Is it true that you never know when you are crazy, that everything seems normal despite it truly isn't, denial and non-recognition your only response? I say this because both the City of Seattle and Seattle Yellow Cab appear to reaching a crisis, with chaos and anarchy the present reality but no one appears to understand that bedlam doesn't equate functionality or sanity. Now I don't mean that Seattle and Yellow Cab are operating collectively, which isn't true. From what I can observe, the City of Seattle cares little about what Yellow and the other cab associations do one way or the other. But decisions made by the City does affect us in ways large and small, though as I said, taxis are not part of municipal consideration, little more than chaff in the bureaucratic wind. A very small incident this week exemplifies this, when a honking of a honk set off a rage very much typical of Seattle---Seattle, a much smaller mind residing in a larger, urban body.
All I did was, after picking up a passenger at 1st & Pike, was proceed north until stopped short in the intersection when a panicked driver stopped on an angle in front of me, blocking me and all access forward. Why the sudden response? Because the driver found themselves in what is now a bus-only lane, and over-reacted, causing me to partially block the pedestrian crossing. Though providing at least four feet for crossing Pike at 3rd, it didn't stop this older gentleman from pushing on 1092's hood while glowering through the windshield, my instinctive response hitting the horn.
Anywhere else, this is where it would have ended but no, two days later he calls, identifies himself to Jeff the superintendent as a doctor, saying my honking startled him, causing him to further injure an already impacted leg. As I later discussed with Jan, my passenger at the time, and someone having taken my cab daily the past two weeks, what we saw was different from the report provided to Jeff. Irritated over this silliness, and tired of being victimized in the cab, we had a short, and for me embarrassing shouting match. As I told Jeff latter, I just can't take it anymore, it is complete madness! and come next March, if I am still in the cab, I will be selling my medallion. Enough is enough, isn't it?
i suggest you ask that driver friend & fellow writer of yours to read through your last nine years & select the Best of the Real, Taxi collection/book of your career, and say Marty suggested this be the ending entry, closing the book.
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