Progress Is A Journey

I missed the TaxiPac sponsored mayoral debate this past Saturday afternoon and I was disappointed, by all reports, that the turnout was smaller than expected.  My question to all of my fellow local cabbies is basic.  Don't you understand that nothing will change for us unless you take a long-term interest and become actively involved?  What impression do you think was made upon the current or potential future mayor?  These kinds of opportunities are few and far between and should be taken when offered.  Complaints become empty when not backed up by constructive action and dialogue.  If I  hadn't been working on Saturday I would have been there because I understand the value of personal involvement.  Please, if possible do show up for Thursday's City Council hearing regarding potential decisions concerning Lyft and the for-hires and possible taxi license expansion.  I will be there.  And once I get more detail about Saturday's debate I will include that and a report concerning the City Council hearing on a posting sometime Friday.  Look for that late Friday evening, as I will try to get to it before my 8:00 PM bedtime.  I must get some rest before the usual taxi onslaught.


$25.00 for a $8.00 Fare?

Post-Seahawk game a woman jumps out of a for-hire car into my taxi at about 2nd South and South Washington.  Why?  The driver was trying to charge her a $25.00 flat rate to the corner of Bellevue Ave East and East John Street on Capital Hill.  My meter was $8.00.  I told her who to contact.  This is what the City/County has released upon the streets.  What else did they expect?  Watch out for the gypsy cab monsters.  We are just a mere 40 days or so away from Halloween.  By then all of the Lyft etc drivers will have grown fangs!

Drunk Seahawk Fans

Finally getting a spare moment, I stop at the Queen Anne Metropolitan Market to have a quick chomp.  Concentrating on my potatoes a very drunk couple gets in my cab, asking to go down the street.  Just prior to them I had just accepted a fare on the computer.  Not accepting or understanding I couldn't take them to pick up their Mexican food they became very belligerent, the woman coming within an inch of striking me.  The smart cabbie always keeps the doors locked because you never know when trouble comes knocking!  I wonder what they would have been like had their team not been victorious?  It is scary to think of all of the possibilities!

Who Can See?

Sunday morning intense rainfall obscured the roadway as I made my way to Sea-Tac, visibility at best an eighth of a mile, the highway surface a white blur.  Why was every one passing me?  Welcome to taxi and the many hazardous miles.  This weekend I drove the equivalent to Corning, California and beyond.  Boy! am I ready for the Olive Pit, home of a million samples!  And after that, I would drop by the Farm Sanctuary and visit all of the lucky animals.  And if I could remember the name of another nearby town I would tell you I would like to live there and sit by the local river watching all my worries float downstream. I am ready!

Taxi Post-Script:

Name of that town: Colusa,

and the river? the Sacramento.