Fruitful Fridays started a little different for me this time, because I had plans for the evening. A charity gala. More about the gala later. So instead of my evening starting with a passenger it was a morning. It was a lady I had picked up once before. She was the one with the son on the spectrum. She was on her own this time. “Where’s your son this time?” I asked. “He’s in hospital getting treatment”. We talked at length about his condition and how hard it was for her. On her own retired, looking after him. She said to me “if you pray, please pray for him”. I don’t, I said “I’ll send good vibes his way”. It’s always a little awkward for me when someone asks me to pray or God bless. I just don’t do religion anymore. I will most my viewpoints and beliefs later, but in a nutshell my scientific mind has taken over. I tried to give religion a second chance, but the church I went to was ridiculous and made me feel awkward. Not to mention the David and Goliath reenactment made me feel embarrassed for the people on stage. It was bad.
Anyway my passenger told me she had moved out of her apartment and moved into a hotel temporarily. Her son needs to see a specialist in Olympia. Oh boy doesn’t sound good. “Hotels are so expensive for permanent living”. She stated. “Oh I know, that’s why I prefer Airbnb. It’s cheaper and more interpersonal”. The lady paused for a moment. “How does that work?” She asked. “Well people rent out a room, house, granny flat, or apartment whilst being away or present so they can get an extra bit of dosh. It’s usually cheaper than hotels or motels”. I replied. With hope in her voice she responded “really? I’m going to have to look into this, because the Quality Inn is $60 a night and that’s the long stay price”. I felt sorry for my passenger, but my advice gave her a sense of hope and reprieve. It made me feel good. It was useful advice that I thought everyone knew about. I guess not. Don’t make assumptions about these things, you never know who you might help. “It’s like Uber for hotels, people utilise their own property to make money”. I stated. “Thank you so much, I could talk to you all day, I love your accent.” She said. “Ha well I like your accent too”. Her Hispanic accent was nice to listen to, especially for an older lady. Calming and soothing. It’s hard to explain, but she should do audio books for people. Gentle, kind, and modulated. She left and gave me a $10 tip. The trip itself was only $8. I guess good conversation and advice is worth about $10 to people. Fascinating. Honestly she didn’t need to give me a tip. Sounds like she needs it more than I do.
Another customer awaited my pickup near the University. A student studying environmental science. Seems to be a popular subject these days. Probably because the earth’s temperature is rising and plastic is choking our oceans. Not to mention there are extreme bush fires happening in the Amazon, Africa, and Australia. We discussed the environment and how we can solve some of the issues at hand. I said “education is key. Reduce, re-use, recycle is important as well as Waterwise. I still remember that from a young age”. My passenger agreed with me. However I built on a primal issue all humans have. Discard and overuse. I only know this from an archaeological point of view. Us humans use and throw away, never reuse unless it be fixed or modified. It’s a hard habbit to get out of. Think of this scenario a prehistoric man uses an arrow once. The point penetrates the elk, breaking on impact, the elk collapses, part of the projectile is embedded in the animal and the other part of it broke off and fell to the ground. Can he still use it? Potentially, but maybe only part of it. Perhaps he can modify the arrow into a smaller blade or scraper. That’s not going to happen, why? The ultimate goal of the arrow head was achieved. The tribe can eat meat and use the fur for clothing or shelter. Ultimately the pieces of the projectile point are discarded, until an archaeologist finds the pieces and records them. Hopefully in situ. You also can look at midden sites from ancient times to get a grasp at how bad this would look if it was plastic. Shells are organic yes, but the discard mentality literally needs to be broken down. For instance if you have a washing machine what is in that can be reused? Copper? The motor? Wiring? The plastic shell? Metal? Some of it can be recycled, but ultimately there are going to be left over pieces. Right now bulk recycling is handled by China, but other third world countries are putting their hands up, because it’s not worth it for China to keep taking the first world’s discarded crap.
Easter Island or Rapa Nui, is where a former Polynesian society lived until they wiped out much of their resources. Stranded on this island due to the lack of understanding on how bad a throw away society actually is. Yes they built large Moai heads for their ancestors, but the result was mass deforestation and food shortages. Overuse destroyed their way of life. Sounds frightfully similar doesn’t it? Now I haven’t been there personally, but I have read and watch documentaries (aka docos) about how the people decimated the island and eventually themselves. How do humans stop this discard mentality? It’s got to start by everyone working together on this. It’s a global issue. Manufacturing needs to change, companies can’t cheap out on things. My dad’s washing machine lasted 30 years in his house. To the point where you had to put a 5 kilo weight on the lid to help it finish a full cycle. Maybe dad was cheap or just conservative, but actually, maybe he was good for the environment. Unfortunately when he did get rid of it, he bought a new Simpson washing machine. It was terrible, it didn’t wash the clothes properly and there was a factory recall on the bloody thing. So he ended up getting a brand new LG Washing machine. It’s so much better, but that’s two washing machines in less than 10 years. Dad was all about fixing it until it dies, which I do strongly agree with. I hate spending money.
The ride concluded with my passenger wanting to do what he could to help this situation. Maybe I’ve changed the world in one conversation? It’s potentially the butterfly effect. One small action can have a large effect on multiple or larger things. I mean look at the invention of the wheel or Pythagoras. Drastic changes happened due to these two historical events.
Next customer a South African bloke all the way in Ferndale. In fact almost Blaine. He needed to head to Bellingham to meet his wife so they could refinance their home. The poor buggers were told the day of. No uber or Lyft drivers were readily available until I had dropped off one passenger and I went to the airport. The guy didn’t pick I was an Aussie, but I knew he was South African. His harsh Afrikaans accent was prominent and commanding. It’s a great accent. Anyway he works for a tech company that has an office in Sydney. We chatted about different styles of sports including gridiron, rugby, cricket and soccer. He lived in Europe for a while with his four kids and wife, until they settled in Whatcom County a few years ago. So far so good, except this day in particular was not the best. A beer with this chap could be on the cards around the corner. We’ll see.
After I dropped him off at the bank I picked up a Vietnamese fella and his friend. I told them both of my experiences in Vietnam. Including the souvenir that couldn’t leave the country. An AK47 bullet on a necklace. I had purchased this necklace at the Cu Chi tunnels and at the airport I heard something I’ll never forget. “Paul Howard come to front desk”. Crikey crumbs what’s this about? I went to the front desk and they told me to go a section near the baggage claim. A man in uniform sat there with a clear see through plastic box next to him on a table. It was full of the souvenir bullets mirroring exactly what I had in my suitcase. “Oh I know what you want then”. I pulled it out and gave it to him immediately. “Thank you sir”. The man replied. “You’re welcome”. My passengers laughed and I dropped them off at an Asian grocery store near the mall.
Now I’m near Meridian Street. I’m going to the airport. Ping! Darn a bloke called Jason is behind me on need of a Lyft. I try and turn around to get closer to my passenger. It’s difficult. I have to turn left, chuck a uey and sit at a different traffic light. I waited at the traffic light for at least 5 minutes. No one was moving. Then my passengers name and position changed from Jason to Chuan! His location was at the Asian grocery store where I had dropped off my previous passengers. Got to turn around again. Did Jason cancel and then it automatically went to the closest rider? I don’t know if it was a glitch. Lyft has no record of Jason in their system. 🤔
I picked up the Chinese natives, navigating to Lynden. Both were studying English. We discussed China including the business, economic strengths of the place, the history and culture also was discussed. They said to avoid Hong Kong at the moment. The protests are pretty bad at the moment. I said I’d love to see the Terracotta Warriors and the Great Wall of China as well as Forbidden City. It was a long trip to their house. When we finally got there, a dead cat was out the front. Gray in colour. Unfortunately it was their pet. I felt saddened by this because it was their family from home. Usually the cat would greet them every time they would come home. It was either poisoned or it had it’s neck broken. Maybe a car hit it and it suffered from internal damage. I am not sure, but it wasn’t a nice way to end my day. I had to leave to go the Northwest Youth Services Light the Path Gala. I’ll post a separate entry for this later.
I told my passengers to call animal control to see if they can figure out what happened to their pet. I’m not a cat person by any means, but my heart did break in two, seeing them react to the little friend 😢. No owner should have to come home to that. Lyft 3 trips and 2 trips uber.
