slow week

So, the weather is pretty nice and Congress is out of session, which means things are slow for Red Top this week. REALLY slow. I'll sit in my cab for forty minutes without a call. Considering that my average fare+tip comes out to around 12 or $13, and I need to pull in about $25 per hour to be having close to a decent day, you can see where getting about 12 or $13 in forty minutes is a serious problem. As of right now, I'm about breaking even for the week. That's better than losing money....but not nearly as good as making money.

In bad times, you've gotta make money on your own. So yesterday morning I (after waiting for a half hour) got a call in Pentagon City and picked her up. I had the windows open and was listening to NPR. She was a fairly oldish woman, late 60s or so, and immediately asked me to turn down the radio because "kids these days are going to burn out their ears!" (remember - it was NPR that I was blasting). Then she told me she was going to 901 New York Ave NW. As you can tell from this map, her address (point B) is very close to Mount Vernon Square (point A). I asked her, "Oh, that's right at Mount Vernon Square, right?" She snapped back that she didn't know if it was or not, and I said that Mount Vernon Square is right where Massachusetts and New York intersect, and she said that it wasn't there, it was many blocks down New York closer to Pennsylvania. Well, lucky for her, I already knew she was wrong, so I didn't bother arguing, and she and I then had a really nice conversation the rest of the way, despite her being really annoying to start. Turns out she's going to Norway on Wednesday and we set up my giving her a ride*. And then I dropped her off at 901 New York Ave NW, right next to Mount Vernon Square. Gotta make your own business!

* that's a ride to Dulles airport, not to Norway.