No really: I don't want to drive you to Thunder Valley for 50 dollars, when I could run several 10 to 20 dollar runs in the couple of hours it takes to get to you, get you up there, and get back into town.
And then the next day, when you tell me all about the almost twenty thousand dollars you won, and how you spent it, and how much you put in the bank, and how much you gave your buddies, and the chick who showed up and hung around after you won, and how now you want to go back up there because you are on a streak: Don't you think maybe I would like a big tip, and not another request for a discount?
I was washing my car one day off, wearing shorts and flip flops, and without any of my official cabbie paperwork or permits, when an old guy accosts me before I can put my quarters in the vacuum. He wants to know how much to Thunder Valley. I told him 70 dollars, and he jumped in the front seat, gave me 70 dollars, and told me to hurry up and get down the street. He looked both ways better than I ever did on a school day, and told me to hurry again. Then I saw the old woman running down the street yelling at my cab, even though I knew she couldn't see inside. Old man told me we had to get down the road before his wife could catch up.
Wow..........I didn't know how to feel about all that. I got up on the freeway at Reed Ave. and booked it to the casino. He was in a hurry there too; jumped out and disappeared.
So I had 70 bucks I wasn't expecting that day. I parked and went in, in sloppy car washing clothes. I needn't have worried about that. Some of those people actually looked homeless. And some were all dressed up too, but it looked like a "come as you are" party. I got on a quarter machine, and went through 20 dollars in no time. I thought 50 dollars on my day off was a good thing, and drove back home.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Lets get a cab!
Those 4 little words I love to hear, as I screech to a halt: "Lets get a cab!" They are why I keep my passenger side window open, as I drive along the far right lanes of every midtown street. And if I stop, they all get in. If I hear it, they are committed.
"Are there any liquor stores open around here?" No, but if we get to Safeway in the next few minutes, you can still buy it right up till 2am. "Why do liquor stores close before they have to?!" Because they don't want fights to break out with people who picked out their booze at 3 minutes till, and had to stand in line behind every one else, only to find it is 2:06, and the clerk is not going to sell it to them. So Safeway it is.
I just love desperate social drinkers: Drinks with dinner, drinks at the 2 or 3 different bars they had to cab to, one after the other, and now that the clubs are closing: Gotta get more booze for drinking at Jennifer's, or Brittney's, or Cody's. Then it gets even better going through the Del-Taco drive through. 28 bucks an hour.
Well, you know what I really like? Aw! Shuckins! I like when the above described young people get my card, call me over and over as the weeks and months go by. They party, they yell, they mate, and unmate, and lament the fates of other matings. They begin to chat about drinking too much, not getting to work on time the next day, how the best buddy shouldn't drink as much as he does, because he's such an asshole when he does. How the friend said something stupid, and lost his girlfriend, or the girlfriend drank so much she forgot who she came to the party with.
Time goes by, and I see the group(s) less and less. I wonder if they found another taxi they like better.... No: when they call, I find smaller groups, or couples. They talk about new jobs, new girlfriends, going to their friend's weddings, new engagements. Sometimes I get sent to pick up parents, or take them to family get togethers, rather than bars and parties.
I freakin love it.
"Are there any liquor stores open around here?" No, but if we get to Safeway in the next few minutes, you can still buy it right up till 2am. "Why do liquor stores close before they have to?!" Because they don't want fights to break out with people who picked out their booze at 3 minutes till, and had to stand in line behind every one else, only to find it is 2:06, and the clerk is not going to sell it to them. So Safeway it is.
I just love desperate social drinkers: Drinks with dinner, drinks at the 2 or 3 different bars they had to cab to, one after the other, and now that the clubs are closing: Gotta get more booze for drinking at Jennifer's, or Brittney's, or Cody's. Then it gets even better going through the Del-Taco drive through. 28 bucks an hour.
Well, you know what I really like? Aw! Shuckins! I like when the above described young people get my card, call me over and over as the weeks and months go by. They party, they yell, they mate, and unmate, and lament the fates of other matings. They begin to chat about drinking too much, not getting to work on time the next day, how the best buddy shouldn't drink as much as he does, because he's such an asshole when he does. How the friend said something stupid, and lost his girlfriend, or the girlfriend drank so much she forgot who she came to the party with.
Time goes by, and I see the group(s) less and less. I wonder if they found another taxi they like better.... No: when they call, I find smaller groups, or couples. They talk about new jobs, new girlfriends, going to their friend's weddings, new engagements. Sometimes I get sent to pick up parents, or take them to family get togethers, rather than bars and parties.
I freakin love it.
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