Taxi Potpourri

 Mem Shannon---"A Cab Driver's Blues"

Mem Shannon was a cab driver in New Orleans, who also played the guitar, and back in 1995, he put out a record/CD.   It is great.  Interspersed between the songs are conversations Shannon recorded of passengers in his cab.  Anyone who has driven cab can identify with what is going on in his cab.  Track 9, "The Miserable Bastard," is my favorite, Shannon recording this asshole of a lawyer in the backseat.  God! the crap people say to cabbies.  It is ridiculous!  Gert Town/Rykodisc Records.  Every cabbie should listen to this even if you are not a fan of the blues. 

"I'm a taxicab driver and I have problems...." he sings.  "There has to be a better way, if my luck ever changes I'm gonna quit this cab business some day."   "Boy! Boy! Boy! what a life!"

He is now out of the cab and touring and making records.  Good for him.  I just heard the conversation again with that lawyer.  Painful!  Yeah, he's a complete bastard.  I've had too many like him in my cab, insulting, revolting people, oblivious to the crap spewing out of their mouths.  

Fucked Uber!

A cabbie friend sent me an U-Tube video about 7 cabbies who put their smart phones on a table and watched how they were being offered different rates for the same fares.  What was, and is happening, is that Uber is controlling the algorithms governing its app.  Uber is obviously discriminatory.  I noticed it when I worked the few Uber months I did.  Some of my friends are making great money driving TNC, others not.  "What is going on, they ask?"  As I will always say, Uber is immoral. 

Crazy Seattle Traffic

I don't miss it.  And to think I once averaged 5000 miles a month on those congested, hilly streets. KIRO News reports that Seattle has the second worst congestion and the third worst traffic among 49 measured major Metro areas.  Los Angeles ranks first.  About six months ago some fool Seattle Times columnist wrote that traffic hadn't reach pre-pandemic levels.  Of course I knew he wasn't driving in it for a living everyday.  Most of Seattle-generated opinion ain't worth shit!  And you can quote me.

Bullshit Bus Lane Violation Misreported 

Changing my car insurance here in NM, I was shocked to find a moving violation from April 11, 2022 listed on my driving record from Progressive, of course raising my rates up.  I could not figure it out until I called the reporting agency and discovered some fool in Seattle miscoded the violation, with it showing up as a moving traffic violation.  My WA State MVR is clear.   I called the City of Seattle to complain and got some idiot who knew nothing and who hung up on me.   Nothing new when it comes to incompetent Seattle.  Dysfunction City is what it is.  I will be getting it removed but it is taking some effort.  SCREW SEATTLE!