Ride em' High

So the big day got shifted from Monday to today, since Gertrud got all excited about buying a mobility scooter and kept calling me about the details of the ones I had scouted out for her yesterday. Having gone through all the details with her and Heinz several times on the phone and then her calling me again first thing this morning, I knew the weekend would be full of questions and further calls unless I got her down to London to see the scooters for herself and probably buy one.
So off we went early in the afternoon. I've never seen Heinz drive so fast either. By that I mean, he was actually driving the speed limit which was a great change from his usual 10 to 20 km's below the speed limit with tons of traffic piling up behind us. Along the way Heinz was in a real happy mood, full of jokes about how Gertrud would terrorize the streets with her new scooter and possibly be having races with other people on their scooters. Gertrud sat in the car, ball cap on her head looking a little nervous now that the day had actually arrived and was asking lots of questions as to how I would choose were it me who had to buy the scooter. I kept telling her that she needed to try them out for herself and then make a joint decision with Heinz.
Gertrud got really excited when she first saw the scooters at a distance. "I see them," she said. "Which one is mine?" I had to laugh. She was so timid once she approached them. The sales lady explained everthing about the mobility scooters in detail to both Heinz and Gertrud and offered them to try out the scooters they might be interested in. Since we had already narrowed down the choice to two scooters before we arrived, it made things slightly easier to compare. Gertrud rode both scooters in the mall hallways while I walked beside her, for encouragement and to help in case she got into trouble. She needed to ride them both twice before a decision was to be made. Heinz, always being the mechanic checked the scooters over for mechanical advantages and disadvantages. Finding a pinch point on one and checking for good clearance underneath should Gertrud need to take her scooter across some grass at different times. Several times he was on his belly checking the mechanics as much as he could and also checking for safety features.
At one point he had pulled a lever which made the scooter beep loudly every time it was turned on, which brought the sales lady running. Of course the trick was to figure out why the thing was now beeping every time the key was turned. Then he had the grand idea to take it home straight away. How he would accomplish this was the next question to be answered. At first he thought if the seat could be taken off he and I could lift it onto the roof racks of his little Volkswagon. I kept telling him that it was a terrible idea, since it could fall off and that it was too heavy to lift. Of course he needed to check the weight for himself and so he went to the back of the machine and lifted it by the bumper, to which he replied," Oh, oh, oh, I didn't think it would be this heavy! I really didn't think so." At first I got worried that he might have injured himself and got another hernia, but instead his brain took quickly to finding another solution.
We would drive all the way back home and pick up his truck. Then we could put it on the back of the truck and bring it home. Heinz was not to be convinced that it would be delivered for less than fifty dollars. I told Heinz that this would not solve the problem since the scooter still needed to be lifted on and off the truck and the gas money wouldn't be free either. I told him I could get the store to deliver it for about twenty-five dollars which would ensure the scooter's safe arrival and spare us a lot of trouble. (Never mind my bad back which was already in bad shape.) Gertrud at this point didn't care which scooter she got to take home because she liked both models and left the final decision to Heinz since she trusted him to know which one was mechanically the better buy.
Her main concern now was to get a nice basket for the back of the scooter in which she could carry her groceries etc. So she left Heinz and myself to discuss the merits of both vehicles while she took the sales woman aside to discuss finding a suitable strong metal basket. To her luck the lady brought out just the right thing and showed her how easily it attached to the scooter which immediately sold Gertrude on the bigger, but less expensive scooter. However before the final decision was passed, Gertrud and Heinz changed their mind several more times. Then, just as the scooter was being paid for Heinz spoke up quickly and told the sales woman to add in the basket for Gertrud too.
Gertrud was in her glory! New scooter and two baskets, one for up front and one at the back. Life didn't get much better than this.
As for me, I was tickled pink that Heinz and Gertrud let me pay with my credit card temporarily so as to get my reward points toward flights. Once again everyone left happy and delivery will be Monday or Tuesday. I'm sure Gertrud will be sitting on pins and needles until it arrives.