The days keep mounting up and my car is getting one serious work out. I keep my car maintenance up to date as best as I can, yet in the back of my mind a large expense is coming. A timing belt! I’m less than only 40,000 miles away from the 210,000 mark. Oil changes are every 4,000 miles, with me checking to my fluid levels weekly. Tyre pressure I get done for free at Discount Tire, along with a rotation every 6,000 miles. I start my days nervous about my car it’s the only reliable asset I have for work. Archaeology is up and down, and Expedia will only give me money when I get sales and the people sail. Wednesday’s are cheap carwash day at the Shell in Bellingham. $4.30! Cheaper than chips! I used to wash my car myself, but when winter set in I couldn’t wash the car because the water in the hose freezes. Never had that problemo in Australia. Even in Armidale it would still warm up enough in the day to not be an issue. After getting my car clean as a whistle I picked up a bloke by the airport. He’d flown in from Vegas and told me about his hair salon business, he kinda looked liked the Dude in the Big Lebowski played by Jeff Bridges, but with better hair. He used to be a landscape Architect in California, but changed careers and started his own business in Bellingham. What an interesting transition. His reasons were people always need their hair cut, but not everyone has a lawn that needs to be cut. Fair. Even someone living in an apartment will need a haircut. Yes people go bald, but their are statistically more people with hair than without and their are more hairy heads that need colour or a trim. His parents bought has house in area years ago for only $19,000. The house is worth $470,000 now. Homes in the area have skyrocketed.
Next was a lady I had picked up before a blonde that is studying web design. She hangs out at Orion bar and the Beaver whenever she goes out. Great story, but following on from her was a sheila who works in the theater with her husband. She teaches Shakespeare to veterans with PTSD. It apparently helps their condition. A non profit organisation that goes across the country teaching Shakespeare to these troubled souls. No more days of bad memories, but the golden literature from a past era. Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsomer Nights Dream. All wonderful pieces to try and help these victims. I personally hate all writings from Shakespeare and hated them growing up. Over analysing these pieces and to what end? Why couldn’t we analyse something else? “To be or not to be? That is the question whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune…” ah yes I remember this from Hamlet as he clutches a skull, he ponders his existence and death. A soliloquy that will be remembered in the annals of English literature. I had to remember the whole passage and analyse it’s meaning and purpose. Did it help me? Honestly maybe, did I like it? No. Many words from this era don’t even pop up in modern literature. I guess I should give Shakespeare some credit if it wasn’t for him the English language wouldn’t be as refined as it is today. Still didn’t like it.
Following on I had a chef who works at Buffalo Wild Wings and one of the college kitchens. I told him “I lived on campus in Australia”. “Oh that’s where you’re from?” He asked. “Yes, see my koalas”. I pointed to my review mirror to my Chinese made koala clips. “Oh I see” he replied. He told me that “the students are extremely disrespectful and make a huge mess. The kids will leave food on the floor, leave dirty dishes on the tables, and yell obscenities at the staff”. “That’s bloody awful”. Meanwhile I was thinking back to my college days, for the most part I was pretty good at scraping my plate. Then stacking my dishes in the kitchen. The only time I played up was giving a glass of food, alcohol, and other goodies to a red head nicknamed ranga (short for orangutan) and said I’ll give you $10 bucks to skull it. The bloke took it like a champion and drank the disgusting concoction. There was even steak in there! He ran outside and puked on the pavement by the door of the dining hall. I still gave him the $10.
My next passenger was excited about going to Coachella at the time. Rage Against the Machine was going to be playing there and an Aussie called Tame Impala played there the year before. The Rage Against the Machine reunion has been a long awaited journey for many fans. I told my customer about the lead singer freedom fighting in Nicaragua. He had not heard of this story, it’s certainly a fascinating one. Not sure if this is true, but it’s pretty full on if it is.
After dropping off Coachella man I picked up an artist from Texas. He was very against Wells Fargo for some reason. I don’t bank with them either because of the fees. We got onto the topic of slang and how he went to a Mississippi diner a few years back the slang and the dialect was extremely difficult to understand even though he was from Texas. He couldn’t understand the sheila placing the order. The bloke was perplexed and went on to writing his order down with a pen and paper. I said in Australia you get that if you go further west. I said you really gotta listen.
I drove a caregiver around after the Artist and she had dated a bloke from Scotland who lived in Sydney for a while. Then a lady whose grandfather was an Aussie. She was from Belize studying English and green energy. Unfortunately she couldn’t tell me what part of Australia her grandfather was. Apparently it was remote and isolated. I said “how long ago was that?” She replied with “50 years ago, he still has an accent too”. Been worried about losing my accent. I honestly don’t think I would lose my accent, I can’t do an American accent very well.
Afterwards I had a Christian business man in my car who does technical writing for Faith Life. It’s not non profit and it is totally a profit industry. I said to him, “that’s what most religious organisations should be”. Only because you might have a non profit organisation who has a CEO that makes over a million a year. Not justifiable and it’s greed.
Then I had a budding geologist in my car who wants to study climate change. Specifically she wants to look at ice core samples and try and find a solution to our current problem. Once I had dropped her off I had someone who was interested in chemical prosthetics. An engineer who wants to revolutionise medical equipment. I hope he can. I only want the best for my passengers.
Busy Wednesday 8 trips uber 5 rides Lyft. Next is a not so thirsty Thursday.
