Rough!

No complaints about the money this weekend but damn so many obstacles arose that I was nearly spitting blood.  First I just miss a call while loading my cab, getting "booked off."  I then take a call in Zone 295, a DUI passenger waiting at the South Precinct which cancelled as I pulled up.  I then get a Zone 290 time call that for some odd reason was given a 20 minute lead time.  I call the number and getting no response, get myself cancelled only to get the damn thing again, deciding I will just go check it out, and just lucky I didn't get shot by the owner of the house who was frightened out-of-his-mind someone was knocking on his door at 4:10 AM in the morning.  Clearly I was given a wrong address and possibly the wrong telephone number.  It was one of those kinds of addresses that would have matched in Ballard or West Seattle or View Ridge depending on the directional.  All this nonsense destroyed a full forty-five minutes, setting an unfortunate theme.  Having seen this before I dub it the "lingering full moon."

Frank, our later general manager, pleaded that I don't air our "dirty laundry" so in deference to him I will just say how-in-the-hell does an Alki-area address, the 2700-hundred block of 57th Avenue Southwest, be listed as 1702 Alki Avenue SW, calling it the "main Alki Beach?"  For those in the know this particular call taker placed the beach actually across from the water.  If this address existed it would be something like "1701" or some other odd numbered address.  When you don't know you just don't.  Welcome to taxi!

Sunday morning greeted me with a taxi that wouldn't start.  I'll skip the gory details but a hour nearly passed before I got a jump start.  Now faced with a noon start  I was saddled with a mountain of pressure to get it together instantaneously.  It was initially tough but by 4:20 PM dropping off at Sea-Tac for the third time in four hours I had averaged over fifty dollars a hour, those three good trips saving my rear!  Taxi is not, as I keep saying, for the faint-hearted!

My weekend ended with a Boeing Field call, sitting in the dark for a full 30 minutes as the air service dispatcher kept telling me contrary information.  Finally as I am giving up the passenger opens the door and off to the Sea-Tac hotel we went, an apt ending to a profitable but nutso! weekend.

Helpless

All I wanted to do was leave but early this morning I helped two drivers out, one who needed assistance getting his car out of an impossible parking jam, the other requiring a jump start.

It was the second guy, veteran of 14 days total driving a taxi, who knew nothing whatsoever about cab driving.  I was swearing under my breath "that this is criminal, criminal!" because he was completely helpless.  He didn't know how to open the hood, etc.  A thief will eat this guy alive.  Thank you City and County for putting the innocent in harm's way!

Demonstration is on!

Don't forget. the protest is on for noon Friday August 2nd at Noon.  We need everyone to be there!  Tomorrow I am going hiking in the desert, ready for honest rattlesnakes.  At least they have no hidden agendas, never misdirecting their venom.