My first passenger was a Mexican nurse. She was heading to work and the and has been a nurse for 10 years. I told her ” I couldn’t be a nurse because I don’t like bodily fluids”. Laughter reverberated around my car. “I don’t deal with that all the time.” Replying to my comment. I dropped her off on time.
Ping! Got a guy near the hospital who works at a retirement village. I asked him what he likes about his job? He replied “You have so many people who have lived a full life.” I said “Do you have any interesting people living there?” “Yes we do”. He said. “Who?” I asked. “We have a holocaust survivor living there, she has been to hell and back.” “Wow that’s intense! I bet she has so many stories to tell”. “She has presentations at the hall every now and then talking about her family escaping the holocaust.
My rider told me the owner of the Mariners mother lives in the retirement village. Along with the many older people who first worked on the original computers. I asked him if the mother gets free tickets to the game at all. He wasn’t sure, he said baseball isn’t his sport. “What is your sport mate?” “Rugby”. “No way, mine too”. We discussed positions he played and why he stopped playing. He was a winger and the only reason he stopped was his substitution that went on for him unfortunately had a severe accident. “What happened?” I asked. ” My replacement got caught in a maul and a player’s cleat hit his eye socket and ripped his eye out of his socket, that’s why I stopped playing.” “Oh my lord that’s horrific!” I gasped. That would have put me off completely. It’s like watching the muay Thai boxing or MMA fighting and the guys leg goes to jelly after kicking an opponent. We then discussed fighting and marital arts. Mentioned I did karate and a bit of ninjitsu. My rider was impressed. “Where am I taking you? The road appears to be closed”. “Oh just the park, I’m picking mushrooms”. “Oh OK”. I zoomed out my map to get a better visual of the location. “Found another route, hang on to ya horses”. I chucked a uee and took the next right and bang there we were at the park. The guy thanked me and went on his merry way.
Next was a Chinese Lady going to a foot massage business on Meridian. She was hard to understand at first, but when I really listened I eventually did. She struggled to understand me because of my accent as well. I picked her up on Meridian and then uber took me off Meridian, then back on Meridian and then way off Meridian and eventually back on it. What’s happening here? Eventually it figured itself out. It was only when my passenger said something that it dawned on me that app was taking us around a weird long way. It wasn’t avoiding traffic either. It was all messed up. She thanked me for figuring out what was happening.
Then there was a veteran and his wife who had a batch of spring rolls for the veterans at the American Legion building. “Casserole?” I asked them. “No spring rolls for the Pool Tournament at the American Legion establishment”. The building has no windows and is essentially a bunker. It’s a club specifically for veterans. There aren’t many around, which is surprising since America glorifies their military history and serviceman. In Australia Return Services Leagues or RSLs are common and extremely popular offering cheap meals for former servicemen or members. Every town you’ll find at least one. Here you have to hunt for them and are inconspicuous to the eye.
Finally a student. She was studying environmental science and was from Yakima. A little town in Eastern Washington. We discussed the weather and my new job out in eastern Washington. I said I’ll find out more details of the archaeological fieldwork. She was excited for me.
That’s it for Wednesday. 4 trips uber 2 trips Lyft
