The last of 2019. What a crazy year. A roller coaster ride full of twists, turns and triumphs. I’m not going to bore you with my reflections of the year, because I’m sure everyone has their highlights and lowlights. I’ll start with my first passenger of the day a lady going to a New Year’s party that’s anime themed. She needed a last minute costume for her eventful evening. “What on earth are you going to be?” She had no clue. I wished her luck and dropped her off down town. I decided to work in the day so I could celebrate the bringing in the New Year, last year I worked on San Juan Island and got back rather late. Didn’t have time to celebrate it. As a result 2019 was a real struggle of a year for me. So I made sure I was only going to pick up a few people. I was feeling under the weather. The day before, Monday, I had completed my work for Whatcom County so my fine would be paid in full. I felt terrible. The flu hit me hard. I had a cough, fever, felt lethargic, and didn’t want to be there. I could have paid the $66, but no I’d rather weed the streets than give the government my money. The weeding wasn’t strenuous at all, but being sick made two sweeps of weeding the hardest thing I had done in a long time. Me ubering the next day wasn’t bad, I wasn’t too bad health wise, but I still felt crook.
Next customer was a guy who I had picked up once before. I suspected this customer giving me a 4 star rating, but it was too hard to pinpoint it. His husband has cancer. So we discussed the health system in the US and that it needs a drastic overhaul. My rider said he used to work with mental health patients, before he retired. I brought up the closing of two government funded mental health facilities in Bellingham and how all patients were pushed out onto the streets. It was a disgusting and cruel act that should never have eventuated. Now there are hordes of homeless, mentally ill people wandering the streets. I thought back to Australia and how that would never happen. The public would riot or protest. After chatting to my passenger I wondered if he even had it in him to give me that one 4 star rating. He didn’t really seem to know how the app worked. He asked me during the ride how I get paid and how much I get? I explained to him how it all works and what percentage I get paid etc.
“Have a good day mate”. Dropped him off at his home. Ping! A cyber security expert. OK he’s a student. We discussed McAfee and the former owner and creator. Hilarious tale of a cyber security magnate that went on downward spiral of drugs, guns, and creating an army of former Soviet block nation individuals. Such an intriguing tale of a man making millions off making people’s computers safe and then turning his riches into organised crime. Making him self look like a Central American drug lord.
My next passenger was a cook from the club Dirty Dance. It’s namesake has nothing to do with dirty or dancing. I had met the owner a few times from driving around. He sounded like Jim Belushi. Anyway my rider told me his boss had sold part of the club to a South Korean chap. Guessing the the original owner wanted to take a back seat for a bit. My passenger asked what I do outside of uber. “I’m an archaeologist”. I replied. The bloke in the back was amazed and went onto to telling me about a lady he had met once who goes to hundreds of locations around the world to determine how many mosquitoes may effect an American military base. Yep that’s right. A mosquito lady. An entomologist with one job. Find mosquitoes, if there’s a lot, no military base. What? Well I guess mosquitos have many incurable diseases like malaria and dengue fever. So it makes sense. Imagine having that job. It’d be irritating. I can’t stand the sound they make. They hate my blood though, some say it’s the amount of vegemite I consume, but who knows?
My final customer for year was a lady from Costa Rica. She was off to the mall to do some last minute shopping before heading back down south. The massive sloth sanctuary came up. In Costa Rica there is a large sanctuary dedicated to sloths. Cute things. We also discussed koalas and how they’re not bears. Many people in the US say koala bears. They’re marsupials, to my surprise my passenger knew this and was shocked so many people get it mixed up. Good. My last passenger of the year knew koalas aren’t bears and that sloths wonderful intriguing creatures that deserve a bloody good home. She got 5 stars from me, which brings me to some stats. Three trips uber and two trips Lyft for the day. Closing out 2019 a total of 987 passengers recorded for uber and Lyft combined. 787 with uber and 200 on Lyft. With uber a total of 500 five star ratings for the year. Uber had 16 customers saying I was good at conversation. 12 said I provided them with excellent service, two said I was above and beyond, with one saying I provided excellent service. With wonderful 10 comments. One, four star rating and two, one star ratings. Lyft I maintained a sold 5 star rating with all 200 passengers. Finally 65 riders in Lyft thought I was friendly, 63 thought I was above and beyond, 60 thought I was a good driver and 56 thought my car was clean.
Next is fruitful Fridays the first of 2020.
