Coronavirus or COVID-19. The pandemic that has swept the world with massive consequences. Including some of the following passengers. A bloke who works on vehicles, a body work specialist was told to stay at home, because his job wasn’t considered “essential”. I wondered where I stood and what was considered “essential”? I had to look it up after I dropped my passenger off. Apparently ride sharing and food delivery in a pandemic is essential. Well that’s good, I didn’t want to go on unemployment because it may jeopardise my green card that I had just received in January and it might take a long time to receive anything. Uber had even started talking to the Government at the time about getting loans and sick pay for effected workers. A first for any of the gig economy powerhouses.
Ping! Oh look another customer. Oh never mind they canceled. Then I got a bloke who works in the water silo industry. He told me they manufacture them on mass for farms and off the grid people. “Oh you mean rain tanks?” I said. “Yes you can call them that too” he replied. Talk about technicalities. Water silos are common in rural areas and are becoming big additions in Australia again. Especially in the cities. In the early 20th century, Sydney had hundreds of rain tanks and thousands of mosquitoes. Warragamba Dam was constructed and rain tanks in the city became illegal, until the droughts in Sydney became too severe due to climate change and population growth. Now the 21st century has seen an increase in sealed water tanks throughout the city. Most buildings have water collection capabilities located on the rooftops. Yes gutters and down pipes. All you need to do is hook up a tank to the down pipe and you’re set. See below:
https://www.yourhome.gov.au/water/rainwater
Government Rain Water Tank Ideas
My passenger told me about his Cousin who was in the national guard and how they will be deployed the following week! Here I thought of Nazi Germany and tanks in the street taking away people’s liberties. It wasn’t like that at all. It was literally just to help out the state government get supplies and contain riots in a stay at home order situation. I applied for the guard after hearing about it. I even did an aptitude test and got 87/99. Then my recruiter wanted more information from the past 10 years of my life. Honestly I could be stuffed tracking all that information down. I could have been an officer because I scored so high. Yet, I would be their slave for six years. The benefits sounded great, but it honestly was a last resort if I couldn’t get any money or work at all. I had interviewed for an independent food delivery company known as Viking a week before and got hired. I had not worked for them yet, but heard the tips were better than Uber. Anyway that’ll be a new blog post coming soon.
The next rider was a nurse. Yes a person on the frontline! She has been directly exposed to covid 19. Oh boy. I need a new job! She went on to tell me her roommate was in quarantine for having the disease. My passenger was in the rear passenger seat. The windows were open, yet I felt exposed. She didn’t have any direct contact to her roommate since she had fallen ill, but it the spread was so unknown it made me feel paranoid. The nurse was one of the few passengers that wore a mask and gloves. Possibly protecting me and herself. After dropping her off I couldn’t help but clean the high touch surfaces with alcohol wipes. Nerve racking.
I had a marriage counselor next. She loves her job and her husband was a retired doctor that came out of retirement to help the sick in the pandemic. Hospitals and medical facilities were becoming overwhelmed in all parts of the country. Paranoia and panic had started to sweep the country. Panic buying of various essentials increased. Stay at home orders were being put in place and this legend felt compelled to come out and help where he was needed. What a legend!
A quiet Chinese bloke was next. He didn’t seem very talkative at all. Not sure why? I was keen to talk about the current crisis. Lucky it was only a short trip. The more I drove that day the more at risk I felt.
Afterwards, I had an adopted Russian fellow. Who moved to America when he was a child. He grew up to sell weed in Bellingham.
Next was a Canadian who became stranded at Airbnb in Bellingham. She was meant to go to Vancouver to start a teaching job. Then they shut the border to only essential workers. She had come up from Colombia to teach Spanish in the USA and then Canada. Now she was stuck until further notice. How awful! I felt helpless for the lady, but she said she will be doing online classes. Well that’s better than nothing.
Finally I had the water silo bloke again, with his girlfriend and then two uber eats orders.
Six rides Lyft. Two Uber Eats trips. Next up Viking Foods Week 1.
