The begun with me heading to the airport. Where I got a Lyft passenger. My first one in a few days. The man wanted to head to the weed shop. He didn’t have a job and lost his license in a DUI incident. The man was from Florida, but was a fan of the Seahawks. He for some reason called them the Seachickens. The bird is clearly a hawk. The Florida gridiron teams are Tampa Bay Bucaneers, Jacksonville Jaguars and the Miami Dolphins. Hey how come they have three teams? I suppose California has three, but not for long. Soon they’ll have two, because the Oakland Raiders are moving to Las Vegas. Any who. We were driving down the highway and he said oh I forgot my debit card. Oh really? I had to get off the next exit and turn back to where we came from. I pulled up to his door and he yelled got it! Great mate we’ll get you to your fix soon. We talked about his unemployment and apparently he does some unofficial stuff that the government doesn’t know about. Sounds illegal. None of my business. He didn’t tell me what he did no matter hard I tried to figure out what he did. Oh well.
Then a scheduled trip to the budding anthropologist doing his masters. We obviously discussed how he was going. It’s a stressful subject, but so worth it. Although it hasn’t helped me lately, might have to get a PhD. That takes 3 years full time or 6 years part time. If I was to do it, I would do it by publication instead of a rock hard thesis.
Then another Lyft ping. A gentleman and his son needed to be picked up at a diner in town. The man was a retired steel worker and the young fella was studying a myriad of subjects. He didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life. The retiree picked I was from Australia and was pretty excited about it. Started probing me the Great Southern Land. From boomerangs to vegemite he was just so darn curious. Just go there and you’ll get to experience what it’s actually like to be Australian. He asked how I got here of all places and my response was “Got lost, took a wrong turn at Wooloomooloo and ended up here”. Obviously they both laughed. Honestly it’s an actual place.
Dropped them off at a college dorm type location and went on my way back to lakeway drive. Saw a van with the word ute on the rego, wondered if the driver was an Aussie. Then ping. The same guy I just dropped off needed another ride. Should have waited. Then a ping in uber. Damn. Forgot to turn it off. I accepted both and rang the uber passenger, he was fine to wait. Picked up the steel worker where we continued our discussion about Australia and dropped him off at Fairdinkumhaven terminal. I got a message from my uber passenger telling me he has got to be at class at 1.30 pm. Oh darn. It’s 1.20 pm. He said he’ll still wait. He was the lad I picked up a few weeks ago the hydrographer. He remembered me, but I didn’t at first. Then he told me what he did. Oh now I remember. See day 58 the post about the SS Central America. It was one of the most fascinating discussions I had with a passenger. He was super cool. Unfortunately I made him late for his religious studies course. He wasn’t too worried though because it was a 2 hour lesson. Oh phew. He was 10 minutes late. Wasn’t too bad, but I told him blame me. I need to turn off an app quickly before I get another ping.
Then I picked up a chap at a hotel in town he was training at a local office max. Apparently they do all that in Bellingham and not in Seattle. He was up from Seattle, getting per diem for this training. It was only a short trip.
Next was a refugee from Africa. Although he was from Kenya, which I didn’t think was too bad of a place. He’s a truck driver and has been to all 48 states in the USA. He wants to visit Australia. It took him 12 months to get his green card. Wow mate I’m still waiting. 20 months to go. He loves Washington over all the state’s and said Utah has the cheapest gas in the country at $1.93 / gallon. That’s insane! What’s that per litre? 0.51c /litre. Meanwhile in Australia it’s about $1.70 / litre what’s that per gallon? $6.45 / gallon. Yep crazy. Minimum incomes in Utah are about $10/HR. Australia is about double that.
Next I had an Aussie in my car. I didn’t pick up on his accent until he said he’d been living in the USA for 55 years. He started off as a butcher and traveled the whole country, then we went into retail then finally real estate. He was visiting from the Bay Area to help his son to move. He had taken a boat to Canada and was returning. The app before I picked him up said 4928 miles to his destination. He was only going to the airport. Phew. Was going to say that’s a long bloody way! We chatted about his life here, he said it was difficult at the beginning, but got better the more he stayed. I said I guess I got to give it more time. The man was from the shire. “You a Cronulla fan?” “Yes I am!”. “Surprised you didn’t notice my kickass Panthers seat covers”. He didn’t because he sat in the back.
After dropping him off at the airport I got another ping heading out from the airport. This man wore a velvet jacket and had round spectacles, with a yellow beard. He had a black short tripped beard. Sideburns connected. We somehow got onto the subject of political agendas. Oh goodie. At first I said I’m not too left or right, I feel like I’m more of a center left with my political mentality. Although where I’m from the right wing government brought in strict gun laws after a mass shooting in 1996. He was in agreement about gun laws, but as strict as Australia. I said I do enjoy shooting, but I’m not a citizen and I can go buy a gun right now. He was shocked that a foreigner could go and buy a gun. Then immigration got into the conversation. He was all for stricter immigration and said legal immigration is the only thing that works. I said it’s not working for me. I’m still waiting for my green card. He was shocked, but you’re doing it legally. So? It means nothing. I can’t get any benefits like a citizen can. He went on to talk about Hispanic people. Specifically Mexicans. He took his niece to hospital and he said “I’m not racist, but…(in my head here comes a racist viewpoint) it was overrun by illegal Mexican immigrants”. I said “how do you know they were illegal?”. His response shocked me “if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, it’s probably…”. I interjected “a swan”. I said “people can’t just get free medical care like you presume they can if they are a migrant, if they’re there before you then they were there before you”. “They can’t deny them of medical care, they still have to treat them, even if they can’t afford it”. “Obviously, but they’re still going to get a massive bill whether they want it or not.” I was getting irritated with my passenger, when thankfully the trip was over. I dashed out got his bag, shook his hand went on my merry way, fuming at his ignorance. I wanted to unleash hell on the man. Stupid entitled property manager. Racist prick. Just because your niece is sick doesn’t mean they get a free pass. You have to wait just like everyone else. All the people in front of you were most likely citizens not illegals like you assumed as much.
My final passenger was at the Silver Reef Casino and was with her mother. They were day drinking on the daughters day off. I had cooled myself down waiting at the airport. The daughter is a hairdresser and cuts men’s hair for $28 and apparently does everything Sports Clips does for $24 only apparently better. Sports Clips has a massage chair, hot towel, haircut and obviously Tv’s with sports on it. They asked me if I could drive them to Arizona and I said that’s not unheard of. Told them about my big drive to California and back. They asked me about my accent and I said “surely the koalas on my mirror were a giveaway”. “Australia!” “Yes ma’am”. We had to drop her mother off first and she took a water and sweets. As we dropped her off we saw the lady’s husband on a ride on mower. She yelled “I’m going to see my friend for more drinks”. He nodded his head and kept mowing with an awkward little wave. Lady I think you’ve had enough. I plonked her off at her apartments and she thanked me. She proceeded to stumble and took the last of my sweets and water.
Home time. 8 trips on uber. 2 trips Lyft. Thirsty Thursday is next.
