It's Hot! in Bakersfield---Highs of Over 100 and 99 degrees F.
It's been a warm few days in the Central Valley, though yesterday, on Friday, cooling down to 88 F. Yes, a slight difference from the Spring icebox that has been Seattle's April and May, more rain than usual drenching the typical Northwest middle Spring season, delaying the planting of all those tomato starts clogging up your garage.
I was last in Bakersfield and area in mid-December for my late sister's funeral, and then the weather mimicked Seattle's---rain and cold, and further up eastbound CA State Highway 58, snow. But since that winterly flourish, it has been dry, dry, dry in this part of California.
Yesterday, after my Probate Court appointment, I drove out to that area I discovered on my birthday last December, the Carrizo Plain National Monument, and wonderful again it was but parched and baked by the cruel sun. What amazed me was an isolation more stark than 2021's chilly December, this time encountering two solitary cars but how can one be lonely when nature in all its grandeur embraces mind, heart and soul? Give me desolation unless I can be in Paris. A haiku from yesterday:
Bird song greets me---no
longer December but May:
warm sun my new friend.
Once Again, Short Commentary Upon Current State Of Seattle Taxi Affairs
If today's remarks contain a theme, it is frustration repeatedly underlined, a frustration clearly expressed in recent comments made by fellow Seattle cabbie and regular reader, Hubbly Bubbly, someone quietly going mad by the indifference displayed by the City, County & Port; the remaining cab associations; and ultimately the majority of our fellow cab drivers, almost everyone involved locally now a kind of taxi somnambulist sleepwalking through the current taxi year, Hubbly Bubbly wondering out loud if anyone out there really cares? It's a good question, and what is the true answer minus cynicism?
Only a small percentage, and whatever percentage that may be of people connected in whatever manner to the cab industry, care what happens to the industry as a whole, meaning its owner/drivers and our customers. Why the majority don't care that working conditions are awful, or why our customers wait too long for their cabs; and worse, those taxis often never arriving, are questions beyond reasonable argument and commonsense. And the majority also truly don't seem to care that Hopelink service after 7:00 PM is unreliable to the point that patients sit in hospital lobbies long into the night, waits that often extend into the following morning, waiting for that never-to-arrive Hopelink driver.
I could say more but bottomline its clear, that if there were more genuine concern about the overall welfare of the industry, changes would occur but when few people care, this bad and only worsening scenario is what you get. And that is how it is.
PS 05/29/22 2:41 AM---William waits 3 hours, 40 minutes for a cab
Arriving back after my California sojourn, I decided to jump in the cab, and immediately I got a call close by. William had called at 7:30 PM, finally getting his cab, me, at 11:10 PM. I relate this only to once more point out the obvious, our taxi service is horrendous and what if anything will be done to change it? You know the answer.
Another PS 05/30/22 12:08 PM---Toya 2 hours late to her job
She had called at 8:00 PM last night to get to work by 10 PM. I finally got to her at 11:30 PM. I got her there at midnight. She asked for a time-call but dispatch failed to do that. And her fare was placed in the wrong zone. Did dispatch put out a message saying there was an ASAP call waiting, someone urgently waiting to get to work? No.
Food at San Francisco Airport, F Gates
Pie Five Pizza is good and the peanut butter cookies at Klein's Deli are worth a munch.
Reminder: Stacy Anderson Memorial
Sunday, June 5th, 2022, 1:00 PM at Hamlin Park, 16006 15th Ave NE., Shoreline, Washington.
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