Tag: segway

 

west central Florida Segway sales

I’m one of the only local bloggers who have any reference to the Segway and dealings of the Segway in Tampa Bay… Of course my last post on the subject was pretty negative toward the dealer. It was also published a long time ago.

So — that being said, for those looking for Segway scooters, their are two dealerships outside of the Tampa/St. Pete market, but relatively close by in West-Central Florida for you to check out if you are shopping for a Segway:

Chrysler of Sarasota
6826 S. Tamiami Trail
941-922-1521 (no web site)

Segway of Central Florida
Office 352-383-9900

Both of these dealers were provided to me by Tampa Bay Segs – which is a tour operation based in St. Petersburg. Across the bay, if you’re interested in seeing Tampa from up close, check out Magic Carpet Glide.

Win a Segway HT

Segway of Cleveland is holding a raffle for a Segway HT i180…. Those who know what the ehll that name means will be interested 😉

Raffle tickets are Five Dollars and all procceds go towards Sparx in the City downtown culture.

Yeah, regulars to the site or those who know me are aware I’m in Florida. Regulars will also note I have a jones for the Segway…. Suffice it to say, I bought three raffle tickets. 🙂

Got Marketing? Segway of Clearwater doesn't

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m big on the Segway HT. The media laughs at it, people in general ridicule it and everyone I have seen ride it smiles instantly and loses their negative tone at least for a while when onboard.

It’s a thing of freedom to the disabled – though not medically approved by the FDA. It’s a vehicle of fun for those who are tired of the automobile.

And it’s the most poorly marketed item possible at Segway of Tampa Bay – Clearwater.

While Tampa Bay lacks mass transit – a vital part of the Segway’s appeal to get where you’re going faster while not quite going bike speed and going much faster than foot speed – it has traffic issues that have been brought up time and again by moi and others aroudn the blogosphere. People are looking for alternatives for short commutes and such and Seg of Clearwater is no where in sight.

Downtown Tampa is currently undergoing a developement boom and those who are going to be living downtown are going to need a means to get around that shouldn’t include the car – something that will travel where the TECO Streetcar won’t. St. Petersburg already has a large urban populous. Segway of TB – Clearwater? They’re on the beach showing off the device but not actually catering to potential customers. To show up on Clearwater Beach with the device sells the item like a novelty to the masses and not as a legit means of transportation.

Going to their web site, they laude sight seeing over mobility. They avoid the transit question because they happen to be exotic car dealers – why shut out one means of business with your other means of business?

It frustrates me when something that can be used is mis-advertised or just plain swept under the rug. Such is the Segway in this suburban hell.

Catching on = Not

OK so it’s only a poll on a cheap little mailing list (that I happen to run) but it’s sort of intersting to see that the 8 respondants to this poll only see a Segway rarely if ever out and about.

With gas prices going up up up, the visibility of the Segway HT seems to be going down down down. Go figure.

Segged Out

3:50 this afternoon — give or take a few minutes… I finally saw it in person… I finally got to marvel at the technological wonder known as the Segway Human Transporter.

I went to a guys house here in Palm Harbor and got to see and try the Segway. Not as long as I would have liked to have tried it, but I tried it ever still and I took to it pretty well for someone who has been reading about it for 2 years and hasn’t ever interacted with one.

I won’t call the Segway the vehicle of dreams, nor will I say that the Segway is as bad as certain governments have made it out to be for pedestrians on the sidewalk. The i167 version of the Segway – the one I tried – is a little bulky but at the same time, it isn’t a menace for pedestrians. It isn’t a toy either, though some may make it out to be. For JR – the one who gave me the demo – and myself, it’s an assistant device that’s a damn site better than a wheelchair or motorized-shopping cart that we would be otherwise forced to use.

To dream about something for years and finally have it happen, well it’s a good feeling deep down but it leaves you slightly disappointed for no apparent reason. At least that is the case with me. Maybe that would happen when I met people who I have talked to online for a while, or exactly how I felt after the Bucs won the Super Bowl.

Now I just need an extended glide on one of these things and I’ll make the call if I should get one or not.

Dejà-VooDoo than I Do

DejÃ-Vu.

Very, very dejÃ-vu…

See, about a year ago I had some things happening to me that made life a big worry… A worry much bigger than your day to day but not so incomprehensible that you would think I’m an alien or something like that (though the Men In Black would argue that)… It’s just something that hung over me much like a new job, moving, or some other great unknown worry would have this feeling of heaviness over you. There’s anxiousness and anxiety to go along with it and a question of just where this will take you.

That was a year ago and I’m repeating it this year.

Yep, John’s got a scheduled date for surgery now – Wednesday, August 20th at Tampa General Hospital. Pre-op on Monday the 18th. I’m thinking of other odd things going on — Bill’s sister is due to have her 2nd kid about that time and — it’s SO STRANGE because that is what happened last year while I was in the hospital.

Very strange, very deja-vu.

Of course this year I won’t be writing to anyone on the pager, telling them soemthing I should have told them the night before I had the operation…

…Nor do I think I’m going to be out of the hospital in 3 days. Hell, I don’t even know if I will be back to walking anytime soon after surgery. I’ve talked about my legs being weak as is right now – I got to imagine if everything goes fine I’m still going to have weak legs and on top of it I might have to “learn” how to use them again.

I don’t know if I will need rehab or what… I don’t know if I should be looking intot he ibot or the Segway because of future lack of mobility… (then again, I want to look into the Segway no matter what so that whole point is moot).

At any rate, after a night off from the computer, I’m writing again with another story… Maybe assignment 4, I didn’t look at the assignment as much yet but I’m writing with constraints just because. Sort of good story but I think it’s been done before…

Also, Melanie will be glad to hear that John got disc 5 of 24 season 1 in the mail. I may very well have that watched by the end of the day… God I love that fucking show

Happy Valentines Day Sarah

Well it’s been a month since I left a entry into my journal in any way shape or form. I’ve avoided this for one reason or another and in fact my journal came back to haunt me again a few weeks ago so I don’t know for sure if I should continue saying anything in these things. Is it because I want to be secretive? No, it’s more along the lines I don’t want to confuse anyone or upset anyone like I can do in here.

That leads me to my writing today. Today is Valentines Day, a day of heart, a day of joy for those who have found love and a day of misery for those without it, or a day or longing past romance from those you may very well be in love with but haven’t experienced the romantic side from your other in a while.

I’ve admittedly been in love since August with someone I haven’t ever met in person… Someone that has meant a lot to me because she’s not only been there to listen to me, but because we’ve just clicked in a lot of ways and I feel like she makes me better when I am with her. A better human being, a better comedian, a more thoughtful person, etc…

I don’t know what the future will bring us – if things will last any longer than a week or things are long term in the grandest meanings of the word – and of course I’ve had my doubts before (and still do of course, who doesn’t at times) but I realize the reason I am doubting a lot of the time is because of my own past or my own insecurities and paranoia… Life just tends to throw you off course whenever you see something you want and you have to keep going towards it while you can until what you desire moves either clearly out of the picture or is in your grasp.

1-4-3, S.M.R :kiss :rose

OK, now that i have gotten matters of the heart out of the way, it’s time to tell everyone just what I have been up to the past month that has made me not want to come on here and rant and rave… Well, I got fired from Target for starters. Not fired from screwing up but pink slipped. Cut backs and what not. I’m not exactly medically sound right now but I know I can get through this like I get through everything else that has ever made me intimidated before in my life — because I’m just too damned good to let it go to my head (you don’t know how bad a pun that was just now).

I’ve been all over the web trying to find something to pass the time – be it talking on instant message programs to talking on Message boards. I single handedly turned around the Segway-open mailing list as I may or may not have already reported. Segway’s, by the way, start shipping on March 1st. You’ll be seeing more of those buzzing around you soon enough.

George Dubya “Warmonger” Bush is dead set on a war in Iraq…. This goes as no surprise to me because they’ve been planning this thing since Bush took office in 2001…. Yet the entire world is against the US efforts to start a war and that is causing a bit of a problem.

Of course there is also the fact that Osama Bin Laden has issued a couple of new Communication tapes — which is always foreshadowing to an attack. The US is on a heightened terror alert right now and rightly so.

Oh yeah, and before I close this Journal entry off, I think that I have avoided a subject matter that in itself is huge that should have gotten it’s own private entry in here over the past month (but I’ve been too lazy to get to it) —

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS! SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS, BABY!!!!!!!!! DEFENSE WINS IT ALL!!!!!!!

Segway to where?

This time last year, or just about this time last year, there was an invention that got people (myself) really interested in just what the hell it was. It was an invention that had been talked about a year previously and people actively pondered just what it was – up until it was revealed just what it was.

It was a scooter – the Segway was born.

The reaction to the unveiling of the Segway HT was a mixed bag from some people after hearing such hype as “It will revolutionize life” and “people will build cities around it” from types such as Steve Jobs and the creator of Amazon . ‘It’s a scooter? That’s it?” “Man, that actually makes sense… what an idea…”

The Segway was designed specifically for urban living and work conditions – you don’t need an SUV to go to the corner convenience store for a pack of cigarettes. You don’t want to walk 15 blocks to the proper subway station to catch a ride uptown… You don’t want to walk the 2 and a half miles from your house to shopping in the hot hot sun and yet you don’t want to pay extra fees for parking.

That’s where Segway came in.

Do we REALLY need cars in our major cities (New York, San Francisco are the first two towns I think of)? And yet how much do we need to depend on something that works much like our own two feet?

I’m in suburbia and I STILL want one of these things. I am not allowed to drive and can use a mode of transportation that is both powered and faster than my slow amble. I need to commute to work (2 miles away) shopping (2 miles or more – depending on where I go), and other places by myself. I want independence. As someone who doesn’t have a license and can’t get one, the Segway would provide a good deal of help. Of course, a bike could arguably do the same job….

That’s the argument for and against Segway…. We have bikes and mopeds and skateboards and golf carts that were made for certain modes of transportation. The Segway is going to cost a pretty penny for pedestrians and they need an original way of saying “This is what you want and not the other stuff.”

OK that’s my rant…. Even though it doesn’t seem to have a point :tongue

My brother Andrew has his friend over today – someone I used to be good friends with but fell out of favor with over the years. I always used to wonder what this guy did on Sunday’s because he was never available for stuff. Football. Lots and lots of football, it seems because he’s been glued to our set since 1 :tongue.

Then again, I usually am like that :wink