The night before Thanksgiving was a whopping Wednesday! Yep choc a block full of people with many stories. I haven’t had a chance to write this post, so my apologies for the delay. I have been working a rather large archaeological project. My first passenger was a dump truck driver heading off to Cocanut Grove for free pizza and of course bought beverages. Apparently, one time a year the previously mentioned establishment has one night where they give out free pizza. Thanksgiving Eve, a night to honour the patrons.
I dropped off my hungry truck driver. Next bloke was off to Bob’s Burgers and Brews. Not much to say about him, except he was a little crook. In the same area I got another ping from the owner of a brekky joint in town called Arliss’. It’s apparently a diner setup with all American food. He also was off to Bob’s Burgers and Brews.
After dropping him off, a Sheila called Sheila pinged me in the same area to the east. She had literally just moved to the area with her husband. A uhaul was out the front. Picking them up was a little annoying. She was waiting out the front for me and I stopped at her driveway. I couldn’t get into the driveway due to the uhaul being in the way. A car showed up behind me. She was slow, so I had to move. I went to the next driveway. Good NO one should be going into this driveway, when I saw my passenger slowly walk over to my car, the roller door started to open right in front of me! Are you kidding me??? Come on! I backed out of the way on the street and parked in the same position as before. If anyone comes they have to wait! I’m not letting my passenger go back and forth like this. She finally gets to my door and opens it. She can’t because the wind kept slamming it shut. It’s blowing a gale out there. Her husband got in the other side and she came around to mine. I opened the door for her. Sheila was amused by my changing of positions multiple times. They were both off to see the Netflix film The Irishman starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. A 3.5 HR movie by Martin Scorsese. A cinema downtown was showing it for one night only. “The wind storm tonight is called a mini cyclone Bob”. My passenger said. “We say that in Australia!” I replied. It was blowing a gale and apparently this was a technical term.
I dropped them off and they said “maybe we’ll get you later”. I replied “Possibly”. I really rolled the dice on the eve of a holiday. It was proving quite busy. My next passenger put the wrong address in and was 8 minutes away in the opposite direction. I drove around trying to find him, whilst he was on the phone. Eventually I found him by a bank. Uber asked me to put in a code. I think because he was so far away from his original position. He gave me the code and we were on our way.
Dropping off my passenger I got another ping in the suburbs near the cinema. A bloke who was going to cook three turkeys for Thanksgiving. Fried turkey, smoked turkey, and finally a lazered turkey. Honestly I hadn’t heard of that one before. My passenger told me he was eating out tonight, because he was cooking all day from 3 am to 4.30 pm. “Why are you cooking so many turkeys?” I asked. “Because if one goes wrong hopefully two should be good, also my family likes the variety”. Yeah seriously. Definitely a turkey fiend.
Next passenger was my old mate Billy the bloke who works as a bouncer at one of the nightclubs in town. He used to work at the hardware store called Lowe’s, but now he works with the mall security. We discussed about fantasy football and how we were both playing for a finals spot that weekend. I dropped him off at his apartment. He is one of my most valued customers. Very respectful and a gentle giant.
The following passenger loves Aussies and used to date an Australian. Her friend on the other hand works for Amazon. She works in the finance department that manages the budgets for Jack Ryan and the superhero show called The Boys. I hadn’t watched either shows. I avoided The Boys, because I heard a New Zealander does a terrible British accent.
Had another bloke I picked up a week prior, the social media guy that promotes Samson Ropes. He was going out of town for the holiday.
Then students studying political science and another sociology. My next passenger on the other hand, knew much about Australian history including an American WWII bomber that crashed in the top end of the continent in December 1942. Three out of ten of the crew lived and survived until the the Australian bush took two of the three. One survivor was found in a shack by a stockman in March 1943.
https://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/b-24/41-23762.html
The account of the missing Bomber
My passenger also knew about Gallipoli from WWI and how the Turkish machine guns that gunned downed the ANZACs and British troops were water cooled. I dropped my passengers off at the Silver Reef Casino.
My passengers next had jobs at JC Penny and another studying psychology. One of my passengers had been to Western Australia. From Fremantle to Broome. She never made it to the east coast, but it was certainly on her to do list. She did see the quokkas on Rottnest Island.
https://www.traveller.com.au/worlds-happiest-animal-the-quokka-becomes-the-most-popular-tourist-attraction-at-australias-rottnest-island-gunpvd
Photo taken from the above link
More students…
Then somehow uber eats turned itself on and I wasn’t happy. Some lady decided to order ice cream from a corner store at around midnight. You’ve gotta be kidding me! I got to her address and it was the wrong address. I rang her and she said “Oh sorry that’s my old address”. She told me her new address, 6 minutes away! Far out brussel sprout! Strewth! Crikey! Stone the flaming crows! I went toward her new address and drove straight past it. This system is so flawed. Once I finally got there I was rather short with my passenger for her mistake. $4 for the whole ordeal. People I stress! Make sure you’re address is right when ordering anything from uber, Lyft, and uber eats. It’s just frustrating.
Then I had a bad ass mother from Jamaica called Wendell. I was secretly hoping at first it was Wendell Sailor an aboriginal Australian who played rugby for St George Illawarra and Australia. I met him once when he was running in Wollongong. I was dropping off a key to The Lake Illawarra Authority after an excavation. My rider was a Caucasian professor for Western Washington University. He had the accent though and was going to a nightclub in town.
Now the next four passengers were hammered! I picked them up from the Silver Reef Casino. One bloke found out I was Australian and started singing Six White Boomers! An old Christmas song from none other than Rolf Harris, who is now in jail for pedophilia charges. I didn’t want to burst his bubble because he was vocally singing this tune for a quarter if the journey. Boomers are slang for kangaroos by the way. Yes Santa uses boomers instead of deer in Australia.
Then Sheila and Herman pinged me again near a grocery store no where near the cinema I dropped them off at. I went to help with their groceries when it was too late. One of passengers finally snapped my gas lift strut for the boot aka trunk. Yep I had been so careful to open and shut the back so it wouldn’t break, but it finally snapped right off. I was annoyed. Not at them, because they didn’t know. That I was more worried about reloading my waters and sweets, instead of the integrity of my own vehicle. The Irishman was apparently an incredible film though. My riders did feel guilty for breaking my boot.
Then some more students doing computer science. A refinery worker and some a former local who talked up Birch Bay Waterpark. A cheap water park about 5 minutes away from my house. His mates gave him crap at first because he had never told them about this amusement park. $25 to enter and it has a hot tub and water slides. No alcohol though. His mates then ended up wanting to go to this water park after this bloke spruiked it.
My next passenger was a real estate agent that manages Airbnb properties on the side. He can make $500 / night in Seattle alone. He wants to expand his side hustle by purchasing more property and Airbnbing them out. I told him there’s people out there that get paid to manage these properties for them for a percentage. He said “that’s great, because it’s a lot of work”. I replied by telling him by paying the Airbnb manager they organise cleaners, communication with the stayer and just run maintenance as well for the owner. The owner only has to pay them 20% of their earnings from the customer, it return has piece of mind. One bloke in Canada made $400,000 in a year by doing this. The main issue is finding people who would want you to manage their property on their behalf.
After dropping my passenger off I had passenger who lives with three Andrews. He’s studying English literature and loves history. We discussed the Battle of Cannae from ancient times and how Hannibal’s tactics were used by the US in the Gulf War. A wedge formation that gave the Ancient Romans hell.
Finally I had the owner of the Bellingham Buffalo Wild Wings. He gave me a voucher to eat there for free as a tip. He later tipped me in cash on the app. He lived in Ferndale and said one of his mates girlfriends was getting “handsy” at a party and thought he’d better leave. He invited me in for Bud Lite and some weed. I declined. I’m in Ferndale. I’m heading home I’m knackered!
18 rides Lyft, 9 trips Uber 27 rides in one night I think that’s a record.
