Mad Max. An Australian classic film that projected Mel Gibson into the spotlight. The relevance to this blog? Well my first passenger who looked like Dana Carvey by the way, thought my car was the interceptor from Mad Max! Obviously it’s not! My car is a black Mitsubishi Galant. Not a Ford Falcon V8 GT model. The man owns a company called Lakeside Marina Company and really loves cars and bikes. We discussed Tesla at length and then we talked about a new electric trail bike than has come out. Onyx. You don’t need a license to drive it. They’re $4000, made in San Francisco, with a top speed of 60 mph and a battery range of 75 miles. The design is incredible. See below.
https://www.onyxmotorbikes.com/
Link to Onyx Motorbikes
I dropped him off at his meeting in the early evening. Next passenger was an occupational therapist who loves vegemite. She had been to Sydney a few years ago on a personal trip. Not many yanks like vegemite, but there are a select number that do. After dropping her off at her palatial home. I went to pick up a biology student. She wants to become a biologist in the future. Good luck. I believe in you.
Now my next ensemble a bloke and sheila. The bloke was gay and the sheila a lesbian. One was studying her masters in human sexuality. Her topic was actually quite fascinating. It was the Decolonization of the Queer Community. Now what does that mean? It basically means that you revert back to non industrialized world. Basically reverting to the indigenous ways. Living off the land and creating a society that is entirely green. She was keen to actually create a non profit organization that builds this community for people from the LGBTQ denomination. She wants to even create it on native land. I’m not sure how that would work, but it’s possible with the right backing. I gave her tips on how to start a non profit organization and how to approach different companies for backing. She loved my ideas and advice, she thanked me. Honestly why not? If people want to escape the “so called” norms of society and want to feel safe and not be judged, go create a utopia. People shouldn’t feel discriminated against in regular society, but they do. Honestly I don’t care what people do as long as it doesn’t interfere with my life religion, ideals, politics, sexuality if it doesn’t stuff me up, then I do care. Live and let live.
Now coronavirus. How irritating has this become for everyone? The passenger that followed the future entrepreneur was a student who was two weeks from finishing his teaching degree and it was shit canned due to shutdowns. He now has to wait another year to graduate. Poor bugger. “What are you going to do?” I asked. “Get drunk and live on unemployment until this is all over” he replied. I laughed and said cheers to that mate. Good luck and I hope you become a teacher soon.
A few days prior I picked the wife of a gay pornstar millionaire. She was cheating on him with a homeless construction worker that had a psycho girlfriend after him. Yeah, anyway I got them again in my car. They were looking for a Lyft to Wells. Fargo. She rang the husband so she could get money for her cocaine fix. Crikey crumbs! What are you both doing? I’m not going to say not to a fare, but bloody hell I’m just a driver! Ay yi yi 😒. I found out mid trip that I was going to an ATM so this friggin woman can get money for drugs. How uncomfortable! Eh I dumped off at the bank and found my way downtown.
Picked up a couple of Philippine students. They were getting ready to leave the country. The virus was starting to sweep the nation dramatically. Next was a student advisor who nicknamed himself “The Wolf” apparently a Pulp Fiction reference. I’m not sure why? I sensed an unethical party happening. He was going to a party with a couple of his students he advises. Seemed unethical to me. Don’t mix business with pleasure is what I always say.
The following passenger in my car went on a rant about Starbucks and how unethical they are. Honestly I didn’t care, because most corporations are unethical in some way shape or form. Then there was an art historian. An engineer. A soccer player. A bloke who cares for lumber, think his name was jack. I don’t know!
Ah who can forget this next passenger though? He wanted to go to Antarctica. His dreams of penguins and icebergs were extremely apparent when he just went on about the southern most continent. It could be interesting. I have met several archaeologists who have been to the frozen land. One professor, I recall from my university days, who said “there were no women at all”. After his sixth month there he took a liking to Womens Day magazines. Gross mate. I didn’t want to know that. Another archaeologist is on the hunt for the oldest human remains in the region. It’s a cultural war between Argentina and Chile. A fight to find the earliest remains and do DNA testing on them. It’s a land claim issue. Whoever can find native remnants associated with their country, gets to claim the land. Apparently. Not sure how that works with the Antarctic treaty, but in 2048 I believe that can get reviewed.
My next passenger was a geologist obsessed with the Gold Coast in Australia. He really loved the beaches, the water and the clubs. Party central. He wondered about how Australia had healed after the fires. I said I’ll take a long time to recover.
After dropping him off I picked an oncologist who believes in public health. Yes she gets paid well, but the patients she gets cannot afford their medical expenses. It surprises me when I get passengers in the insurance and even the medical industry in favour of public funded healthcare. Insurance companies are profiting massively from the sick and wounded. For instance if you as a health insurance payer has a $1500.00 deductible and your doctors visit is $757.00. You are out of pocket for that $757.00 on top of all the bills you have paid for your insurance. How is that worth it? The only time it might be worth it is if you have been paying for health insurance and you get really get sick. Then if you’re that sick, you’re no longer working. It’s a catch 22. Fact is, private health is a waste of money. Unless your employer pays for it and your deductible is low.
The funniest thing about a pandemic is you find out about weird crap. Including Costco’s daily profits. Since the pandemic people were obviously panic buying. Toilet paper being the number one product of choice. According to my next passenger he said that in one day Costco made $1 million. Now that’s one store in Bellingham. Imagine the rest of the country! Yikes! Do the employees see any of that? No! Some companies gave their employees a $2 an hour pay increase. Calling it hazard pay. Still doesn’t seem much. I even applied for a grocery store job and it was declined because I didn’t have an updated social security card number. Yep I forgot to get a new one through immigration. Even though it’s the same number. The only thing that changed on it was the Department of Homeland Security conditions associated with my number. It’s BS. The National Guard will hire me because I have a green card and that I am under the age of 35. Yes I went on a job seeking frenzy. Applying for anything and everything because I knew uber and Lyft may not be a viable option.
Whilst driving around at 2 am I spied two abortion protesters at Planned Parenthood. Wow why do you care? There’s a pandemic on and you’re just being dumb! The government’s stay home order hadn’t been put in place at this stage. Yet these idiots were out there trying to pmbe prolife. Meanwhile they could potentially die from an invisible assassin. In my car I started to accommodate my passengers with hand sanitizer. Well they were alcohol wipes, but hey not a bad way to help people out. My final passengers for the evening consisted of a woman whose dad used to work in the CIA. A gay drunk that prided himself on espionage and getting the baddies. A lady who was interested in cruises and a marine biologist heading to Alaska. It was a big night, but it was my second last whopper before the shut down.
16 rides Lyft and 12 Trips Uber. More to come soon.
