frocking hell, and the dog ran off.
What a cruel irony.
So here I was sobbing like no other, in a neighborhood apparently infested with vicious dogs running around, and I had snot hanging down to my chin.
I was completely blind; I opened my eyes for a split second
and the pain level went from hell to hell times infinity. The pain wasn't just in my eyes, it was also in my nose and mouth, but the eye pain was by far the most noticeable.
Since I couldn't see, I couldn't really walk anywhere, at least not right away. So, I tried asking people for a cell as they're walking by (one guy didn't), I had at least five vehicles pass me who didn't help me at all, and it became pretty clear I was going to have to seek help. Mind you, I'm blind and my eyes burn like hell.
So I grabbed my bike (fumbled around a lot to find it, yes), pushing it on the street trying to skirt the edge of the sidewalk just to make sure I was walking on the sidewalk, and I came across an intersection! Didn't hear any cars around (this neighborhood is usually pretty quiet), there was a church across the street, so I'd bolted across hoping I wouldn't trip and use the bike to detect the edge of other sidewalk. I tried pushing the bike up the steeples' steps, got to the top, and started knocking on the door...
No one answered.
Freaking A.
Now, my other option is to start knocking on doors but there's a problem. All of the houses in this neighborhood have fences around them. It's not hard to understand why, there's lots of dogs walking around in this neighborhood, apparently. (This was my fourth time through this neighborhood, and the second time I came across a dog, so I figured it out eventually...) And furthermore, I'm not entirely sure if these are people you want to be talking to. I'm not saying that they wouldn't help, but the chance of getting some "bad person" who'd take advantage of some blind person seemed a bit higher than normal.
So there was a bunch of kids walking around in a little gang, and asked them if they had a phone. Of course they did! Awesome! So we went to the nearby fire station, and apparently no one was home, and called 911 to get some help. The kids went off and the fire truck came by about five minutes later. They took me in, did the eyewash thing (I was having my doubts that water would help that much - water isn't exactly known to play well with oil), and I suddenly could see! It didn't hurt anymore!
Thank you guys, so much!
Oh my God, so wonderful.
And I didn't get a $1000 ER bill either!
I asked the guy to throw away the pepper spray because I'm pretty sure I won't be using those again (I think I'll use a foghorn along with a specially designed dog spray; it seems like loud noises deters all but the most serious dogs. Dog spray isn't actually that bad to humans.), and so instead of throwing it in the trashcan, he just sprayed it down the wash basin!
Well it turned fun at that point! About five seconds later, I notice I was choking on this stuff that was burning my lungs and presumably others, so everyone started evacuating the fire station!
Well that turned out fun, lol.
I left and got my bike...
And my batteries were stolen.
Now, considering that these kids helped me and the batteries are about three years old (I got plenty of use from them), I didn't really care that they stole my batteries... But it sure would have been nice to get home! I mean, I did, but climbing the dreaded hill with a 20 pound motor without assistance wasn't exactly looking like a fairytale ending to a not so fairytale day. But, it really wasn't a *big* problem, just a minor annoyance.
(I did think that there was the chance someone was going to steal something; it's not too hard to rob blind person... But, dude, I didn't care at that point. I just needed help, and I think of their theft as payment for their services.)
What's really annoying is that I don't have batteries for my solar trip!
I suppose I could use my lifepo4 battery, but...
Yeah...
That shit ain't powerful. That is, it's not exactly ideal for mountain climbing and that's the primary advantage of an electric bike - mountains are turned into molehills. Once you turn the "really hard stuff" into easiness, long-distance riding really isn't that hard as riding on the flats isn't hard at all.
So I'm looking at ordering more batteries. It's not really that expensive, but... It's like the other batteries looked like they had at least five more years left from them, so it seems kind of like.. Yeah... I wouldn't have to buy more batteries if they weren't stolen...
And the thought of buying more batteries and going on a trip seems like something I don't want to afford right now.
So, today was a rather amazing day! I reach the very end of the trail!
Accomplishment uno.
Then... a dog chased me, I accidentally sprayed myself in the face, and then some kids stole my battery.
This dog... Like seriously... It was like this dog was waiting for someone to come by, knowing that people like to use the pedestrian walkway sometimes. Then he saw me and said, "gotcha!".
What an asshole.
(I think I also learned to avoid that neighborhood at *all* costs. There is a reason why it's quiet, and why the only people walking around it are gangs, lol. Not vicious gangs, well not most of them, anyways...)
------
On the trip, I also encountered a couple riding a tandem recumbent bicycle! That's pretty cool. Those things have the advantage of being able to go pretty fast on the flats with the low aerodynamic profile and the dual human power source. They were riding it in the area that was pretty hilly though...