There are so many learning experiences that can't be learned any other way than to be there. I think most of the traffic accidents have been learning experiences, a few haven't, but the overall effect of the non learning experiences is to make you drive slower and leave more room, which is just what the driving authorities say.
Ever hear stories of people running to get on a wreaked bus in a big city? There is no doubt in my mind that happens. I had 2 poor underpriviledged minority youth sitting in the back seat and an old lady who was a charge to the city sitting in the front seat when I got bumped by the car behind me while waiting to make a left turn. Under other circumstances I would have ignored it, but rides that are charges to the city or county get treated differently, one takes no liability risks with these rides. I asked the dispatcher to get the police for me.
The 2 kids in the back seat were rather dismayed, they didn't want to wait, they didn't want to have the cops involved. I told them I was sorry about the situation, but it was out of my control. This went on for about 5 minutes, then the mouthy one started saying, "My arm hurts, when does I get paid?" I said to him that the guy in the ratty old car behind us who had carelessly bumped us probably was uninsured, and would get his drivers license revolked if he persisted with this he was injured nonsense The black 12 year old had no mercy for the black man with 2 children and their mother in the ratty car behind us. That poor man did lose his driving priviledges to the young gang banger.
When the cops got there they checked out the 2 kids pretty closely. The lady in the front seat said she was ok for the record. The lady cop who did the paperwork expressed her amazement at how reasonable, composed, and even tempered I was. We'd crossed path's before. I asked her why she expected any other behaviour. She let it drop, she had been wrong on that other occasion in the past and she knew it. After the paperwork was finished, I went to drop my 2 fares, and when I got empty I played a hunch, I swung into the garage and pulled the back seat out. Sure enough, there was a little brown wax covered cube about 3/4" on a side lying there under where the seat had been. Delivery boys, they were only afraid until they figgured they could stand the shakedown, and the cops did indeed shake them down. Next time I will pull the rear out if the cops don't. I'm pretty sure it was T-fus who pulled that little cube out of the trash barrel in the garage, I know someone certainly did.
I think the first accident I ever got in was in a blizzard. It was at the bottom of the hill in the northbound lane of Park, 1800 block, if memory serves. I was waiting for a passenger to come out and she was taking her time. There was a black lady sitting in the back seat. It was about 10 days before Christmas, just exactly this time of year. I watched a car crest the hill behind me in the rear view mirror, and start coming down the hill.
I asked myself, why doesn't he change lanes? It was a long hill, he had pleanty of time to change lanes, why isn't he changing lanes? Why???? Because he was a complete moron! He was a PhD student in electrical engineering from Taiwan, who had absolutely no clue what snow was, much less what it was like to drive on it, and was incapable of saying to himself that he might be too clueless to drive in a blizzard. It turns out that he locked up his brakes at the top of the hill and slid all the way down. All this idiot would have had to have done would have been to take his foot off the brake and change lanes and coast by me. But no, when he was too close to change lanes, I braced myself for the impact, and realized that I was stupid too. I'd let this fool hit me. CRASH..............
The black lady in the back seat started saying, "Oh, I hurt my arm. No, it's my shoulder. No, it's my neck."
"Merry Christmas ma'am!", I said, "Merry Christmas."
They tell me the idiot Chinaman got more than $10,000. And people wonder why I'm an isolationist.
The most spectacular accident I've ever seen happened on Stoughton rd. It was in the southbound lane just north of Buckeye rd. I had a passenger in, all of a sudden about 100 meters ahead of me a car started to spin, debris flew up in the air, then the whole group of 6 or 7 cars started spinning and crashing into each other. This chaos created a huge cloud of dust almost immediately, and I couldn't see into it. I slowed to about 10 miles per hour and creapt up on the carnage. The dust started to clear before I reached the crash, and by the time I slowly picked my way past the broken cars and the trash lying on the pavement. It was just like watching one of those most spectacular videos you see on TV, a 7 car pile up.
The most memorable accident I never actually saw. It happened on a New Year's Eve (day), at around 3:30 am. It was a really memorable holiday shift in general too. That was the night the cops locked King James out of his cab, but that's another cutsie story for another time. I was sitting in front of the Pizza Pit on University. Across the street was an entire block parking lot. The Black Bear Lounge was shooing their customers out, I'd picked up a passenger there a few minutes earlier and I will never forget the blond girl in the biker jacket who was missing her 2 front teeth, otherwise she was real pretty. The Bear was 90 degrees away from where I was sitting, also across the street from the huge parking lot. Sitting in a car, you can only see the front row of cars parked in the lot, so I could only hear what was about to happen.
All of a sudden from the middle of the parking lot I heard car tires screaching, then crash! Tires screach again, crash! Tires screach again, crash! Tires screach again, crash! It was pretty obvious what was going on, somebody was flooring it and crashing into a car foreward, then putting it into reverse and flooring it and crashing, and just going back and forth like that. It's something that you just listen to with an odd fascination and say to yourself, wow. I was just putting the cab into gear so I could go over to the entrance of the lot and perhaps see what was going on, when I heard, tires screach - crash, "You son of a bitch!!!!!! That's my car!!!!!!", tires screach crash.
When I was aproaching the entrance of the lot I saw a car that was very tore up come flying out of the lot southbound on Lake. I was just turning on to lake. A squad flew around the corner off Johnson, he was headed into that lot, and with his lights on, he also blocked me from following them lunatic in the demolition derby car. I stopped him at the entrance to the parking lot and told him he'd just passed the guy he was after, when he turned onto Lake off Johnson, the guy he was after turned onto Johnson and was headed east. The cop immediately pulled around and took off down Johnson st. I doubt he ever caught up to the guy, but perhaps the guy who watched his car get smashed got a plate number.
Why do people do things like this? Most people think that alcohol is to blame. I disagree, alcohol only enhances the fundamental poison which is the root of the problem. What?? No, I'm not talking about what most people think of when they say, 'drugs' either. Ok, what then? Testosterone poisoning of course. My theory is, the moron in that car bought drinks for some whore for hours and figgured he was going to get some. Then when closing time came and she said some polite variant of, 'No,I let you buy me drinks, chump, and I do not go home with chumps', he kind of lost it. Poor guy.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
What do people do to cab drivers anyway?
I never thought of myself as innocent when I started driving cab. You see and experience it all eventually. The human capacity for being petty, self centered, dishonest, and generally disgusting never ceases to amaze me.
Example one:
I get a ride to pick up at a church out on Dempsey rd. It's a Sunday morning, about 6:00, and I'm supposed to go into the church. I get inside and there is this 40ish guy with a parson, it's sounding like this guys mother is dead. The parson gives me 5 bucks and tells me to take the guy to Methodist Hospital, he thanks the parson, and we go out and get in the cab.
The guy isn't very impressive. He's bigger than I am, but he's got a big gut on him. He's shabbily dressed. As soon as I pull out of the lot, he says, "Take me to the Tip Top, that's a $2.00 fare, he gave you a nickle, I want the change."
I told him I'd take him to the Tip Top but I wasn't giving him any money. He looks at me with a very serious look on his face and says he was in Vietnam, as if that's supposed, to make him some kind of scary guy. I immediately came back with, "82nd Airborne, Grenada. You planning on taking that change from me?" I was lying of course, my dad was 82nd, I never served. If he really was in Vietnam he probably knew better than to mess with paratroops. I really didn't want to go a round with this guy but there was no doubt in my mind who'd lose.
We got to the Tip Top and it wasn't open. If I was experienced, I would have kicked him out of the cab right there. Since I was green, I took him to the Shoe instead.
Example 2:
I'm working calls off the radio, it's around bar time on a Saturday night, and the dispatcher stuffs me a call at the Concourse Hotel going to Simpson st. I don't ever want to go to Simpson st. unless the ride is a charge to an account, and I REALLY don't want to go there at night.
Sure enough, it's a scruffy looking black woman. She gets in and tells me the address she's going to, then she says the magic words, "My sister is paying for me when we get there."
I'm not supposed to ask for payment up front, and I'm not supposed to ask to see money, because it's demeaning to the passenger. I didn't ask, she volunteered that information. If she doesn't have cash on her, I don't have to take her. So I tell her that I'm sorry but I can't take her if she doesn't have money on her. This turns ugly immediately, she's not going to get out of the cab, I have to take her, her ass is sitting on my seat and she's not going to get out of the cab until I take her to Simpson st. A number of people try this ploy, they are in the cab and they won't get out. I NEVER allow people get away with this ploy, no matter what it costs. It's much easier to remedy this problem before the ride than at the destination.
I ask for the cops, over the radio. Dispatch doesn't want to do it, but they call the cops for me. We all wait, 15 or 20 minutes, then the cops get there. I get out of the cab and explain to the officer what the deal is, so she asks the woman to get out and asks her what the deal is. I'd turned my back to her and the cop and was about to sit back down in the cab. She roared with great rage, "That honkey mother fucker won't take me because I'm black!!!!" Then she honked up a louie and spit on the middle of the back of my down vest.
The cop asked me what I wanted to do. Well, she got a freebie. I told the cop that I didn't care what she did with the woman, she was out of my cab and I wanted to go on my way. If it ever comes up again, I will pursue the max penalty, and because of the racial stuff, I'd insist it be pursued as a hate crime. We have that in this state. If I can't use the N word, she can't call me a honkey. I've found over the years that no matter what it costs at the moment, after the fact, pursuing it is always the right thing to do.
Example 3:
I'm picking a metro (city charge ride) at Oakwood that goes to the VA hospital. It's close to 9:30 am., and I have to have the cab in by 10:00. The woman I'm supposed to take is there, ready to go, but she has a friend with her who wants to go to a different destination. The radio is crazy, it's as busy as a morning rush hour ever gets. The retired Air Force major gets in the front seat and she's telling me she's certain that I must have her friend too, they're going to very close destinations. I can't get through to see if we have an add on code for the second woman. The major keeps slamming the door and opening the door. When she feels she has won she slams the door, when I say no she opens the door and says if her friend doesn't go she doesn't go. She's threatening to not take the ride, that's supposed to impress me.
I was too green to know how to handle this. I was about to generate my first insurance claim. This was to be one of the defining incidents in my early career. A retired Air Force major and a retired school teacher, who both have generous pensions, are bent on stealing from me, taking advantage of my innocence and inexperience.
Finally I say ok, I don't have time to argue anymore. If the friend ends up getting a free ride, I can't help it, I've got to go. I say ok, I'll take her.
The experienced cab driver in me knows what the major's next move would have been in this little chess game. If I'd said ok, don't take the ride, she would have refused to get out. What would happen today is, I'd get the police IMMEDIATELY. Get this woman out of the cab. I'd pay the penalty for returning the cab late, and I'd get both of them kicked off metro. No more cheapo rides for the rest of the year ladies. You NEVER give a second chance, you NEVER allow a passenger to win.
I look down at the slip I'm writing the teachers name on, so that I can get the code back at the office, destination, time, and source of ride too. The major opens and slams the door a couple more times, the last of which I took to be the door in the back seat slamming. I put the cab in gear and started to move the cab, the teacher howled, she wasn't properly seated and she was now on the pavement claiming that it was my fault, I'd made her fall. I helped her get up and got her into the cab and shut the door myself this time. Yes, she did indeed sue, and took the greenmail. Oh, yeah, she got the ride she was stealing too.
I was told later that she'd been scheduled on a bus an hour earlier and she'd missed it. The guy at metro chuckled when he said, "Seniors from hell."
Example one:
I get a ride to pick up at a church out on Dempsey rd. It's a Sunday morning, about 6:00, and I'm supposed to go into the church. I get inside and there is this 40ish guy with a parson, it's sounding like this guys mother is dead. The parson gives me 5 bucks and tells me to take the guy to Methodist Hospital, he thanks the parson, and we go out and get in the cab.
The guy isn't very impressive. He's bigger than I am, but he's got a big gut on him. He's shabbily dressed. As soon as I pull out of the lot, he says, "Take me to the Tip Top, that's a $2.00 fare, he gave you a nickle, I want the change."
I told him I'd take him to the Tip Top but I wasn't giving him any money. He looks at me with a very serious look on his face and says he was in Vietnam, as if that's supposed, to make him some kind of scary guy. I immediately came back with, "82nd Airborne, Grenada. You planning on taking that change from me?" I was lying of course, my dad was 82nd, I never served. If he really was in Vietnam he probably knew better than to mess with paratroops. I really didn't want to go a round with this guy but there was no doubt in my mind who'd lose.
We got to the Tip Top and it wasn't open. If I was experienced, I would have kicked him out of the cab right there. Since I was green, I took him to the Shoe instead.
Example 2:
I'm working calls off the radio, it's around bar time on a Saturday night, and the dispatcher stuffs me a call at the Concourse Hotel going to Simpson st. I don't ever want to go to Simpson st. unless the ride is a charge to an account, and I REALLY don't want to go there at night.
Sure enough, it's a scruffy looking black woman. She gets in and tells me the address she's going to, then she says the magic words, "My sister is paying for me when we get there."
I'm not supposed to ask for payment up front, and I'm not supposed to ask to see money, because it's demeaning to the passenger. I didn't ask, she volunteered that information. If she doesn't have cash on her, I don't have to take her. So I tell her that I'm sorry but I can't take her if she doesn't have money on her. This turns ugly immediately, she's not going to get out of the cab, I have to take her, her ass is sitting on my seat and she's not going to get out of the cab until I take her to Simpson st. A number of people try this ploy, they are in the cab and they won't get out. I NEVER allow people get away with this ploy, no matter what it costs. It's much easier to remedy this problem before the ride than at the destination.
I ask for the cops, over the radio. Dispatch doesn't want to do it, but they call the cops for me. We all wait, 15 or 20 minutes, then the cops get there. I get out of the cab and explain to the officer what the deal is, so she asks the woman to get out and asks her what the deal is. I'd turned my back to her and the cop and was about to sit back down in the cab. She roared with great rage, "That honkey mother fucker won't take me because I'm black!!!!" Then she honked up a louie and spit on the middle of the back of my down vest.
The cop asked me what I wanted to do. Well, she got a freebie. I told the cop that I didn't care what she did with the woman, she was out of my cab and I wanted to go on my way. If it ever comes up again, I will pursue the max penalty, and because of the racial stuff, I'd insist it be pursued as a hate crime. We have that in this state. If I can't use the N word, she can't call me a honkey. I've found over the years that no matter what it costs at the moment, after the fact, pursuing it is always the right thing to do.
Example 3:
I'm picking a metro (city charge ride) at Oakwood that goes to the VA hospital. It's close to 9:30 am., and I have to have the cab in by 10:00. The woman I'm supposed to take is there, ready to go, but she has a friend with her who wants to go to a different destination. The radio is crazy, it's as busy as a morning rush hour ever gets. The retired Air Force major gets in the front seat and she's telling me she's certain that I must have her friend too, they're going to very close destinations. I can't get through to see if we have an add on code for the second woman. The major keeps slamming the door and opening the door. When she feels she has won she slams the door, when I say no she opens the door and says if her friend doesn't go she doesn't go. She's threatening to not take the ride, that's supposed to impress me.
I was too green to know how to handle this. I was about to generate my first insurance claim. This was to be one of the defining incidents in my early career. A retired Air Force major and a retired school teacher, who both have generous pensions, are bent on stealing from me, taking advantage of my innocence and inexperience.
Finally I say ok, I don't have time to argue anymore. If the friend ends up getting a free ride, I can't help it, I've got to go. I say ok, I'll take her.
The experienced cab driver in me knows what the major's next move would have been in this little chess game. If I'd said ok, don't take the ride, she would have refused to get out. What would happen today is, I'd get the police IMMEDIATELY. Get this woman out of the cab. I'd pay the penalty for returning the cab late, and I'd get both of them kicked off metro. No more cheapo rides for the rest of the year ladies. You NEVER give a second chance, you NEVER allow a passenger to win.
I look down at the slip I'm writing the teachers name on, so that I can get the code back at the office, destination, time, and source of ride too. The major opens and slams the door a couple more times, the last of which I took to be the door in the back seat slamming. I put the cab in gear and started to move the cab, the teacher howled, she wasn't properly seated and she was now on the pavement claiming that it was my fault, I'd made her fall. I helped her get up and got her into the cab and shut the door myself this time. Yes, she did indeed sue, and took the greenmail. Oh, yeah, she got the ride she was stealing too.
I was told later that she'd been scheduled on a bus an hour earlier and she'd missed it. The guy at metro chuckled when he said, "Seniors from hell."
Saturday, December 13, 2008
I don't offer too many free rides
It was a New Years Eve, or day actually since it was around 2:00 am. I'd dropped a fare out around Williamsburg and Prairie, and was heading back down town. There was about 4" of fresh snow on the ground, and there were no tire tracks in the snow ahead of me.
I was on Raymond rd. which is a boulevard, and coming toward me was a car going the wrong way on my side of the road. What I normally do when facing a car coming toward me on a one way street is crowd the left side of the street. This has always worked well, the on coming car always gets the idea right away, and corrects, you're welcome who ever you are. Well, it didn't work this time.
The on coming car climbed over the curb and wasn't going to stop or hit the trees in the median, so I gave just enough room for it to get past. As it passed, it's outside mirror ticked my outside mirror. I couldn't believe it! So, I turned around at the next gap in the median and followed. The car turned south on Prairie, and I passed it and started slowing down in front of it. What was going on was obvious, the lady driving that car was pretty drunk. I cornered her in the first cul de sac she came to, which she turned into to avoid stopping.
I got out of the cab and went over to her window. I motioned her to roll the window down. When she rolled the window down a couple of inches, I said "You're drunk. You can't drive like this. I will give you a free ride home and you can get your car tomorrow. Give me your keys and let me drive you home, otherwise I will be forced to have you arrested for drunk driving."
She said she couldn't do that. I said she had to, otherwise she'd go to jail. She said she couldn't do it. This went back and forth for about 4 rounds, so I said, "Last chance, you will go to jail, you're sure you want to do that?"
Then I went over to the cab, keyed the mike and said I needed the cops for a drunk driver who sideswiped the cab. The cops got there pretty quick. She'd left a little rub of yellow paint on the underside of the mirror housing, which was all the cops needed to charge her with fleeing the scene of an accident, in addition to drunk driving.
My actions may seem kind of harsh, but I work out there. Some day a drunk driver may kill me. I did offer her a free ride home. It wasn't free for me either. In addition to sacrificing an hour of very prime time, I have an accident noted on my driving abstract that night. I'd do it again too.
I was on Raymond rd. which is a boulevard, and coming toward me was a car going the wrong way on my side of the road. What I normally do when facing a car coming toward me on a one way street is crowd the left side of the street. This has always worked well, the on coming car always gets the idea right away, and corrects, you're welcome who ever you are. Well, it didn't work this time.
The on coming car climbed over the curb and wasn't going to stop or hit the trees in the median, so I gave just enough room for it to get past. As it passed, it's outside mirror ticked my outside mirror. I couldn't believe it! So, I turned around at the next gap in the median and followed. The car turned south on Prairie, and I passed it and started slowing down in front of it. What was going on was obvious, the lady driving that car was pretty drunk. I cornered her in the first cul de sac she came to, which she turned into to avoid stopping.
I got out of the cab and went over to her window. I motioned her to roll the window down. When she rolled the window down a couple of inches, I said "You're drunk. You can't drive like this. I will give you a free ride home and you can get your car tomorrow. Give me your keys and let me drive you home, otherwise I will be forced to have you arrested for drunk driving."
She said she couldn't do that. I said she had to, otherwise she'd go to jail. She said she couldn't do it. This went back and forth for about 4 rounds, so I said, "Last chance, you will go to jail, you're sure you want to do that?"
Then I went over to the cab, keyed the mike and said I needed the cops for a drunk driver who sideswiped the cab. The cops got there pretty quick. She'd left a little rub of yellow paint on the underside of the mirror housing, which was all the cops needed to charge her with fleeing the scene of an accident, in addition to drunk driving.
My actions may seem kind of harsh, but I work out there. Some day a drunk driver may kill me. I did offer her a free ride home. It wasn't free for me either. In addition to sacrificing an hour of very prime time, I have an accident noted on my driving abstract that night. I'd do it again too.
My favorite horse thief
My all time favorite horse thief was Finnigan. Most drivers hated him, but I liked him, he was a funny guy. He mostly worked the airport, and he'd try to load up as heavy as possible every time he was there. Thing was, if you were on good terms with him, he'd share pretty even. Since most people didn't like him, he'd load up multiple fares right in front of them, and just ignore the screaming. Or he'd look inside, then pull around to the end of the line and let the other couple of cabs in the cab stand get the first no luggage people, then he'd load up as the only cab in the place. The almighty liked him too, he died of a heart attack, suddenly, a clean death.
I'd great him by saying, "How's my favorite horse thief today?"
With a wistful look on his face, and tone of voice he'd reply, "You know, they've been scarce lately." The best Finnigan memory of all was his description of picking up a dozen scientists at the physical science lab in Stoughton, and charging each one of them full meter fare, taking them to the airport. When he finished the story he said, "Them Canadians tip good too."
There are other horse thieves, of course.
Who is my favorite horse thief these days? It's close between Blondie and Charlie, they'd both rob you blind in a heartbeat, and I like both of them.
I'd great him by saying, "How's my favorite horse thief today?"
With a wistful look on his face, and tone of voice he'd reply, "You know, they've been scarce lately." The best Finnigan memory of all was his description of picking up a dozen scientists at the physical science lab in Stoughton, and charging each one of them full meter fare, taking them to the airport. When he finished the story he said, "Them Canadians tip good too."
There are other horse thieves, of course.
Who is my favorite horse thief these days? It's close between Blondie and Charlie, they'd both rob you blind in a heartbeat, and I like both of them.
Friday, December 12, 2008
El Dougaie's favorite R.C. story
A long time ago, perhaps 20 years ago, I was in the drivers room at the old old office doing my envelope, and El Dougaie asked me for the key. Oh, yeah, sure, but hey wait a minute, I got to get something out of the trunk. I always forget stuff in the trunk, to this day I do.
So we go out in the lot, start the engine, press the button that pops the trunk, and I reach in and pull out a dead grey squirrel. "Dinner", I said.
The Brick was standing a few feet away with his mouth hanging open. El Dougaie said, "Aw look, it's even got a nut in it's mouth."
I looked at the dead squirrel a little closer and said, "No, that's not a nut. That is a piece of a snickers bar."
I handed El Dougaie the key and tossed dinner on the seat of my pickup. Then The Brick came over and started telling me that I couldn't eat that squirrel, it could have who knows what diseases and parasites and cooties in general. I looked at him like he was teatched, there wasn't anything wrong with the squirrel, which I intended broiling, except it would be a little messy to dress out, it was even fall, right time of year. That squirrel wasn't even stiff when I picked it up, it was very fresh. So I told him he was out of his mind, and went back into the drivers room to finish my envelope.
This incident had tremendous impact on both of them. The Brick never let it go because I could die from doing stuff like this, and he had a PhD in some biology discipline so he knew all about those microbial cooties. El Dougaie always chuckles when he tells the story, and he still tells it. "No", he'll say, "that's not a nut, that's a piece of a snickers bar." heh heh heh
Which reminds me, when I get this cast off, I think I'm going to get the game warden to tag me a deer that has died of highway disease. Going deer hunting is way too much work, and a venison rib roast sounds pretty tasty. Free for the taking here, all you have to do is call the sheriff's office, get a list to look at, drive around and find one that isn't too tore up. Then you get it tagged, take it home and cut it up and wrap it. Bingo, full freezer and the dog loves it as much as I do.
So we go out in the lot, start the engine, press the button that pops the trunk, and I reach in and pull out a dead grey squirrel. "Dinner", I said.
The Brick was standing a few feet away with his mouth hanging open. El Dougaie said, "Aw look, it's even got a nut in it's mouth."
I looked at the dead squirrel a little closer and said, "No, that's not a nut. That is a piece of a snickers bar."
I handed El Dougaie the key and tossed dinner on the seat of my pickup. Then The Brick came over and started telling me that I couldn't eat that squirrel, it could have who knows what diseases and parasites and cooties in general. I looked at him like he was teatched, there wasn't anything wrong with the squirrel, which I intended broiling, except it would be a little messy to dress out, it was even fall, right time of year. That squirrel wasn't even stiff when I picked it up, it was very fresh. So I told him he was out of his mind, and went back into the drivers room to finish my envelope.
This incident had tremendous impact on both of them. The Brick never let it go because I could die from doing stuff like this, and he had a PhD in some biology discipline so he knew all about those microbial cooties. El Dougaie always chuckles when he tells the story, and he still tells it. "No", he'll say, "that's not a nut, that's a piece of a snickers bar." heh heh heh
Which reminds me, when I get this cast off, I think I'm going to get the game warden to tag me a deer that has died of highway disease. Going deer hunting is way too much work, and a venison rib roast sounds pretty tasty. Free for the taking here, all you have to do is call the sheriff's office, get a list to look at, drive around and find one that isn't too tore up. Then you get it tagged, take it home and cut it up and wrap it. Bingo, full freezer and the dog loves it as much as I do.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
I'm reading HACK
Nice kid. So far she kind of reminds me of a couple of drivers I've known from the past, and no not one of The Wood Brothers, nor Gwench, nor The Wombat, nor Wicked Wanda. Actually I think she most reminds me of Tiberious, Roy Boy's boy, and in an odd way Lucky Pierre now that I think of him.
This is not to say that she comes off as being excessively masculine. She isn't.
I used to tease Tiberious by saying to him, "Who the HELL, wants a good boy anyway?"
Tiberious would always reply, "My parents were blessed with one." Which was true, he was the ultimate good kid, good manners, good student, nice guy. He's a lot like his dad. Now what ever possessed Roy to let his son drive a cab at night? You can get killed or maimed, it's not something I'd recommend to a friend. Perhaps I'm overly sensitive, I only ever suggested to one friend that driving a cab was a cool job. My best friend got murdered by a passenger in April of '92, less than a year later. Tiberious, has a good job these days, and a nice family, in addition to being a good boy, he's been lucky in life.
I wonder what ever happened to Lucky. He used to come down to the office and sit around the dispatch office, any evening he wasn't working. Of all the drivers I've ever met who loved everything taxicab, Lucky loved it the most. If memory serves, he got washed out when he lost his driver's license. The way that happened was he got a speeding ticket which isn't that big a deal, then he got a silly ticket which I don't recall the specifics of, then finally he got a ticket on his moped for riding it on a lettered county highway, poof 90 day suspension. It was Lucky who told me that The Hog turned to him one night and said, "R. C.'s a real cream puffer." The highest praise of driving ability I've ever gotten.
The Wood Brothers were also called The Woods of the 90's. Husband and wife, I think they drove 191 & 192 five nights a week from 10:00 pm. to 6:00 am. when I started. I'm pretty sure he's dead, I don't recall what became of her. I wonder if she kept his glass eye as a keepsake.
The Wombat and Qwench will get their own posts.
This is not to say that she comes off as being excessively masculine. She isn't.
I used to tease Tiberious by saying to him, "Who the HELL, wants a good boy anyway?"
Tiberious would always reply, "My parents were blessed with one." Which was true, he was the ultimate good kid, good manners, good student, nice guy. He's a lot like his dad. Now what ever possessed Roy to let his son drive a cab at night? You can get killed or maimed, it's not something I'd recommend to a friend. Perhaps I'm overly sensitive, I only ever suggested to one friend that driving a cab was a cool job. My best friend got murdered by a passenger in April of '92, less than a year later. Tiberious, has a good job these days, and a nice family, in addition to being a good boy, he's been lucky in life.
I wonder what ever happened to Lucky. He used to come down to the office and sit around the dispatch office, any evening he wasn't working. Of all the drivers I've ever met who loved everything taxicab, Lucky loved it the most. If memory serves, he got washed out when he lost his driver's license. The way that happened was he got a speeding ticket which isn't that big a deal, then he got a silly ticket which I don't recall the specifics of, then finally he got a ticket on his moped for riding it on a lettered county highway, poof 90 day suspension. It was Lucky who told me that The Hog turned to him one night and said, "R. C.'s a real cream puffer." The highest praise of driving ability I've ever gotten.
The Wood Brothers were also called The Woods of the 90's. Husband and wife, I think they drove 191 & 192 five nights a week from 10:00 pm. to 6:00 am. when I started. I'm pretty sure he's dead, I don't recall what became of her. I wonder if she kept his glass eye as a keepsake.
The Wombat and Qwench will get their own posts.
Monday, December 8, 2008
a royal purple cast
saw the hand specialist today. he thinks i broke a couple wrist bones, but it won't show up in an xray for a couple of weeks, so i have to go back just before x-mas for reexamination. talked to the cab company's insurance adjuster, she's right on everything, woo hooo.
fast eddie took the knuckle heads (his dogs, gus & sam) and gromit to the dog park, and reminded me of "paper", while we chatted when he picked up gromit. one of the bad things about being a 20 year driver is losing friends. i think pat powers was the first one to go, he might have out lived jim englekey, but it was back in that period of time. powers was a day driver back when i started, he drove 162, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm, m - f, and did a little part time dispatching, averaged 1 shift a week, weekend evenings. one night he had a splitting head ache, went to the VA hospital, and was dead the next day. god must have liked him as much as we did. anyway......................... about paper
if you ran out of money at the drivers poker game, it was acceptable to write say, "fast eddie owes $20.00" on a piece of paper, toss it in the pot, and take out twenty bucks to continue playing with. since anybody who needs to do this is probably a deadbeat, paper was hard to collect on. powers was always willing buy paper for 50% of face value. then he'd wait for an opportunity to dispatch when somebody who owed him money was driving. if a good shift was worth $100.00, and driver x owed him $25.00, he'd make it clear to the driver that he'd make at least $125.00, but powers got the first $25.00 right away. then powers would stuff the guy calls for his entire dispatching shift.
the other thing i recall about powers was the concensous opinion that if you were going to get in a bar fight, and you could only take one friend along with, powers was the guy you wanted to be out drinking with. his watering hole was the psha, which was the perfered watering hole for all the ball players. i never got invited to play ball.
is the fix still in? the more it changes, the more it stays the same, they say. Sandy Van Scycle once wryly made the observation that, "every body is doing something all of the time."
this has caused me to recall knutson, and yard runs, and my $3 bike, but those are to be seperate posts
powers had a real deep voice, i will never forget the voice or the man.
fast eddie took the knuckle heads (his dogs, gus & sam) and gromit to the dog park, and reminded me of "paper", while we chatted when he picked up gromit. one of the bad things about being a 20 year driver is losing friends. i think pat powers was the first one to go, he might have out lived jim englekey, but it was back in that period of time. powers was a day driver back when i started, he drove 162, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm, m - f, and did a little part time dispatching, averaged 1 shift a week, weekend evenings. one night he had a splitting head ache, went to the VA hospital, and was dead the next day. god must have liked him as much as we did. anyway......................... about paper
if you ran out of money at the drivers poker game, it was acceptable to write say, "fast eddie owes $20.00" on a piece of paper, toss it in the pot, and take out twenty bucks to continue playing with. since anybody who needs to do this is probably a deadbeat, paper was hard to collect on. powers was always willing buy paper for 50% of face value. then he'd wait for an opportunity to dispatch when somebody who owed him money was driving. if a good shift was worth $100.00, and driver x owed him $25.00, he'd make it clear to the driver that he'd make at least $125.00, but powers got the first $25.00 right away. then powers would stuff the guy calls for his entire dispatching shift.
the other thing i recall about powers was the concensous opinion that if you were going to get in a bar fight, and you could only take one friend along with, powers was the guy you wanted to be out drinking with. his watering hole was the psha, which was the perfered watering hole for all the ball players. i never got invited to play ball.
is the fix still in? the more it changes, the more it stays the same, they say. Sandy Van Scycle once wryly made the observation that, "every body is doing something all of the time."
this has caused me to recall knutson, and yard runs, and my $3 bike, but those are to be seperate posts
powers had a real deep voice, i will never forget the voice or the man.
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