Another "What It Means To Be A Taxi Driver:" This Only Happens Beneath The Top-Light

What would you do if a half-naked, very frantic man approaches your cab seeking help, someone everyone is avoiding "like the plague?"  Maybe like me, you make a quick assessment, judging that, instead of the guy just being "ordinarily crazy," something serious and dramatic occurred, assistance and intervention logical and necessary.  Pleading "Help me! Help me!" even got this jaded cabbie's attention.  Saying he needed to get home to Everett and having the fare, I said "get in" and off we started north.

This is his story:  Having left the Mariners' baseball game, heading toward his car, suddenly two hours later his life a total mystery, awakening prone on the ground in a tunnel behind the train station minus half his clothing, keys and telephone gone but somehow retaining his wallet and cash, clueless as to what had happened.  Once again standing, he rushed panicked out of the tunnel, seeking help from an unresponsive public.  Coming upon me, I guess he got lucky, me of course having seen almost everything possible already in the insane asylum cab, so the young Vietnamese man originally from New Orleans was not a complete surprise, someone instead to properly assess and make accurate judgment upon.

Having proceeded only four blocks northbound on 4th Avenue, we called his "worried-out-of-her-mind" girlfriend, agreeing to meet her back at the train station as she made her way down from Lynnwood, the aggrieved gentleman in question just happy to be warm and dry in the cab, but first, grabbing my flashlight, we reentered the tunnel looking for his belongings.  All this took about 45 minutes, the girlfriend pulling up behind me, my passenger hugging me goodbye, saying "keep the $60.00" he had given me for the ride up north, and reaching my window, the appreciative girlfriend handing me an additional five dollars.  How this all occurred will remain unresolved but hey, it has been at least recorded here, unimportant yet important history in this United States of Uncertain and Sometimes Mysterious America.

Yes, the dumbbells always ask me

Yes, they do, asking "why aren't I driving Uber?"

and finally I have come up with the correct answer, because usually I don't respond at all to such inanity.

I now say, "Imagine asking a soldier in the American Army why he/she isn't a mercenary instead?"  One problem I have is that many have no idea what I am referencing, cultural illiteracy my worst enemy.

Do I give up?  Yes, I do.

How long will it take before PSD (Seattle Yellow Cab)

realizes that the Manila-based dispatch callcenter is a very bad idea?  How many "lost calls" will it take?  "Taxi gods!" help us all, is all I can say.  "This is crazy, man, just crazy!" or something like that.  Shall we all laugh or cry or just simply die! Haha boohoohoo!