Scooters and Scraggletit

So upon our arrival in Hengdian, Tim and I decided to buy ourselves some transportation, now we could have done the cool, and normal thing and bought an electric scooter like the one above to get around. You can get one at a really good price here but Tim is taking lots of photos here, which means lugging around an expensive camera, big clunky tripod, lights, cords, soft boxes...so this wasn't the most convenient choice.  And it's even less likely to work when his wife's big badonkadonk has to on that thing too. You get the idea. 

This is how we ended up with the oddity you see below.  It's something of a cross between  the powerchair an old lady will use to run down some poor unsuspecting kid in a grocery store, and a rickshaw.  It looks...awesome. I know.  Actually it doesn't even stand out here, plenty of people in town have them, but most of them have about 6 feet of something-or-another stacked in the backseat, or a charcoal grill in the back and they are selling roasted chestnuts or stinky tofu on the street.  We don't mind the thing, we are used to standing out like Snooki's poof here.   I had to laugh because a couple days we bought is when I realized how much it looks like a powerchair.  Chop the back half off, stick an old lady in it and you have the same model.  So yea...it's fun. 

What I do not like about it is the fact that the thing is an absolute rust-bucket.  I am convinced that the scooter is actually old, and it just got a new paint job to cover up the fact that the thing is entirely rusted through.  When we drive over a bump I'm afraid the thing is going to crack in half and I'll be flung into Hengdian traffic, it's not a pretty thought.  We told our suspicions to one of our better English speaking friends, the one that helped translate for us when we bought the scooter.  We told him that we thought the shop owner was dishonest and sold us an old rusted scooter at a new scooter price.  Our friend gave the scooter a good look over and said "It's fine."  We again pointed to the serious rust in every joint, nook and cranny including inside the socket it charges from.  He explains to us that "It's just the kind of metal"  What kind, scrap metal pulled from some hillbillies backyard?  Metal doesn't just come that way!

So anyway, the thing hasn't turned into dust yet.  If it survives a few more months I'll be ecstatic. OH! Also the brakes stopped working a week or two ago and we took it in for them to fix it and do you know what it was?  A SCREW was loose!  Yes, there is a single screw that is holding the brakes tight and the thing squeaks to high heaven's whenever we have to use them on a hill.  The worksmanship, quality and saftey features of this thing are really...chinese.

In other news, I am trying desperately to catch a decent picture of this dog that hangs out around our apartment.  Sweet little thing, I guess.  But I swear this is the ugliest dog on the face of this planet.  Tim and I have nicknamed her "Scraggletit"  Because scraggly is the best word I can think of to describe her coat, and tit.....well because the poor thing looks like gave birth to and fed a pack of wolves.  They hang down so far they are nearly touching the ground and as she prances around they wobble back and forth....hitting and bouning off her legs and nearly knocking her over sideways.

So I leave you with that pleasant image in your mind as you continue with your day.  Keep Scraggletit in your thoughts as you eat your morning cereal and when you go to bed at night.  Poor thing needs any good vibes she can get.