odd payment

I took a guy to National Airport yesterday evening. He was a little strange in the car - nothing too huge, but it seemed like he was breathing uncomfortably. Maybe he was afraid of flying or something? Well, the fare came out to $14.75 on the meter. Dude handed me a twenty, two fives, a one, and then counted out exactly 45 cents. $31.45 on $14.75! I mean, don't get me wrong, I was delighted - but what the hell was he thinking?

I also had the honor of being the last civilian a dude saw before he shipped off to Afghanistan. He was incredibly calm and collected; he said it was his third or fourth time going over. Nice guy, and great fare, we went up to Ellicott City in Maryland, which came out to $81 on the meter.

help reid out

Reid is feeling a little sad today. Help him out - he really has had some great adventures in Colombia, and he uses a lot more graphics in his, for those of you who prefer picture books.

cabbie>sandwich artist

I worked at Subway for three semesters in college, and if you ask any one of my friends who ever ate a sandwich that I made you'd know that I was awful. I'd get distracted because I was so happy to see a friend that I consistently chose the wrong bread, put on the wrong kinds or amounts of meats, and misapplied toppings. I gave such steep discounts on sandwiches that I didn't get too many complaints to my face, but I'm sure that I really annoyed some people.

Well, I'm a much better cab driver than I was a sandwich artist. I take buddies around all the time now, and I don't think I've screwed up once (except one time when I took Jimmy and Brink a little bit loopier of a way around some of the one-ways around Midtown, but that wasn't too bad). Some of that has to do with being paid per ride instead of my hourly sandwich rate. But I think most of the difference is that a meatball sub on parmesan oregano bread is essentially pretty close to a meatball sub on Italian herb and cheese bread, while a cab ride from Clarendon to Adams Morgan is a lot different than a ride from Clarendon to National Airport.

On another note, protests are really annoying. I was supposed to take a guy to GW Hospital this morning, but they closed down 23rd St, which really screwed up how we were gonna go. But then he said we could just go up near Dupont Circle, so we avoided all the hubbub. I have no idea how he decided that Dupont Circle was an acceptable alternative to the GW Hospital (it's a thirty-five minute walk away), but I don't get paid to question the man.

leesburg is far!

I took a young woman from her law firm in Georgetown yesterday out to friggin' Leesburg, VA! Then I took her back. If you'd like me to do the math for you, that's $167 on the meter, a sizable tip, and done in exactly 2 hours. I'm basically paid up for the rest of the week, so all the money I make now is gravy for Foxfield this weekend. Totally sweet.

This morning I took a woman from near the Nats Stadium to her work in Ballston. It's the second time I've gotten her in the past few weeks, and so we had a nice chat. Well, mostly nice, but really boring. She lives by herself, and was able to successfully change the subject to her cats three times during our ten minute trip.
1) I rolled down the window, and she asked if it was because of her perfume, which she has to wear a lot of because her cats piss all over her house.
2) I commented that it was such a nice day. She said she didn't like nice weather like we have today and we had last weekend because it reminds her of the day one of her cats died.
3) I told her that I had a good weekend because I saw a lot of her family. She said that her daughter won't visit because of all of her cats. Her son-in-law claims that he's allergic, but she KNOWS that he was living with her daughter's cat and dog, but that was just "when he was trying to get married."

verbal tip or no tip?

Can't decide what's worse - a verbal tip ("you're personable, I bet you get great tips" followed by "you can keep the nickel" on a 7.95 fare) or someone giving me a 5, a dime, and a quarter for a 5.35 fare. It's a really tough call, actually.

Had a nice little ride with Dunny again this morning. He was supposed to come in last night on a flight from Atlanta but had some sob story about getting hosed by Delta. Secretly, I was delighted that he came in this morning, because I was really tired last night.

quote from hannah

This is why I like my job, put succinctly by Hannah.

Hannah: your job is ideal... make a connection with a person, brighten his day, and then send him along, never to be seen again

I get to do that all day long. And if it doesn't work, I still don't have to see them ever again!

smoooooth morning

I crushed it this morning. Started off with a nice Dulles run with Dunny, where we had about as delightful a conversation as 4:30 am allows (if it's morning - we've had great conversations at 4:30 when we've been hammered, natch, but that's not really fair). Then, even with some rough no-shows and getting screwed over a little bit, I had a slam-bang efficient 5.5 hours.

On the way back from Dulles I picked up a very nice family around Arlington Hospital and took them to National. Minor boner by me - she asked if I could do change for a hundred, I looked through the cash that Dunny had given me (thanks Dunn!) and realized that I could. Then when we got there, she asked that it be $26 total, so I gave her $76 back. Turns out I'm bad at subtraction.

Then I went to pick up at a local elderly nursing home to take a passenger to the hospital. They took a while getting the passenger ready (fifteen minutes or so), which is unpleasant, but I feel good when I help out sick or injured patients. Not to mention that Red Top gets a lot of business out of moving patients from location to location, so it's well worth our time to wait for them. What sucks though is that they were wheeling the patient out to me when the nurse slapped his forehead because he needed - you guessed it - a wheelchair accessible vehicle. So I called our dispatcher to get a different vehicle down and had to take off.

Then my next call was at the Doubletree Hotel....but I've never actually picked anyone up from there successfully. There are always so many cabs there that by the time I make it, the people are always gone, and this morning was no different.

So, anyway, after dropping off Dunny, I had exactly one (underpaid) fare between 4:50 am and 6:45 am - and still made some good money by 10:30 when I stopped. Not bad! Now it's Friday, and I'm gonna nap and then hit it hard tonight, so give me a call if you're out and about and need a ride.