Thursday, May 24, 2012

Hobnobbing WIth State Demos & More Cabbie Book Reading

How wonderful! as it appears I just published the title before composing the actual text.  Well why not, headlines telling it all reminding me of the many folks I see bending down reading the front page of the local daily from the disadvantage of the newspaper vending machine.  I always feel like interfering and buying them a paper but perhaps all they want to know is the outline of the news.  Which of course is different from what you get by reading my blog, getting up to date info on everything Seattle and King County taxi has to offer.   How boring, how exciting and how utterly frustrating it all is!

Yesterday afternoon I get a call informing that I needed to zoom down to Seattle and hobnob with the good elected officials that will be now repealing HB 1367, the L&I authorizing legislation and troublesome document that has caused so much anxiety for the industry.  By the way, the term hobnob or hobnobbing originally meant "to drink together" and first usage dates from 1763.  Yes I did have a couple of glasses of red wine and the cheeses were just terrific, reminding of the 1984 "cheese restaurant" meal I had in Paris 1984.  Talk about rich and creamy!  But beyond the finger food I met a few state senators and such.  My greatest impression was that I did not look like anyone else there.  Perhaps as I get more involved in all this political business I will have to trim my locks a trifle but shaving me from head to toe would not mask my true identity. And what could that be?  I'll let you guess!

Another development is that I have a meeting scheduled with the Labor & Industry folks for tomorrow afternoon.  The major impetus for this is that L&I have decided to go forward with previously threatened audits requesting more or less a half million from Seattle Yellow and nearly a quarter of a million from the small WAT or wheelchair taxis which had won the most recent RFP from the city/county, I believe a total of 15 taxis.   As I told a driver yesterday, government bureaucracy is like the mythological Hydra with nine heads each speaking for itself. I must proceed with caution because the last thing I want to appear is presumptuous.  I also need to avoid any hydra-like appearances because it is for the taxi body politic I speak and on some level represent.  My personal opinion is of little consequence.

And I just got a telephone call for a 3:30 PM meeting at the local Tacoma Vietnamese restaurant Vien Dong, which I highly recommend.  It is on the corner of South 38th & Yakima.  All this means is that I  have to stop and continue after the Teamsters gala.  I promise you a full reporting plus all the wonderful books I am reading and that you too should  have your nose stuck in!



  

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