Poof! Instantly $1100.00 Vanishes Into The Thin Taxi Air!

There are too many viable reasons why owning a taxi is a bad idea but the primary one is about the overhead, the many costs related to operating a cab.  Now if I were 30 years younger I could do what I did in 1987---drive as many hours as I wanted minus feeling later like I needed to check into a hospital.  Taxi truly is a younger person's job because the usual 12 hour shift is akin to twelve rounds in the box ring---you are going to end up battered no matter good a fighter you might be.  And the solitary reason to work all those many hours is make the BIG money, no other motivation making sense.  It ain't to increase you mind, I can tell you that!

So while at age 64 I can swing my taxi with anyone, I get tired faster.  I, like so many other aging folks, see and feel the ravages times takes upon the body, which is where the $1100.00 comes in, that being what it cost (including a $100.00 tip) me Friday to have my mechanic Pham install a new rebuilt automatic transmission into my cab YC 1092.  Pre-Uber and Lyft, all I did was pay my weekend lease ranging over the years from $160.00 to $200.00, clear my $1000.00 and leave for the remaining five days.  Obviously now those wonderful days are long gone, usually now taking me four days to make what I did in two, with it all costing me more than ever before. 

Again, the only way to justify cab ownership is to jump into that taxi river for the entire day, breaking only for a decent meal, and as I now do most days, take a quick shower and sauna at the local YMCA.  You can still make bunches of money but as I said, the physical strain is too much to take, all those hours insulting to cranium, body and soul.

Who needs it?  Not me which is why on September 6th, "she-who-can't-be-named" and I are flying first to Iceland for the geothermal springs, then to Paris for the pastry.  We have talked about doing this trip for years and finally we are going.  When we first met, a song we enjoyed was Jonathan Richman's "Give Paris One More Chance!"  And we are about to.

Will I miss being in the cab?  Everyone who knows me knows the answer to that question, the answer easy as Paris Pie in the Sky!

Specious Uber

An Associated Press article today quoted this Uber executive saying that the real problem with self-driving cars are all those pesky, disobedient pedestrians, everyone requiring some kind of remedial training so they don't jaywalk and do all the stupid things us humans do.  What made his position disingenuous is not remembering that the sole reason Uber and other companies use to justify autonomous vehicles is the lack of skilled and PROPERLY TRAINED drivers.  So while teaching people how to safely walk across street, why not also teach them how to skillfully navigate their car down that same street, eliminating the need for robot cars?  Too logical for the corporate brain is what I say.

And reason he didn't mention this is because all these greedy companies want to make lots of money producing these amazing cars of the near automotive future.  Uber, Alphabet, Tesla and everyone else can smell all that "money, honey!" and you can bet on it, "Mister I Want-It-Forget-The-Poetic-Sonnet!"  Moola, Miss Beulah, is what the new slave master wants.  It is that simple!

PSD New System Update

Wednesday morning, me and at least 7 others are taking the train down to Portland, Oregon to review a system we might be using in our cabs.  Again, expect real news concerning everything next week.

Cheers for Pham

I got the cab there at 10:30 AM Friday and he had the new transmission installed and ready to go by 5:15 PM.  Amazing!  Thanks a whole lot!