Lives: 4 Taxi Passengers & Uber Wins In California & Yellow Customer Files Complaint Against PSD & A Very Short History Of Voting In America: Never Take Your Right For Granted & 50 Masks

Judy, Connie, Unknown (never got his name) and Mary Jane

Think your life is bad, hardships overwhelming, nothing going your way except down?  My suggestion is, think again, consider the good and potential opportunities awaiting you, and if not there, try to create them.  I say this after once again being reminded, after providing rides to Judy, Connie, the unnamed gentleman, and Mary Jane, that I have much to be thankful and appreciative for.  Judy's life in very real terms is an unending hell, caught in circumstances never to be released.  But my real purpose is to display part of our usual ridership, who they are beyond merely needing a ride from point A to B.  Life is a "bed of roses?"  Hardly, is the stark reality and answer.

Judy

Judy, short, squat, blind from brith, dirt-poor, needed to go the bank and then the "phone store" to pay her bill.  Though in her late 40s, her life clearly delineated by deformity and hardship, shaping an existence that is little better than a concentric box where living is only a path to dying and little else.  Helping her with her bank transactions, she had me read her bank balance to her after withdrawing $61.00: $450. was the answer.  Yes, that was it, $450.00 to last an entire month.  Had her rent already been deducted?  I don't know but I dropped her off at the store, not wanting her to pay any additional "wait time."  I told the middle-class youngster behind the counter, "You'll have to call her a cab." a request clearly startling a complainant mind.

Connie

She's a taxi regular, going to and from a nursing home where, for 36 years, she has toiled in the kitchen, currently washing dishes. Previously, she was prepping.  Making matters worse, due to staffing shortages, they are having her come in twice daily, disrupting her sleep yet eliminating some paid hours.  "I find myself unable to fall asleep, still awake at 2:00 AM." 

No name but remembered

I only had his caregivers name, picking up at an University District clinic and taking them back to a care facility.  Stunted from birth, his body spider-like, long arms and legs extended from an attenuated, shortened body, required assistance in and out of his wheelchair.  Yet given his lifelong disabilities, an educated ambiance prevailed, displaying an unusual empathy, providing the cabbie with a four dollar tip, a gesture spotlighting just how the human spirit often overcomes personal adversity.  

Mary Jane

Picking her up at an Aurora North/Highway 99 motel, I will forever see walking toward my cab, an obvious presence despite dire circumstances.  Going a mere five blocks, she gave me a ten for the effort, with me responding I noted she was savvy, intelligent.  Responding, she said life's dynamics both good and bad placing her where she was, acknowledging her part in stressful arrangements.   She could have also said life is often neither fair or kind, each individual, you, me, everyone impacted in ways not seen or imagined. 

Prop 22

By at least a 58% margin, California voteed to embrace Uber's efforts to keep their drivers as indentured servants.  Not good, not wise, all those good liberal voters in Halloween disguise.  But my sister JoAnn did vote against it. Hurrah!

Metro Script

Taxi customer Noelle is outraged that Puget Sound Dispatch is now charging us cabbies a 5% processing fee for Metro Transit Taxi Script, saying she filed a complaint with Metro.  "They can't do that!" she fumed.  I don't know either way what is true but I have wondered about it, charging us for something that has always been referred to as "equal to money."  My real reaction is amusement, novel that a passenger would come to our defense.  Usually of course it is the exact opposite, the customer saying we did this and that to them, instantly guilty minus judge and jury.  Ultimately it's small change but it would be nice to know whether PSD can continue taking the driver's coffee money. 

You should treasure your ability to vote: A Short History

I know three people who don't vote.  Tom has lived in Russia and other authoritarian countries and certainly should know better, being Gay and knowing we have a vice-president in Pence who believes in "conversion therapy."  Tom also has a PHD in Anthropology from a big time East Coast university so, to me, he has no excuse being dumb when he certainly isn't. 

Mark, with his BA in Spanish and having lived and studied in governmentally corrupt Mexico should also know better, but Mark embraces conspiracy theories, saying everything is covertly controlled by "all those others."  Yes, Mark, we all understand, take a pill and don't feel better in the morning.  

Patricia is not registered to vote because she is trying to avoid jury duty, not wanting to take part in judging others.  I can understand that, jury requests similar to the US Selective Service drafting you into the army, feeling they own your body and can make you do anything they want.  The reason I registered and voted in New Mexico was due to King County's belligerent request to force me to accept jury duty, threatening me with fines and imprisonment.  Now I am not an official Seattle resident, and it's true, I don't want to be here. 

US Voting History

In 1789, only 6% of the population, white tax paying or property owning males could vote.  No one else.

In 1790, the Naturalization Act allowing all white males to vote.

Between the years of 1792 to 1838, Free Black Males in many Northern States have their voting rights taken away.

1792-1856, abolition of property owning requirements for white male voters.

In 1860, tax paying requirements remain in 5 states.

1870 15th Amendment passes, granting voting rights to black males.

In 1920, the 19th Amendment gives women the right to vote.

In 1924, all Native Americans are given their voting rights.

In 1943, Chinese-Americans are allowed to vote.

And a happy day in 1961, residents in WA DC are granted voting rights.

And you can't vote because it doesn't matter, doesn't count for nothing, etc. That's crazy baby!

Fifty masks

I keep supplying masks to my passengers, 50 and counting.  Over 1000 Americans are dying daily. Wear that mask!