Valentines Day

Yesterday was Valentines Day. Every Valentines Day should be a Saturday, it was the first night that the students really went out since school started. It's like the worlds economic downturn went on vacation for a day.

I won't make a cent today. I had a personal emergency, and I'm losing over an hour taking care of it. Thank god it's only a personal emergency, it could have been worse, and there are definately worse things that can happen than not making any money for a shift.

I frequently have candidates for the ultimate dumb and dumber pair. Friday night I had a couple of guys who will never get in my cab again who definately are in the running. People have to be pretty bad usually to be memorable, and these guys were definately memorable. PERFICT examples of why I NEVER take people through a drive through for drunk food. I did, because doing so put me up for a $15 fitter (we are a shared ride cab) that the dispatcher would have said I had no reason to be any where near otherwise. The lady who was the fitting ride was very nice, tipped well, and the 2 guys who got Taco Bell were, well, pigs. Oh well. I had a total of 5 people on Friday who will never get in my cab again, that's a lot for a single shift.

In addition to the 2 I just mentioned, there were the very first passengers of the shift. An old woman and her daughter I'd guess, they went from a cheap oriental buffet to a crappy neighborhood, and wanted to be dropped off at different places for the same price as if they went to the same place. I told them I wouldn't do that, and they got pretty upset, "Well other cab drivers do............" Lady, I'm not other cab drivers. I treat EVERYBODY the same, everybody! If I stated saying well you're an old lady so I'll give you a break, then I'd have to start saying that black guy looks scruffy so I need to get cash up front, which might offend him, and so on, so the way it works is everybody gets treated the same. At this point the daughter in the back seat said with that indignant tone in her voice, "Are you calling me old?" They were, quite simply, nothing but trouble. As the old woman paid, no tip, she said in a nasty tone of voice, "I'm not paying extra just so it can go into your pocket." Then she said she'd never ride with me again. Cool, she watches for me, I watch for her, and we never cross paths again. That brings up the total to 4, there is one more.

The one more was a MA ride. What's an MA ride? It's a charge to a hospital or county or city agency that pays for rides for the poor. MA=Medical Assistance. If my dispatcher gives me an MA ride to do, I'm the only one who can turn in the paper to get paid for the ride. I got to this psychiatric clinic and this woman comes out and says, "This cab better be for So-And-So!!!" She plunks her butt down in the front seat and starts on a long rag about how she's been waiting for a ride for 2 hours, and that bastard in the cab in front of me wouldn't take her inspite of the fact that he's been sitting there for a long time. My good friend Ham Dinger was the driver in that cab, and he couldn't have taken her if he'd wanted to, he'd never get paid for the ride, not to mention he was waiting for his own looney that he had paperwork for. I tried to tell this woman that if she was a cash customer Ham Dinger could have taken her, if he'd wanted to, but she wasn't a cash customer so I was the only one who could do her ride. Then she went on a bigger rag about how an MA ride was as good as a cash ride, which is irrelevant, and I finally told her as politely as possible to SHUT UP. Then I took her to a subsidized apartment building. She doesn't pay her own rent, doesn't pay her own cab fare, no doubt doesn't pay her shrink, and I think she should be a bag lady, instead of a well fed, middle class, leach on society. What was it Billy Joel (or was it Harry Chapin.... nah, Billy) said in the old song, "You should never argue with a crazy man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man. You ought to know by now! ...................................... If that's all you get for your money!"

Lady, you'll never get in my cab again, MA ride or no MA ride. If you want her name, so you can avoid her too, ask me in the drivers room, for obvious reasons, I can't put her name here.