After a Monday off due to snow. I decided to tackle Tuesday after receiving a text from the Senegalese lady’s son. She required a pickup at around 8.30 pm. Meanwhile Whatcom County is a winter wonderland and no place for a two wheel drive vehicle or was it? Ever since I moved to this area people would instill fear in me. “Don’t drive in the snow, you’ll shoot ya eye out”. OK maybe I’m getting my wires crossed here, but essentially driving in the snow or on black ice is generally seen as dangerous due to how slippery it can be. Since I couldn’t say no to the elderly lady’s son I left the house to get a ping in Ferndale. A real estate agent who couldn’t leave his house in the morning due to his car door being frozen shut. Lucky for me I have a garage to store my car, so I didn’t have that problem. Couldn’t help but imagine this bloke trying to open his door though. If it was me I would have been rather irritated. Door frozen shut, where am I? Growing up in Australia I’d never heard of such a thing. Just a hot door handle and steering wheel, with a bonus huntsman spider waiting to pounce. Yikes! Washington has barely any bugs. It’s weird. Seems unnatural.
Dropped Mr. Freeze at his destination and quietly chuckled to myself. Door frozen. 🤣😂 Jack Frost did a number on this bloke. “Why can’t you come in mate?” “Oh my car door froze, my computer froze too along with my bath water”. “Sorry to hear that Jim”. Forgot to mention, to top it off, his truck was a rear wheel drive! Honestly it sounds like his truck is pretty bloody useless. Not a 4wd, it’s a 2wd, rear wheel drive truck. Just useless. You might as well have a bloody fiat mate. Anyway as I said I dropped him off and thought about how good my car is.
My next passenger was a shiela who refused to drive to work that day. She replied on ride sharing to get around. She works at the hospital selling soup for a bargain $3.03 a bowl. They don’t accept tips and have gourmet soup for literally everyone. People go into the hospital off the street to eat the soup. No you don’t have to be sick at all! Just hungry. Anything from clam chowder to curry vegetable soup. The hospital is the way to go for a delicious hearty soup.
Following on was a lady who works for tech company that used to be owned by an Aussie. Yep. The bloke started up and sold out to a mob over in Minnesota. As I was driving my began to slip slightly. I saw my cars earning pop up that I was losing traction. My 4wd instincts took over. I started to turn my wheel back and forth, until I got the traction back. Phew. My passenger commended me and eventually thanked me for getting her destination safely.
It is snowing quite heavily now. I think to myself I still have a long way to go. I dropped off a block to his work Fred Meyer. Everyone else stayed home. He was the only trooper willing to work in a blizzard. Hope that bloke gets a raise.
Ping! Right to the airport! Wow I’m at Fred Meyer and I have a pickup all the way to the airport. I realised I might be the only uber/Lyft driver working now in these awful conditions. The passenger that needed a pickup had flown from New York to Seattle, and then to Bellingham. Her flights had been delayed due to bad weather and to top it off they lost one of her suitcases. She just wants to go home. “What do you do?” I asked. “I’m a book restorer”. She replied. “Wow, that’s excellent, how did you get that gig?” Querying her intriguing profession. Now her response surprised me “Craig’s list”. “Really? Don’t you need a degree or something?” “Not at all, I applied and the gentleman showed me what to do.” “Are you paid hourly?” “Yes I get paid $18/hour to fix old antique books. People pay top dollar to get their books back to normal especially the rare ones”. Her boyfriend got a job in Bellingham from New York to open a hiking outdoorsy store. They paid for everything. She didn’t have a job, but came across the book restoring job on a whim and went from there. Lucky devils.
My next two passengers were students studying biology and psychology. They had abandoned their Mazda for safety reasons. Meanwhile I’m still driving around 🤔. Perhaps I should stop? Nope need the money.
Another student studying political science and the mate was doing a marketing degree. My wipers began to irritate me. Squeak! The snow is heavy and obviously dry. So there’s no fluid motion here. How annoying, but I need to see! “Have you driven in the snow before?” They asked me. “Nope this is my first time 😬🤪”. Obviously they’re now concerned. Nah they were great they tipped me and gave me a wonderful comment below.
Next rider was a future English teacher. We discussed language and how Australia has many traditional owner language groups. My high school used to have three athletic sporting houses. Karomin, Booribi, and Yowgara. Karomin was the red house I was in which was the local word for Kangaroo, Booribi was a blue koala and Yowgara was a yellow goanna. It dawned on me that the kangaroo has been the most significant animal in my whole life. It’s why it became apart of the lost Australian. From going to kangaroo Park as a kid, to being in the kangaroo house, to hitting one at 100 km an hour and to owning a kangaroo leather hat. It is the one wild animal I can properly say has had the most impact on my life without me realising it. It almost killed me, yet it watched me from a distance. It will beat you up and when it dies it will leave limbs that are almost identical to human bones. Yes the long bones of a roo have been mistaken in the Australian archaeological record to be human. I witnessed it once. Cops were called and the job was shut down. Only to find out the long bone was a roo. I was only a junior at the time, but the amount of cops that showed up for one bone was amusing for me. Five cops, two patrol cars, and a police rescue van showed up for one bone! Crickey crumbs.
After plonking my passenger off at her home. I went to keep working. A lady at the mall needed a pickup, then the owner of Stickers for Days needed a ride to a bar in town. Yep he owns a sticker shop in town. Apparently he does okay. Then I dropped him off in a safe location. The snow is much heavier now and settling on the road. Ping! A bloke near the university. Hills everywhere! I started to go up one, until three quarters of the way up I finally got stuck! I thought I could reverse or be forever trying to get up the hills in town. I took my car out of Drive and locked it into first gear. I floored it whilst turning my wheel back and forth! The torque got me up and over. My little victory was a fist pumping moment. Oh look at all this 4wds and awds everywhere! Here’s me in a Mitsubishi Galant just making the snow look like child’s play. I got to my passenger and literally bragged about my success. He was stoked for me.
This bloke was from Boston and became a cook in Bellingham. He loves food and was heading to work. Not sure where he works, but I didn’t really care because I was getting closer to my final pickup of the day. Then home time! After parting ways with the chef. The lack of cars on the road became spooky. Eerie even! 😱
I parked at the Cordata bus station and saw the snow getting deeper. I decided to change positions so my car wouldn’t get stuck. Then I notified my passengers son that I was ready for his mum. He began to give me updates of her location on the bus. Told him it’s a little dangerous out, which made him concerned for his mother’s safety. I reassured him that I’ll get her home mate no worries. Then the bus showed up and I got out to greet her, when I noticed my bloody hubcap on the right front tyre was gone. Blast! It must have gone missing trying to get out of the snow. One of my pet peeves. It reminded me of when I used to own a Daewoo Nubira Wagon. My first car. Every time I’d park the bloody thing one my hubcaps would detach and roll down the hill. It became a running joke st a Doonside job I did back in 2010. I’d park and then I’d run down the road to pick up my hubcap. The local Koori mob would be in hysterical laughter every time. Looking back it was pretty funny. People would always ask me “why don’t you just take them all off?” I guess I’m ocd and can’t stand looking at no hubcaps. Yes they’re aesthetically pleasing and have no purpose for the cars mobility, but I just can’t stand not having them.
Finally I picked up my passenger and she was super thankful to see me. The snow has made the world quiet and has muffled most sound in the area. I took her home, slowly and carefully and my passengers son paid me $30 for a ride that would have been $11. Super nice of him.
My day was extremely eventful, exciting, yet a little stressful. 12 Trips uber and 1 trip Lyft. Next is another snowy Friday!
