09/24/16

Downtown did not seem as alive as I was expecting.  Only did 4 rides tonight but with the "peak" pricing that Fare is doing, I achieved my goal with only those 4 rides.

The last ride of the night was a full load of 6 guys that I picked up downtown and dropped of at the Perfect 10 Cabaret.  They had plugged a phone into the aux jack and were singing a song that I had never heard.  They obviously knew the song well as all of them were belting out the words in perfect unison and at the top if their lungs.

09/23/16

The night felt different.  I only had one trip downtown and was able to make it all the way back home before another request came in.  All other trips were to areas in the north, which has not happened in a long time.  Usually, once I have a trip downtown, I get bounced around in that general area.  The 1.5x and 2.0x rates really added up quick.  By midnight I was almost double my goal.

Lots of interesting riders tonight.  Didn't much care for the couple that smelled like the testing room of the Marlboro factory but they were interesting to talk to.  The most interesting conversations of the night came from a couple of airline pilots that were headed to West 6th Street.

Not sure why Fare added the pricing change during certain hours.  Obviously it is related to the higher demand times, but I almost felt guilty seeing how much it was costing the riders.  ACL is coming up and perhaps it has something to do with getting ready for that.  Maybe it is a ploy to draw drivers from the other TNCs to insure they have adequate coverage in the coming weeks.  It is hard for me to say exactly what they are thinking.

09/21/16

Oh my God!  Dirty Mexican girls.  They were speaking in Spanish and I could tell where their conversation was headed.  Right when I was about to let them know that I understand every word they were saying, they started talking about the guys they had or had not "fucked" and they used that specific word, in Spanish of course.  At that point I did not dare let them know that I understood every word they were saying.  How did I know they were Mexican?  By the way they cursed.  That profanity only comes from one country.  One of them is a fucking party animal, literally.  She said so herself by what she was saying to her friend.

These were a couple of beautiful ladies.  It is interesting however, that all of that beauty evaporates when a lady speaks in such a repulsive manner.  I am not offended by profanity or fast women but these two have their priorities in a very bad place.

09/17/16

Another steady night that got me to  my goal and home by 11:30pm.

I am partial to brunettes but there was this group of blondes in black dresses, that looked more like lingerie than dresses, that was quite a site to behold.  I think it was a bachelorette party but they didn't ever really say.

One thing that they did say is that America was turning into a bunch of whiners.  They had been discussing the Texas Tech "get your guns up" and the "wreck um Tech" and how a group of people were claiming that these were violent statements and should not be used.

Picked up a couple on the west side of downtown.  As soon as the lady got in the vehicle the cork blew on the bottle of wine she had.  I commented that now we can get the party started.

09/16/16

12 rides and I was way over my goal by 11:00pm.

The keyword of the night seemed to be "chain".  Multiple conversations between the riders themselves were critical of chain restaurants.  Not the typical McDonald's / Burger King type but instead restaurants such as Chuys and Texas Land & Cattle.

Picked up a couple that were probably in their 70s.  Great conversation about several things including the benefits of ride-sharing from their perspective.  I was very impressed at the way they were as a couple.  I have always had the utmost respect for my elders and even as I approach those ages myself I still feel like I am supposed to show respect to them.  I still see them through the eyes of my younger self.

One pair of guys were very interested in my thoughts an opinions on the situation related to Ride Austin dropping their prices earlier in the day.  I had read the e-mail from Michael Leto of FARE stating that it was not a good thing and that FARE would not be going down that path.  I shared that information with them and also shared why I did not get "warm fuzzies" when I was reviewing the Fasten web site.  To my surprise the guys said that this is exactly what other drivers had said as well.

Picked up a large group of guys near the Hula Hut who had been on Lake Austin apparently as part of a bachelor party.  As we headed away the gentleman next to me shared the experience they had with a neighboring bachelorette party.  According to him at some point in the afternoon there were breasts exposed for their viewing pleasure.  Shortly after those comments their was an "F-bomb" dropped in the back of the vehicle.  One of the other guys made a comment about it and I responded that there should be no worries as this ride-sharing experience was F-bomb friendly.  The guy next to me exploded with an F-bomb and then thanked me for sharing that information as he had been holding the F-bomb in for hours.

I picked up a couple of nice looking ladies that were going to a show at the Moody Theater.  They talked about a variety of things and at one point became distracted from what they were discussing.  As one of the ladies tried to get the conversation back to where it was before the distraction, she retraced what they had talked about prior.  "Where were we.  Lets see.  We talked about yesterday, we talked about John, we talked about your mother-in-law, the threesome thing, oh yeah now I remember."  I almost laughed out loud as she went down the list as if there actually was a physical list of what had to be talked about during the trip.

09/03/16

Huge demand tonight.  First time since being with Fare that the requests were one immediately after another.  12 rides tonight. 

One rider was discussing travel and foreign languages.  At one point in the conversation she commented about a quote she saw that said "you don't really know one language until you know two languages".  I can proclaim this to be true.  Thanks Jacqueline.

09/02/16

It felt like a slow night but in reality I think everyone started going out later than on most nights.  College kids are back and I had 2 loads of them tonight.

I have some really insightful conversations with the younger ladies.  Tonight the conversation was anchored to the subject of how boy's irresponsible behaviors are prevalent much deeper into life than those of girls.  Based on my experience, observations, and the many interactions with a broad demographic of people, it is blatantly true that boys are irresponsible for a much longer period of time than girls.  I would dare to say that this is one of a handful of reasons you see younger women with older men.  The other reasons will not be discussed in this blog entry but feel free to let your imagination decide. 

Thanks Sarah, for a very interesting conversation.

Lots of the usual "Uber" conversations.  I was feeling extremely irritated about something but could not figure out what it was.  It caused me to become mentally tired and I shut off the app at midnight to try and rest my mind.

08/31/16

With a weekend out of town, a family crisis and a visit from mom, it has been a couple of weeks since driving.  Went to the mechanic to get an $8.00 inspection and was able to get out at a discount rate of $3,100.  I could tell that there were a couple of things going on so it really wasn't much of a surprise.  Just wish it would not have cost so much.  Money I did not have yet.

Did a couple of rides on Monday and Tuesday and then exploded into tonight.  Steady requests beginning at about 5 pm shortly after I turned on the app, and 5 hours later I had earned $100 from 10 rides.  Several pieces of data that can be formulated out of those three numbers, each of which I am pleased with.  I have yet to hit the $30 an hour and higher level that I was maintaining with Uber but this is working okay.