It took me a while to leave the house. A lingering cold is the worst. It just won’t go away. Soon it’ll be long gone. I tried very hard not to cough or sneeze in my car, especially when there was a passenger in my vehicle. Don’t want to infect my passengers with the dreaded consumption. Little severe, but the dreaded lurgy can strike anyone down. My first customer was the guy who I picked up a few weeks ago. The one who needed weed but forgot his wallet. This time he had everything. At first it was a little quiet for my liking, he wasn’t really building on his responses for my questions. “Anything new?” “Nah, nothing”. Then I just started talking about fantasy football, because right now I’m a league and I’m not doing great at all. I’m dead last with 2 wins and 5 losses. I managed to win this week, but I need to keep winning to crawl up the ladder. I’ve been pouring over stats and listening to podcasts to try and figure out some magic. The man in my car unleashed his knowledge of fantasy football. Sport can make a quiet person weak. Gangbusters. This guy wasn’t in any leagues this year, but usually gets into the top three. I told him my team and said my quarterback is good. It’s Lamar Jackson from the Baltimore Ravens. He honestly has been my best player all season. Unfortunately he has a bye next week and my backup tanked the other night against the Patriots. He advised me to drop him, but said it is possible he could come back from that considering the favourable match ups coming up. I dropped him off at the Bank.
Next passengers I had were two outdoor recreational students in their final quarter. The guy asked me where I was from, but the lady looked directly at my clip on koalas and said Australia. Well done! Finally someone noticed them. The lady told me about friends in Perth and that one Aussie who lived in Vancouver took one of her friends back and they have a de facto living situation. Even though gay marriage was introduced in Australia, you can still have a domestic partnership. Which is great, why force people to get married when you can just live free? One of my passengers said he was going to work as a firefighter and the other work in a national park somewhere.
I dropped them off, then ping! Ah my old friend who’s studying medieval literature. Dante’s inferno and the Cadbury Tales aka Canterbury Tales. I joked about that with her and she said “you’re never going to live that down are you?” “Nope probably not”. She laughed and rolled her eyes. She told me class was cancelled on her recent birthday last week. “Happy Birthday”. I said. “Thank you”. I told her it’s my birthday month, which she gave me some kind wishes also. She went on about her class that was cancelled that the person who pit the note on the door failed to tell the students already seated in the lecture theatre. So she had to tell the others. I said “why couldn’t he email the students about the class he cancelled?” “She said that would have been a more prudent.” “Indeed, oh maybe he’s using traditional medieval tactics to get a message out, by putting notes on doors”. She laughed. She swore and then apologised. “Don’t worry about it, I swear all the time, I try to limit my swearing when driving passengers around, but it’s difficult. Sometimes it slips out. Archaeology is full of wonderful swear words and it is hard to avoid them.
Next was a guy who works at maccas aka McDonald’s. He gave me a different route to his house before I even got there. Something about a detour. The whole time I was driving to pick him up I was trying to find a detour, there was nothing. On arrival I queried it and he said “sorry I only had 60 characters to tell you about my detour to my house”. This made perfect sense now. He commented on my car and how he hadn’t seen a Galant for while, his mum had owned one when he was younger and loved it. I approached the roadworks and took a detour too early under his guidance. He apologised because it was a dead end. I turned around and took the next turn. We chatted about his job and said “they’re looking after their employees more these days.” I told him I knew about the $15/HR they’re paying employees these days. I dropped him at his place and he thanked and tipped me immediately. Why thank you kind sir.
Now my next lady was in to be found in the northern part of town. She was catching a flight to Chicago via Seattle. No direct flights yet. However she wasn’t to keen for this trip. A few months ago she was living in Chicago and was racing to work and subsequently ended up with a speeding ticket. We have all been there, but to her dismay the ticket wasn’t just a ticket. In the state of Chicago a ticket is like a DUI. You can go to jail if you don’t contest it. How awful! One year behind bars? Get real! I was shocked to hear this. What a disgusting decision by the courts to bestow this atrocious felony upon people. Note to self don’t drive in Chicago. Even in Australia you can lose your license by the amount of points you get deducted off of your license. Not prison time. I told her I hope she wins this battle. No other state has such a severe punishment for such a trivial matter. Everyone speeds.
I plonked her off at the airport and joined the airport queue. Then luckily I was the first in line. Ping! 37 minute trip! Jackpot. The gentleman had a British accent and was going to a sort of conference to discuss new plans with Microsoft. He has been with the company for quite a while and loves it. He moved to the states in the 80s and walked into a software store and managed to get a job. Microsoft was one of their clients and eventually hired him. My passenger loved the area and was excited about going to Canada for a dinner. He’d never been there before. I told him I was an archaeologist and he asked me many questions relating to my career, which I was happy to divulge. He was staying at the Semiahmoo Resort where Google and Microsoft have their occasional gatherings. Even Mr Bill Gates hangs out there with his family. After about 35 minutes I’m now his personal driver and will be honoured to pick him up again Thursday night for a flight back to California.
Uber 4 trips Lyft 2. Surprisingly I didn’t have to work too hard to get to my quota. Until next time.
