Taxi Is A River & Updates & Current Taxi Hodgepodge

As I was telling two friends recently, one of whom drove taxi in Chicago eons ago, taxi is a constant river flowing 24 hours day and night, passengers and situations a non-stop universal conversation ending up in your backseat, saying "How are you?" and "This is where I am going. Please take me there."  This early Monday morning, after a slower than usual Sunday, a passenger from Georgia needed to go to airport at 1:30 AM all the way from the University Village Silver Cloud.  Last Monday morning, after enduring a slow Sunday evening, I suddenly found myself zipping a customer round-trip from West Seattle to the 24 Hour Queen Anne Bartells where he was picking up a pain prescription for a friend dying from cancer.  Directly after that, I got a 2:30 AM time-call to the airport, a now retired US Army vet who had done a total of 8 war-zone deployments.  "My body still hurts! was his lament.

Yes, taxi a human river flowing into your cab, never knowing who or what is coming next, the only guarantee a quick and intimate immersion into a stranger's life, your cab not a car but a lifeboat navigating the river, huge boulders and dangerously swift rapids impeding your way!  And once safely upon the shore, the passenger saying 'Thank you. Thanks for getting me here!"

DDS Update

At the moment, there isn't one as PSD awaits attorney review.  When I know anything new, I will post it immediately.

New York City Uber Limits

NYC is going forward with a one-year moratorium upon new ride-share license issuance.  Currently NYC has 100,000 ride-share operators.  The taxi number is 13,500.

Seattle has over 50,000 ride-share drivers.  We have just over 1000 cabs.

Next Weekend Blue Angel I-90 Closures

Remember that next Saturday and Sunday I-90 will be closed both east and west bound when the Blue Angels Navy Jet Acrobat Team will be flying over lake Washington.  Listen to KOMO Radio 1000 for all the details.

A Certain Demographic is Trying Kill Everyone at the Gas Station

We cabbies spend a lot of time at gas stations filling up the cab, especially if your proud automotive steed is a big, old Ford Crowne Victoria, like my YC 1092 is.  And the past few years I have been coming across a very disturbing behavior exhibited by mostly young African-American youth in their teens and early 20s who don't seem understand that you CAN NOT bring a lit cigarette anywhere near a gasoline pump.  How can anyone not know that volatile fumes emanating from a pump can and will explode into a lethal ball of flames?  Well, these dumbbell kids, already thoroughly alienated, don't seem to understand basic science, and totally resent being told that what they are doing is suicidal, not to say homicidal, potentially blowing all of us into smithereens.

 Last night at the N. 105th & Aurora Avenue N. Arco, none of the young fools wanted to listen or heed my warning, instead shouting I am racist, etc.  Yes, nutty and stupid and damn well irresponsible.

Do they care?  No, they don't care, ready to kill you, me, themselves at a smoky moment.  Welcome, to America, home of cultural illiteracy and behavior unacceptable to  everyone expect youthful thugs angry at the world and existence in general.  Fun stuff it ain't!

I Told Them, Only Once in Thirty Years....

Yes indeed that is what I said to the cops a block away from the 2 cars illegally parked in our posted Amtrak taxi zone, that only once have I seen the SPD ticket cars in our cab stands.  And further, I told them that the reason why was simple, we are not a priority.

And then I walked away.  Like the dumbbell kids, these cops didn't care for a moment anything about me and any other cabbie.  "Screw you!" was their attitude, and hey! I heard you, I really did.

And thank you not very much!