Having a black car can have it’s awkward moments. Also being a man can have negative connotations toward certain people in certain areas. My first passenger was a mother of a child. Yeah big deal you say. Well she requested a Lyft, which was me a 32 year old male archaeologist, with a beard, and a strange accent. Her drop off was at a school, so she could pick up her injured son. This was in the morning, by the way. She specifically asked me to wait for her at the front whilst she went and grabbed him. Seems okay right? So I sit there. I wait. No one around. Cool. Then a mob of children wander past my car. My windows are not down by any means and I hear one kid comment on my vehicle. “What do you think he’s doing?” “I don’t know”. The other one says. Then thankfully one notices my uber and Lyft decals. “Oh an uber driver”. Stranger danger is real and all of a sudden the kids were on high alert because I’m a man sitting in a black sedan perched by the front entrance of the school. Crikey crumbs, they thought I was a predator, a creepo, waiting for who knows what? Where is this bloody woman and her kid? It felt like an eternity. Finally she showed up with a limping kid. Apparently at recess the child fell off a wall and hurt his leg. The conversation wasn’t too involved. The mother and son chatted for most of the way. Except when I went to merge and someone used their horn and scared the living crap out of all of us. Luckily it wasn’t my fault. Phew! I yelled “Fair dinkum, some people have a few roos loose in the top paddock around here”. The kid laughed and the mother asked me what all that meant. I had to explain it to her and her son.
Next passenger was Danny from Marketing. He does marketing and hates Trump. “Trump puts off some bad vibes”. He stated. Wow where did that come from? Oh he was on the phone just ranting about the el presidente. I honestly can’t wait until all this blows over. The circus is quite intolerable. After he got off the phone, he apologised for his phone conversation. “Don’t worry about it mate”. Then the obligatory “Where are you from?” Small talk followed about bush fires, climate change, and marketing.
After Danny was dropped off I had a Mexican lady from Puerto Vallarta. She was learning English. I tried to impress her by all the Spanish I knew. “Bienvinedos, comes stas?, hola, muchas gracias, and el gato”. She laughed and said I need more practice. 😟😖 Okay then. I’ve always wanted to learn Spanish, but I haven’t had the brain capacity or patience to sit down and learn a new language. At university I did French, only because Spanish wasn’t available. I needed a language to graduate.
The next lady was a medical professional worried about the Equifax breach. I said “My information was compromised also. I signed up to the class action lawsuit. Over 120 million were compromised in the breach. China has all of our information now. She told me some tips on how to combat this breach. Including signing up to all the credit check companies and putting a freeze on the accounts. Then if you want a credit check you unfreeze them. Sounds like a pain in the butt.
After hearing this horror story. I dropped her off at her home. Where I got a ping from a future film editor. She wants to be editing all those blockbuster films you see on the idiot box. Not a bad dream.
Next passenger has three passports. Germany, America, and the UK. She told me her German mother left the country for over a year on her green card and the USA wouldn’t let her back in. She had to wait three months to resolve the issue. When I got mine it says if you do leave the USA for over a year you need to inform them. Especially if it is for work. Annoying. So much for freedom.
Finally I got a ping from a lady heading to work at Marshall’s. A clothing store. She was griping about how on Monday a man came into her place of work and stole a whole bunch of clothes. How frustrating. There’s nothing they can do except just let it happen. The cops can do as much investigation as they can, but it sounds like the thieves get off Scott free. As a retail worker it must get annoying. All you can do is yell at them to stop robbing the place. You can’t be a hero or can’t threaten them. Back in the day they used to so much more like send them to an island in the southern hemisphere.
Anyway 5 trips uber and 4 trips Lyft. Okay maybe it was kinda thirsty. Next is a Friday! That was not so fruitful. The Saturday after did make up for it though.
