Lyft was the first app to get me a passenger. On the way to B’ham I had to go to Ferndale to pick up two sheilas. One was celebrating their birthday and I said my birthday is on Saturday. Her and her friend were going to the Silver Reef Casino to take advantage of a free meal. Apparently it’s a birthday month thing. We chatted about gambling and how fun it can be. I eventually said the house always wins. The lady had new fake nails on and was struggling to open one of the lollies in my center cup holders. A Nerds packet. She blamed her friend in the back for encouraging to get her nails done in this way. I laughed. She exclaimed to her friend in the back, “Applebee’s $1 drinks all month”. “That’s bloody cheap”. I interjected. As I pulled up to the casino the birthday girl proceeded to tell me a joke. “What did the horse say when it fell over?” “I don’t know” was my response. She replied with “I can’t giddy up!” I laughed and laughed even more to notice she had no teeth. “Happy Birthday!” “Thank you”.
I thought about how last year I had my birthday off as a so called nice gesture of my former employer. Around then I was doing four 10s anyway. I think I had 6 hrs paid to me and not the full 8. Call me ungrateful, but in Australia if you’re a permanent employee you get 4 weeks annual leave not just one day. There’s a lot shady crap that is attached to working here, which I think is wrong. I guess I’m more of a socialist than a capitalist. Yes I like earning my money, but I don’t particularly want to kill myself on the job, which is what I have done in the past, but I refuse to do that again. If that limits my job prospects then so be it, I’m getting too old to care. I love working, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not in my 20s anymore. Last year and part of this year I tried my hardest and still got the sack. My last project I thought I did my best, then I still managed to miss key points in the final report, which I have obviously learned from. I even did unpaid off the clock work to try and do a better job, but I didn’t. The budget requirements were extremely unrealistic. I know this because something I could have fixed ended up taking another employee several months to finish. Even if the report had to be rewritten I could have accomplished that in a couple of weeks. Pretty sure that ended up costing the company more money than me fixing it, but whatever. Sacking someone can cost you a lot more than retaining an employee in the long run, heck I wasn’t even at that company for a full year. The first 6 months I received barely any criticism. It was only until March, eight months of working there that I started to receive angry emails. The approach wasn’t the best and the moment I advised my former boss about the unreasonable budgeting requirements, a week later I was sent packing. “Every one in your position has failed”. I’ll remember these words to my death bed. It wasn’t entirely me, it was trimming the fat. I was the most expensive with the most experience and I was given the flick. Now I’m a ride/share driver. Is it archaeology purgatory? I often encounter people that have something to do with archaeology. Including my next passenger.
Ping an uber rider. It’s a scheduled trip. I drive up along side the kerb. I rather large man opens the door. I ask him if he’s after an uber? “Yes”. “Where are you heading?” “Lab”. Short responses ay? “What are you studying?” “Grad school in anthropology”. Oh boy I thought good luck mate you’re in for a bumpy ride in this area. His masters is on the use of projectile points being used in defensive positions. Sounds interesting. Actually kinda cool. I told him I was an archaeologist. I could have given him tips about what to add to his thesis, but it sounded like he was pretty far along. Residue analysis on the projectile points would be intriguing. He did mention the ethnographic component, which is extremely important when dealing with that. I was curious how he was going to prove that these points were being used in a defensive position. Are the points facing a certain way? Maybe they were shooting at a horde of ducks flying over head? Were they seasonal?
Then I thought of my own question. Do stones break differently when being knapped in the winter or the summer? I believe the answer is yes they do. Frost shatter can happen to stones with a certain amount of silica embedded within the stone. Water can seep into the stone and freeze. If the ice melts the structural integrity of the stone can make it become more brittle. It’s the same with heat shatter. If a stone is cooked in a fire it can shatter. I’m wondering if there is a chemical analysis that can be done to see if their is a residue left behind or a chemical compound on or within the stone that appears when it’s been knapped in the winter or the summer. There’s a masters thesis for someone. I know heat shatter has been done, but no one really bombarded the debris with a PXRF machine afterwards. Median regional temperatures would also need to be observed from different time periods.
I dropped my rider off and he gave me a $5 tip. I said to say g’day to a couple of people up at the Department. Only because I used to work with them. They’re going through the same classes as you most likely. My next customers were two bar people, who for some reason gave me the feeling they were above me. They were simply bar tenders. Nothing but people in the service industry. They hadn’t even put the right address in when I picked them up. Then I started to go a different way that they wanted me to. Even though both directions would have worked fine. I had to do a 3 point turn and sure enough 2 cars showed on both sides of the road. I’m going to kill that Murphy when I see him.
After dropping them off I went to get something out of my glove box and realized the book that I’ve been reading called Bullshit Jobs, had puke on it. I proceeded to clean it with a Lysol wipe. Next customer it said Matt with nice dog. I rocked up along side my passengers and didn’t see a dog. Just a man and his wife. My sick sense of humour in my head was ticking over. ” Where’s the dog?” “Oh he’s in the Bay Area”. “Oh righto”. The man was all bandaged up. “What happened to you?” “Fell over”. “You poor bugger”. “Can we stop at Rite Aid on the way we need antiseptic wipes”. “No worries mate”. I started to talk about the dog and that I said I would have said yes to his presence. The wife said to the husband “I’m not the dog am I?” I laughed because I thought it was a sick joke at first. No apparently some uber or Lyft drivers don’t like dogs in their car because of allergies. I said if it’s a service animal you can’t deny it and it’s illegal to even question it. I asked Matt what he did for work, he said he’s retired now, but he used to run a robotic company that manufactured silicone chips. His major client was in Japan. He told me the production line scenario and I could visualise a conveyer belt moving circuit boards along and placing the chips onto the boards. One after the other. He was in charge of the software that moved the hardware. He said you get Japanese business men ringing you at 6 pm at night to fix a technical glitch or to overcome a software issue. He recalled hiring a Japanese man in California working as a waiter but majored in electrical engineering. He couldn’t get a job in his profession because his English wasn’t great. The company hired him as a translator to assist with the large amounts of calls.
Matt had been to Australia in the 80s, when Australia won the Americas cup. He said the elation was hard to describe, but the power of the victory was felt everywhere he went. His wife came back to the car from Rite Aid and said the staff inside had to shoo a couple of homeless people away from inside the store. “Why’s that?” I asked “they were making a scene”. “Understood”. I dropped them off and thanked them for the amount of information they shared.
Next rider was really quiet, but friendly. She was using Lyft. Next was a young fella studying psychology. He said that by studying this he’ll be able to solve his own problems. He also told me that he wants to see a kangaroo. Then I thought wouldn’t it be cool to have a roo in my car for a day. Change my name to roober. Haha classic. Just imagine the people’s faces. Here’s Skippy he’s a roo. It’ll probably kick the passengers or claw them.
Next I had a sociology professor in my car. She was heading to Oregon via the airport. We had a lengthy discussion about different cultures and how Americans love a good stereotype. It was amusing. Then we saw seven police bikes riding in formation. I said “is Trump in town?”. She laughed and I lost my train of thought in the conversation and couldn’t get over it. It reminded me of when I saw Obama’s motorcade and Air Force one. I was with mum at the time watching the limo aka the beast and a bunch of police bikes. It was pretty awesome to see actually. We sidled up along side them at the light and I was tempted to say can we have an escort to the airport please. Then my rider joked this is actually for me I’m pretty important. Ha that’d be great. I was going to take a photo but they probably would have pulled me over for using a phone whilst driving.
I dropped her off and she thanked me.
Now my next Lyft passenger. Well here’s where my day went rather sour. I got a ping on the way out from the airport. If that was uber I would have to get out of the airport zone or get into the airport queue. Drove up my passengers driveway. He stepped into my car. “G’day mate how are you doing?” “Good thanks”. “What do you do?” “Work at mmmmm” “sorry mate?” “I work at mmmmm” “Oh awesome how long you been there?” Yeah I didn’t hear where he worked he was a mumbler. Then he told me to go a different way to the bank. I dropped him off and finished the trip. I was turning uber back on and then he came back into my car. “Is this a multi trip?” “Yeah” “but I finished the trip” “Can you please start the trip to the next destination?” “No it’s still running in my app” “what? I finished it though” I didn’t want to argue with him because he was obviously in a hurry. So I drove him 9 minutes away from the first drop off spot. “Wal-Mart. I said that’s where you work?” “No I work at Olive Garden.” “Oh up the road”. I thought I’ll handle this glitch when I drop him off. I found out he had been to prison for stealing a car. He said he didn’t steal no car. I awkwardly went quiet and immediately thought this guy has swindled me out of a trip. Hopefully it’s like uber where I can ring them and get them to reimburse me. Nope you have to email them. Crikey crumbs. They emailed me the below response.
Obviously I was extremely angry and demanded to speak to a supervisor. No response. You can even call then. I emailed them constantly after this email. I was very angry and thought I’ll have to be more aware of this. I added I’m never using Lyft again and I’ll be sure to not recommend them to anyone I know. No response. Wow you care about your employees don’t you? What if I was held at gun point? They probably wouldn’t care.
I moved on to the airport and got a ping at the Silver Reef. 12 minutes away. Went all the way up there. It was another Lyft trip. I noticed a guy hitchhiking. The rider was called Yup. So I wondered if that was him. No it’s at the mini mart. It was an older lady. She had been gambling and was off to the Skagit Valley Casino. 40 minutes away. I started chatting as I drove. Rolled up to the light with the hitchhiker. She yelled at him to come in. I said “wait what?” She said “can we pick him up?” “Um as long as you know where the gentleman is going” she ignored me and started talking with the guy. “What the f@#$ are you doing there?” She must know the guy. She did it was her boyfriend. OK makes sense now. He was in a mood towards her. They started having an argument. He was kicked out of the casino for drinking too much. It’s like 3 in the afternoon. He went and played a table game he apparently never plays and got kicked out. The lady apparently used to work there. I interrupted them “feel free to have some water and sweats”. The lady said to the old codger “do you want to eat anything?” He stammered and slurred and responded “I want to eat ya a$$”. She yelled at him. The drive was a bickering match the whole way down about who’s idea it was to go to the casino. The codger was annoyed about not playing roulette. It wasn’t open at 2pm. The Sheila was happy to play the pokies aka slots.
She told me what she used to do for work ignoring her bf in the back. Bus driver, casino waitress and something else that wasn’t really that important to me at the time. I drop the gentleman off he was very thankful toward me. He left and she said “you know what?” “What?” “I can just go back to the Silver Reef Casino” “Um well you better change your destination, I can’t change it for you” “He was the one kicked, out not me, I was only going to the other one so he could play roulette”. “OK change it then”. She changed it and we talked about all the different games including craps. I like that one now. I hadn’t played it before until this year.
I finally dropped her off and made my way back into town. Picked up a previous rider from when I just started out. A mechanic near lakeway drive. He remembered me and I went on about how crap Lyft is to their drivers. He was shocked. We said he usually uses uber anyway. Good keep doing it, because Lyft isn’t ethical.
After dropping him off I picked up one last rider. She wasn’t even present my passenger. Just a man. I wound down the window. I mean powered it down. “Hi I’m her son”. “G’day mate get in then.” He immediately asked me why I wasn’t wearing a sweater aka jumper. “Not cold mate.” I was boiling. Sitting down all the time generates heat. The lady finally showed up and was worried about getting to the post office. I told her pretty sure it shuts at 5.30pm and not 5.00 pm. The man complimented me on my Australian flag and then proceeded to drink three water bottles and ate most of the sweats. He would mutter to himself. Then I realised he might be on the spectrum. He was. His mother confirmed it. I thought it was cool though because he didn’t say anything mean and was very appreciative of the lollies I had to offer. It was great because some people just don’t want water or sweets. This guy was having all their shares. Nicer than most people to be honest.
After I dropped them off he took one more lolly and went on his merry way without his mother. She wished me all the best and I did the same. She made it to the post office on time.
7 uber trips. 4 Lyft trips. Thirsty Thursday! Next up fruitful Fridays.
