Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for April 29, 2024

Forgot a tension wheel.

a …. 4th law for Newton, maybe?

Obviously, he should have applied power equally to both skates.

60 to 0 in 1 second.

He expected to " fly like an eagle". Oh the ignominy…..

Like so many before him, he hoped that physics wasn’t paying attention to his activities.

I expected you to ask what I expected if things didn’t go as I expected. Other than that, I had no Great Expectations.

It is a Monday after all. Martin has the rest of the week to work the kinks out…(of his back).

It looked good in the Acme catalog

At 4:1 belt ratio, with 1.5" wheels, and a low idle setting on the engine (600rpm) that would be 10mph. Not too bad. He just tensioned too much to start. He needed to bend his knees a bit to allow slipping at the start, then slowly straighten to in increase tension AFTER coming up to speed.

Good morning Balladeers!

Well, not that!

Another in the long list of Martin’s humiliating brain-pharts.

What some men will do to get attention from the woman they love.. Some men will climb a mountain. Martin was going for impressive wheelies.. when sadly a wheel came off

When reality crashes an idea.

Martin violently rediscovers Ferd’s Ninth Law of Loco-Motion: Always apply thrust equally to both upper and lower halves of any object under propulsion.

Martin forgot the air bag. She arrived later to remind him of his failed expectations.

“Elbow and knee pads? Pshaw, what could go wrong?”

I have not failed I have just found 10,000 ways it wouldn’t work. (Thomas Edison)

He’s a little concussed but thinks it was something to do with perpetual motion.

I wonder what that looked like pre-cataclysm.

Is that a nice way of saying “I told you so!” ?? :)

And so, the automatic, self-propelled, voice-activated ice cream maker / beer cooler / scooter goes back on the drawing board for fine tuning before its world debut.

We are all on pins and needles waiting to find out if Martin will go back to his drawing board or will he at last hang up his goggles and retire. Tinder-hooks for us all.

Well, obviously not that.

oops, he forgot to martinize it…

Martin certainly wasn’t expecting that!