The painkiller worked - and I slept. But when I woke to the phone's ring at 8AM I was nauseated so badly I could hardly stand up. I grabbed a bucket, and began to throw up, while trying to give Chris directions. (Photo at right from his uShip file.)

Between bouts of puking I shouted for my wife to help when he arrived. He must have thought that I was someone from Mad Magazine! By the time Chris Fahey arrived I was unable to do anything but croak requests for help and flop on the couch while my spouse (bless her heart, she was already upset by my purchase of another costly toy) took over the receiving tasks. Chris not only unloaded the scooter, he wheeled it down our (very steep) driveway and parked it in the garage!

   And there it sat while I recuperated from the overdose of Percocet® (honest, it said " . . . take one or two ever 4 to 6 hours as needed," and I took just two!) It was noontime before I made it out to the garage to inspect my new scooter.

And found that it would not start. It's not easy to describe my state of mind at this juncture; somewhere between "chagrined" and "desolated" might do it. Here I am after an involved and risky series of Internet transactions, with a scooter that I have been seeking for a year or more, which does not work!

   Several more starting attempts, and some study of the Shop Manual, plus a few questions to the previous owner by e-mail led me to believe that the problem must be a wiring connection or switch. Frustrated, the only answer was another "hauling" (this time by Chattanooga Motorcycles, Inc. to their nearby shop) to find the problem; a loose, misadjusted, foot-brake safety switch.

And so at last I had the scooter of my dreams,running as it should!