My day started with Micah. Mike-ah not Meek-ah. I arrived and she kissed her partner good bye. She was ready for school, preschool that is. She works as a preschool teacher. Micah said it was the best job she ever had. Good on you! Told me that a kid at the school has an Aussie parent. Apparently they get offended when they get called a kiwi. Understandable. I mean that’s the wrong country for starters. People are so rude to think Australia and New Zealand are the same because of our accents. I explained to her that we say fish and chips. The New Zealanders say Fush and Chups. Ha my phone tried to autocorrect chups, not chips, chups.
Next passenger was Anthony. Oh cancelled. Darn that would have been a 19 minute trip.
Next was Canaan as in Cane-en not Ka-naan. He was off to have a liquid lunch at the Coconut Grove. A pub on the other side of the railway tracks. No euphemism. It actually is on the other side of the railway tracks. This chap works in an old ironworks business. Been around since the late 1800s. It apparently originated in Tacoma all those years ago. We had a good ol’ chat about it.
Isaiah was the following passenger. I have had him like 3 times now. He was off to JBO to work when he said he might be moving south to study horticulture. I told him that’s pretty steady. I told him about California and how people pay big money for well established trees. Including when I lived in San Diego and worked on a large underground transmission line for 8 months as an archaeological monitor. I remember the safety meeting keep your hard on extra tight today a company is hauling palm trees out of the canyon. Should be about 60 of them. Really? Why? Oh a well established palm tree goes for about $10,000 a tree. There’s no easier way? No it’s in a Canyon and no road to get in and out. Righto. Sure enough these trees were precariously pulled up and over by the helicopter. Crickey crumbs. That seems like a lot of effort. I gave Isaiah some confidence in his career decision.
Sergey was my next customer. He was a Russian fellow. Going home from the dock. I became a glorified travel agent. Planning his next international trip. To of course, Australia. He wanted the reef, the tropical weather and the White Sandy beaches. I also gave him a business card to a Russian mechanic in Blaine who does repairs for pretty good deal. That mechanic said he’d give me a discount if years my name as a referral for his business. Sweet. Word of mouth. Uber is a great way to advertise anything. Sometimes you might have the person in your car for 10-20 minutes.
Jay. Now here’s an incredible man. At first I thought he was just a depressed man who needed a fix from the weed store. I mean understandable his girlfriend of 15 years cheated on him. Poor guy, but then he told me that he had a stroke about a year ago. He seemed totally normal to me. No signs of a stroke at all. After the stroke he was hospitalized, the medical staff said he may not walk again or use the right side of his body again. What they didn’t know about my passenger is that if someone says you cannot do something, he will do it. In his hospital bed he spent days thinking he will walk again and sure enough he did! Then he was able to use the right side of his body again. This man rewired his brain. Then he told me about the neurological work he’s had to do. Mainly to keep his brain active to help his brain develop and that no more strokes can occur. Last year the doctors attached a contraption to his head that reads his neural activity. By doing this the device is hooked up to a screen so Jay can see what is happening. Balloons appear on the screen and Jay pops the balloons, with his mind! Yes using brain activity. This year they upgraded the software. Now he flies planes with his brain. Every time he upgrades he gets a new plane in like a flight simulator type game. Just incredible. Imagine what we might be able to do in the future. I said to my passenger as I was dropping him off. I looked directly at him and said you need to write a book. He said he has written down a lot. Then sir write what you can and print it, get it published because you’re an inspiration.
The cats out of the bag. National dog day was glorified by a dog in my car, but not my dog, a passengers dog. Totally fine. The only thing most dogs leave behind is fur. Easily vacuum. The owner of the environmental company said he gets archaeologists in all the time. That’s awesome. Where? San Juan Islands. I’ve worked over there. I got his details and might contact him later.
Cindy was next. She is studying culinary art. Sounds deliciously appealing.
Driving around I got a ping from Justin and his mates. As I was driving them coming from Railroad Ave on Chestnut I almost hit the stupid barrier for the new cycle lane. My passengers all said that’s a hazard! Yep, so I rang the city of Bellingham and reported it. Hopefully they do something about it.
A lady from the City of Bellingham was next and she told me she has worked with my former boss. She also said I need to get on the MRSC list for the City of Bellingham as an archaeologist. Hmmm… Maybe I will.
Finally as I was going home I got a ping from Blaine. I received messages stating I need to hurry he needs to catch a flight from the airport. A Chinese man who lives in Vancouver and heading to the Bay Area. He got stuck at the border for a long time. He was born in Shanghai and said living in Vancouver is more cost effective for him than the Bay Area. Fair enough. Heard it was expensive in San Francisco. We chatted the whole way and he wished me luck and thanked me for getting him to the airport on time. No worries mate, it’s my job.
That’s it for this day.
