12/29/18

Oh my God!  Does it really cost $18,000 plus monthly storage costs to freeze your eggs at a fertility clinic?

Ya know, you're really not hiding much of what you are trying to hide when you say something over the phone like, "yeah dude, I am on the way.  I have to take a break, if you know what I mean."  

I should have taken a break and went to Barracuda to watch this band play.  I had never heard of them or listened to any of their music but I looked it up and I liked it.  The rider had a guitar and amp and stated that they were playing at the Barracuda.  Of course I had her first name on the Uber app so I did some research and discovered the music of Van Mary.

While enjoying the antics of a drunk group of riders, I told them this is one of the reasons why I enjoy driving for Uber.  I then made the mistake of stating that sometimes I also get to participate.  For a moment I thought that the inebriated ladies were going to find a way that I could participate.  Fortunately we arrived at the drop off point rather quickly.

Rockeys Piano Bar 

The Roadhouse

There were a couple of times that I made it back to the house and was idle for a few minutes.  The last rush of requests started out when I picked up in a close by neighborhood.  It was a young girl.  I asked the man that came outside with her if he wanted me to call him when I dropped her off.  He stated that she was going home and then walked over to the car.  I realized that the pick up address was not here home and went ahead and started the ride so we could see the drop off address and verify it.  As we left I asked the girl how she was doing.  She said that she was fine but had been at a sleep over and did not feel well so she was going home.  When I dropped her off I waited until she entered the house before I left.  She was a very polite little girl in thanking me for the ride and wishing me safe driving for the night.  I was a little surprised no adults came to the door but it could be that they had gone out for the night since she was supposedly going to be all night at a sleep over.  She went in through on open garage door and then appeared to get a key from her bag to go in the back door.  

I have never seen a supposed cowboy that was such a pussy.  Oh, wait, yeah I do remember one other time.

Wild West

I was shocked that I ended up with 17 rides tonight.  With the crappy weather and a weekend between two holidays, it should have been dead but it was a good one.  I wrapped it up about 1:30am after a 4:30pm start.  Long session but it goes by soooo fast.

12/19/18

The conversations that the two riders were having during the first trip really messed with my brain.  Such so that the rest of the evening felt just a little off.  The politics, rumors, and who should be in what role in a company is important but I just didn't feel these two were genuinely professional.  They certainly talked the part and for all I know they could be the owners of the company but there was a complete absence of feelings or personality in either of them.  I did, however, learn a new cliché.  "Sharp elbows" to describe someone who is abrasive in their interactions with others.

The Live Strong foundation is still out there but struggling.  This group of riders had some form of connection with Lance Armstrong.  Apparently he has had to sell a $7 million dollar home and other things to keep up with the lawsuits, one of which was from the U.S. Government (U.S. Postal Service was his sponsor for multiple years).

Dropped off at a restaurant that I had not seen before, The Launderette and the last ride tonight was a drop of at Uchiko which is a restaurant that I had not picked up or dropped off at in a long time.  Might as well throw in two more from the night.  Lambert's and Nightcap.

12/18/18

While approaching a round-a-bout I made a comment to the rider that I had always thought these things were just some sort of way to adorn an intersection.  Then, upon hearing someone talking about them, I discovered that they are considered to be more efficient than a stop sign controlled intersection.  Of course, the rider in my passenger seat was very familiar with the subject and had completed studies and research on them.  It was all to my advantage as I was the one learning but holy shit at the lack of randomness in a completely random topic.

And he tipped me too, which means that he enjoyed the conversation as well.

12/17/18

The rider suggested and I agreed that the scooters are procreating overnight.

11/24/18

Incredibly dead Saturday night.  4 rides.  But it was more than enough to pay for that tank of gas that I paid $1.95 a gallon for.

11/23/18

Rides where the rider and I talk for the entirety of the trip, are few and far between.  I had two tonight.

I did not know there was a Deep Eddy Cabaret.  I have driven by it a thousand times and had not noticed it.  I certainly know it is there after tonight.  Three trips in a row from there tonight and interestingly all three had women as a passennger and two of them were married couples based on what I overheard.

The second couple that I picked up from there were considerably drunk and had me laughing my ass off.  They wanted something to eat and for me to stop at the first place that I saw.  The only thing I could think of was Whataburger on Guadelupe near the campus so we blasted our way over there.  They were kind enough to order a taquito meal for me as well.  After leaving Whataburger the lady started trying "drunk call" friends.  She mentioned one of their names and they guy said to me, oh, that is the hot one with the nice breasts.  His wife in the back yells out, "how the fuck do you know?  You don't know that!"  "Don't be a fuckin' moron."  "Yeah, she does have nice breasts."                                
On a similar note, later in the night I had a rider that I dropped of at Rick's Cabaret.  Uber LUX.  I usually get one of those about once a month.

Upon the completion of a small amount of research, it appears that Deep Eddy Cabaret is not a Gentleman's Club as I was somewhat insinuating.  That is an error on my part as the word Cabaret does not necessarily refer to a place where naked women entertain customers.  It would appear that I have learned something today.

11/21/18

A Wednesday before Thanksgiving you would think to be lifeless.  Indeed it felt like downtown had been abandoned.  I turned on the app and immediately received a request for a pick up at Perry's.  Even before I had dropped them off another request came in.  It was across rhe street at a place called Perla's.  Maybe I am about to be surprised again like I was on Monday.  Nope.  I almost made it all the way home before the next one.

I have now completed my first non-human ride.  The request showed on the app to be at a place called Biryani-N-Grill.  I pulled up and the app appeared to be stuck but I payed it no attention.  Then I received a call from the rider asking when I would be arriving.  I told him that I wss right outside rhe front door of the restaurant.  He came outside and signaled for me to roll down the passenger side window.  He showed me a plastic shopping bag that had some other paper bags inside.  He asked if I could take it to his freind.  I breifly hesitated with my answer as all kinds of thoughts are going through my head but then told him that I could do it.  The app was still acting stupid so I wrote down the address where I was going.  I headed out thinking about all of the possibilities of this scenario.  Was it a bomb?  I said a quick prayer just in case.  Was it a practical joke of some kind that will get me punched in the face when i deliver it?  I can smellbthe food so it is probably not anything bad.  The app is still being stupid and now my phone is frozen.  I pull over to get it going and end up having to power the phone off to get it to clear.  I started the app again and "boom", everything started working correctly.  I pulled to the drop off address and took the bag to the front door.  A woman answered and when i told her that the food was from the restaurant she seemed to have been expecting it.  This all happened close to home so I surrendered the remainder of the night to other capable drivers.

11/19/18

I really thought that this Monday would be slow due to it being a holiday week but that was not the case.  Mondays have become a staple in my routine.  They are just as busy as a Saturday night without the alcohol factor.

One young couple was excited to be going out for the third time.  Visually they didnt look like a match at all.  She had a more mature and business-like look where he had the jeans and leather jacket thing going on with a big mohawk haircut.  However, based on their conversations, they are a pretty good match.

When the app shoes that a tollway is going to be used, I ask if the customer agrees with using the tollway.  In today's case, the lady was on her phone and by the time she was finished, there were not any good options of non-tollway roads.  And I offered anyway, then opted for a toll free route.  The route almost took us full circle and the passenger lady was upset.  I made a mental note of the destination address and then closed the ride, letting her know what I was doing.  It was at that point a miracle happened.  She was suddenly the happiest person on the planet.  I will no longer being offering alternate routes.

Lots of riders with a British accent.

It has been well over a year since I had a repeat rider and have only had a handful in over 3 years.

11/17/18

Anticipating a busy night even though I had completely forgot about the UT game.  First ride was from Avery Ranch to North Italia in downtown.  Good way to start out.  Upon dropping them off on beautiful 2nd Street, I received another request at Trinity and MLK.  Easy enough.  NOT!  This is when I was reminded of the football game.  Numerous street closures and it took a while and several deviations from the navigation to get to where I could pick them up.  They did get picked up and off to The Domain we went.  Other than a midnight drive by on Mopac, this would be the last time I saw the streets of downtown Austin for the night.

Had the first completely Spanish passenger and conversation.  I can tell a hard working Mexican male a mile away.  They are polite and have a certain confidence in their voice.  This guy was certainly one of those hard workers.

Young lady was out with a friend for the first time since her and her husband had a new child.  She was riding by herself using her friends Uber.  Fun conversation about the Jalepeno Ranch sauce that Chuy's serves.  That stuff is frikin' awesome.

Shortest ride of the night was a young female that lived close by her work but felt that it was too dark for her to walk home.  Good decision.  The younger ones usually do not tip but I noticed the next day that she did.

Picked up a group of people that were going to The Post Tavern.  The gentleman setting shotgun asked me to tell him about an interesting experience while driving rideshare.  I told him about the bachelorette party that I picked up on the south side of the Congress bridge and how they were all completely wasted already, handing out all of the windows of the vehicle and "blessing" everyone we passed with their little wands that had a penus on the end of it.  I told him about how the traffic was terrible and we were stuck on the Congress street bridge with these ladies coming on to all the guys and waving their penus wands around for all to see.  I thought we were going to get out assed kicked.  There was a brief laugh then he went into information sharing mode about how it is natural for males to seek somewhere to stick their penus.  He had seen a documentary or something and males of various species naturally look for something to stick their "pee pee" in.  His wife is one of the people in the group and they are all a little set back that he is telling the story but all are laughing and enjoying the moment.  He shook my hand as he was getting out.  That doesn't happen very often and for me is always a sign that they enjoyed the trip.  I know that I did.

A request for a pick up in downtown Pflugerville came in.  The address was the Red Rooster.  I pulled up and a female came over and I asked if she was the rider.  She said yes but it was for a friend and he is soooo drunk.  He is just going home but he is soooo drunk.  "Will he need a barf bag?", I asked.  The woman turned around and yelled, "HEY!  ARE YOU GONNA NEED A BARF BAG?"  I never did get an answer but when I saw it was an older man, I wasn't as worried about it.  He looked like a seasoned veteran at this kind of thing.  He and his friend got in the vehicle and he wouldn't close the door.  He kept talking to the lady who was trying to get him on his way and allow the traffic we were holding up, to flow.  We finally got on our way and his first words to me were, "does that fuckin thing tell us the right place to go?"  I told him what it said and was okay with that but then asked what mother fuckin service is this?  "Uber" I said.  Fuckin son-of-a-bitches.  Fuckin' Uber.  Shit, I think I really fucked up.  I told me ex-wife that I loved her.  Was that the wrong thing to do?"  I told that it probably was not as long as no-one did anything wrong.  "Well that piece of shit husband she has now probably want like it.  Fuck him.  I do still love her.  Fuck it, we'll see what happens."  "It's the next street up there.  Bunch of fuckin niggers in there always shooting everything.  You got a gun?"  I hadn't heard anyone use that word in a long time and I didn't answer his question about a gun.  "Turn left and then turn left again.  Do you know how to fuckin drive?"  "I am following your directions so we are depending on you getting us to where we need to be", I told him in a confident voice.  That seemed to shut him out, for about 5 seconds.  "There's some of them fuckin niggers", he said.  I didn't see anyone and as we turned the corner to where he said he lived I saw 2 Hispanic ladies to which he referred to as niggers as well.  He got out and turned to look at me.  "You take care of yourself", I demanded.  He smiled and gave a kind of a salute wave off thing to me.  Wow!  Glad this was a short trip.  I immediately received another ride request but stopped on the way to look in the back and see if everything was in order.

The longest ride of the night started near Parmer and Anderson Mill and went down to Southwest Parkway.  I was struggling to stay awake, which usually does not happen.  On the trip back I had the app set to find rides going towards my home address.  It was after midnight and there is usually always someone going home at that time.  Not tonight.  I made it all the way to the Whataburger at 45 and Lake Creek.  I felt obliged to stop at Whataburger and do a quality control check of the taquitos.

11/16/18

I failed and I felt so bad about it.  I had accepted a ride request from a female to be picked up on rhe north side of rhe capital.  As I pulled up there was a couple rhat lookwd like they were waiting for a ride but rhey did not look up when I arrived.  I looked around and the only other person i saw was an elderly lady with a cane that was 30 yards away and slowly working her way up the walkway.  I went farther up and started a u-turn to go back.  There was no traffic anywhere around as I begin the u-turn when this idiot comes around the corner and down the street like he is trying to escape death or something.  I was acroas the rode and about to make the final turn but he wasn't going to wait.  Without even slowing down he shot his knotted up dreads through the shrinking gap between the front of my vehicle and the parked vehicle un front of me.  Now I am pissed and trying to find my rider.  I pulled up in an open parking spot at the address and didn't see anyone except the old lady with the cane trying to get off od the sidewalk and was hanging on to a sign pole to lower herself down.  I didn't feel comfortable with the way I was parked, so I pulled out and went up a few more spaces.  From there I waited and looked around for about 30 seconds and then decided to turn around again and park in a wide open space directly across from the address.  As I pulled up I saw that the old lady with a cane had made it to the middle of the street.  She had not looked my way on any of our previous encounters that would indicate that she was the rider, but I thought that it wouldn't hurt to ask her.  I pulled over and the moment my window had come down enough to allow outside influences in, I heard the old lady with the cane call out my name.  My heart sank.  "I am so sorry.  I passed you two times and didn't realize you were the rider."  She kept coming across the street and then informed me that she would be walking in front of my vehicle.  She opened the front door and asked if was okay if she set in the front.  "Of course", I said.  "In fact, I would prefer it."  "I really messed up on the pick-up and I apologize."  I asked if she needed any help getting in and she did not answer me.  She got in somewhat okay but then did ask if I could help here with the seat belt.  The destination was south of town via Mopak.  I attempted conversation several times to make her feel comfortable and there was a couple of brief exchanges.  I got the impression that she was fine whether we talked or not.  I usually do not pull up in the driveways of the passengers but I informed her that I would pull up in her driveway and come around to assist.  I opened the door and she put up her arm in what appeared to be a gesture to request assistance.  I reach to her arm and was about to lift a little when she said "no".  I apologized and stepped back to give her some space.  Based on the pick up and now the drop off experience, I really don't think she wanted help from me or anyone.  She wasn't rude or grumpy, she just seemed to want to do everything on her own.  She thanked me and went to her garage door and started trying to enter the code to open it.  I begin  to slowly back down the drive, leaving my lights on her until she make it safely into her house.  It appeared that all had ended well but I was still on edge about how things had started.

They typical plan on Fridays is to get home at about 6pm and take the family out to dinner.  Today, I was going to leave work as close to 5pm as possible, accept 1 ride then switch the app over to get rides that were on the way home.  With the first ride going several miles south of downtown, it wasn't going to do much good to switch the app to my home address.  Being south, everything was going to be on my way.  Sure enough the next ride did get me a little closer to home but not very much.  A gentleman going to the Moontower Saloon.  As soon as I dropped him off, another request came in at an address not too far away.  As the couple got into the vehicle, the lady asked me if these were my cigarettes.  "SHIT!", I thought to myself, completely upset that I had not checked to make sure the vehicle was okay when the previous rider got out.  Apparently he dropped his cigarettes and didn't notice it.  The lady said she would throw them away at their destination, which was fine with me.  They were going to the Frank Irwin Center, so that was going to at least get me back to downtown.  

I knew that I was supposed to order pizza for this Friday's dinner and my severely altered plan had put everything in jeopardy.  The moment I dropped of the riders, I went offline and ordered the pizza to be picked up.  Arriving at Papa Johns Pizza, I discovered that I had ordered it from the wrong location.  I was screwing up and everything was irritating me to no end.  Although the night was going to be incredibly busy, I decided to play it safe and just stay home.

11/15/18

I probably could have gone later than 8:30pm but the last ride was from downtown up to the Homewood Suites at 35 and Parmer.  That was close enough to home that I headed West and went offline when not far from home.

Very interesting lady that was in the tech industry.  Her fiancé is in politics.  It was a short ride but one of the most interesting.  She talked a lot about the mix of the two skill sets and it was all very interesting.  In one portion of the conversation she talked about politics in California and how crazy the liberals get.  Apparently, at a time not too long ago, there was a political hot topic of legislation that some were trying to get passed that would allow a 14 year old girl to get an abortion without consulting her parents.  That is crazy talk.

Getting back to the last ride of the night.  The two riders were discussing Pittsburgh and how it is more of a technology place than the image one may have in their heads.  I shared with them that my only Pittsburgh experience was in the airport changing planes but that there was an announcement over the public address system where the lady announced a phone call on the white service phone for a Mr. Harry Long-rod.  The second time she was saying it she stopped in mid-sentence and didn't say anything else.  The two gentlemen laughed and one of them made a reference to a scene in the movie "Airplane" where there is an announcement for Captain Oveur that he had a call on the white courtesy phone.  He walks over and picks up the red courtesy phone nearby and the announcers voice is heard over the phone saying, "no, I said the white phone".  He picks up the white phone and the same voice can be heard saying "okay, I am connecting a call for you".  We all laughed again.

11/12/18

Trying to control a runny nose and sneezing when customers are in the vehicle, is a torturous thing.

Mondays continue to be just as busy as weekend nights.  Just a different type of customer.  Went to the airport twice and both times I ended up getting pegged for a pick up as well.  It works good that way in that I return to downtown with a rider instead of wandering back in the direction of downtown with no rider.

11/09/18

The map was on fire with the red overlay representing the demand.  Just going online laid claim to a $3.75 bonus on the next ride which immediately popped up.

The moment I dropped off the first rider of this Friday morning, I received  the next request and it appeared to be in the vicinity of Cedar Park Medical Center.  A call was comimg in and it was from the rider.  The location of the pickup was indeed the Cedar Park Medical Center.  The emergency room had a patrent that was needing to go home and the ER staff had been trying for over an hour to get a taxi.  She asked if I would be able to help and I told her that i would be right there and I would take care of it.  On the way there I am imagining all of the different scenarios that I may be encountering in just a few moments. 

I pulled up to the Emergency doors and they begin rolling the guy out in a wheel chair.  Something had happened to his knee and it was wrapped up such that it looked like it had been something serious.  The man looked really rough and unkept and I felt that I needed to prepare for the journey ahead.  I started talking to him so I could get an idea of his level of awareness.  To my surprise he was very well spoken and very polite.  He loaded himself into the vehicle and I closed the door behind him.  In almost a whisper the ER person said, "thank you sooo much".  "I am going to give you a huge tip".  I smiled and told her "you're welcome".

We verified the drop address and headed out.  There was a short conversation and then he said to ease excuse him if he falls asleep on the way after what he went througn3 last night.  Five seconds later he was snoring.  A few minutes later he lowered the window and then there was snoring again.  The poor guy was dead tired but was right on the spot to help guide me to his house.  The navigation had it nailed down but I  followed his directions anyway.  We arrived, he shook my hand and demanded that i stay put as he could get out just fine.

I completed the ride in the app and turned back towards the main road.  The results of the ride popped up and true to her word there was a $15 tip.

11/07/18

Usually 8:00pm would not be a most optimal starting point for an evening of ride-share driving.  Not the case tonight.  Got a ping right out of the garage.

Picked up near Rio Grande and 16th street.  Holy shit!  That was a fox that just ran across the road.  Not what I would expect to see in the middle of the city but then again, deer run all over the place so why not a fox as well.  The rider was going to the airport and just as the last 2 trips to the airport, I received a request for a pick up the moment I had dropped off.  The couple I picked up where headed right back where I had just came from.

Just as I dropped them off at a hotel, I received a ping for a rider just up the street.  He was headed to Lakeway, which is a somewhat long trip, and asked if that was going to be okay.  Of course it was okay.  On the way to the drop off address, the rider stated that he had just had dinner with Dennis Quaid and last week with Richard Linklater.  We had good conversation for the duration of the ride.

Upon dropping him off, I received another request nearby.  This was the first time I had dropped off or picked a rider in Lakeway and now I had done it twice.  I dropped this one off nearby and unbelievably received  a third Lakeway request.  Equally unbelievable was that they were headed north and would be dropped off near home.

I had one more rider that pushed me even closer to home and upon dropping him off, I declared that the night was finished.

11/05/18

Almost a steady back to back night of requests again.  Not much out of the ordinary except a drunk woman that could barely talk but that was able to get out of the vehicle when we arrived at her destination.

I decided to set the address for home and head in that direction with a mostly un-eventful night behind me.  Then another request came in.  At the pick up point, the first passenger wanted me to tell the second passenger we he arrived, that I would not be able to take them to a gentleman's club.  I did so when the second passenger arrived and there was just silence until the first passenger started laughing.  We headed out and they begin talking about rider number two's girlfriend that he was thinking about asking to marry.  That is all well and good but both riders are big fans of gentlemen's clubs and were wondering if that would cause a problem.  But wait, the girlfriend is a stripper.  How could that be a problem?  Lots of very personal information exchanged between them as if I was not even there.  Anyway, these passengers know what they are doing and are business owners of some kind.  I dropped them off at the Yellow Rose and once again headed for home.

11/03/18

The night was busy with back to back requests, but it didn't feel busy.

First request I have had for someone specifically wanting to go to downtown Round Rock for the evening.  There are numerous restaurants and bars in downtown Round Rock and this group was not wanting to deal with the madness of downtown Austin.  Makes sense.

It was several requests before I ended up in downtown Austin.  After dropping off on West 6th, I had a request from a little further over on West 6th right before Whole Foods.  The app showed that the pick up was on the south side of the street.  The only people that I saw there was a couple and they did not look like they were waiting for an Uber.  It would have been hard to catch a ride when you are making out like it is the end of the world.  I am sure they were about to get a ride to the closest apartment or hotel.  I turned into the parking lot near this spectacle and was going to try and circle around and see where my passenger was.  I then received a phone call from the passenger and she said they saw me turn into the parking lot and they were on the other side of 6th street from where I turned.  I told them not to worry that I was circling back around and would be there in a few seconds.  I looped around 5th to West and back to 6th.  I saw a group of ladies with one of them happily jumping up and down and waving at me.  It was a group of 6 ladies and they were a bachelorette party.  As they all got in I asked them if they saw that couple making out like there was no tomorrow and told them that was what had distracted me.  They all laughed and the lady in the passenger seat said that she blew her penis whistle to try and get me attention.  There was a moment of silence after her comment and it was not to remember the deceased.  I made some sort of acknowledgment to her penis whistle comment and all of the ladies in the back laughed.  There was one lady in particular that giggled at everything I said after that.

A large number of female passengers again tonight.  It makes me wonder what the statistics or demographics for Uber riders looks like.  It would be interesting to see those numbers.

I had a ride that ended up near 290 and Mopac so I took 360 out and around in the general direction of home.  It was about 12:30am and I did not get any additional requests as I pulled up to Whataburger to contemplate the conversations and activities of the night over a Combo meal #20.

11/01/18

Eberly, Uchi, Baby Acapulco, Lambert's, Indigo, DoubleTree, Palmer Events Center, The Rustic Tap, West 6th Street, Rainy Street, West Campus.  A very comprehensive list of the evenings pick-ups and drop-offs.  14 trips in all and I still made it home before midnight.

The music that college kids are listening to is completely vulgar.  Most of the time it is not really music but just a rant with some form of musical instrument that just happens to be making noise at the same time.  I would say that this primarily rap music is demeaning to women, but the girls are listening to it too.  They are just as vulgar as the guys.

Picked up a couple of nice ladies at Uchi.  One of the first things one of them said was that she had figured out how to change the color on the beacon.  I found that very interesting as I did not know that the rider could do that and I had not noticed that it had changed colors from green to pink.  We discussed the very frequent conversation about how I started driving for Uber and how it was a great source for storied to tell others.  They laughed and commented that I would not have much to talk about with their boring activities.  Then one of them reminded us about the beacon color discovery to which I replied that this alone would be a talking point and therefore qualifies.

Picked up a lady at Lambert's and ended up having a great conversation about agriculture.  She provided a first hand story of a time when Blight killed all of her families pear and apple trees.  I had heard of the Blight but never had a first hand accounting of an incident.

Attempted several times to pick up a rider on Rainy Street.  The pin on the map was no accurate and the riders were not doing anything to make themselves obvious to me.  I received a call from the woman that was waiting and she asked if I was her Uber driver that she had requested.  I answered yes and that is why she was able to call me.  She went on about how she did not understand what was going on and was I getting close.  4 huge horses from the Police Department had just passed and I had fallen in behind them to hopefully have an undisputable reference for this challenged person to see.  I called the rider back and asked them if they could see the Police horses.  She said that she could and that they were right in front of her.  I told her that I was vehicle that was immediately behind them.  She said I see them and I am wearing a red dress.  I immediately saw her and it would have been nice to have hard that information from the start.  Her and her boyfriend get in and we have to drive about half a block behind the horses.  She asks if there is another way out and I answered no that we would stick with the app.  What app do you have, she asked.  The Uber app.  No, I mean what maps app are you using.  The Uber app.  Yes, but what map.  The Uber one.  Her boyfriend had to cut in  explain to her that Uber had its own map app.  She then started talking about how great the Ways app is and asked if could go ahead and switch to it so we could get out of here (from behind the horses).  I told her no, that we are about to be out of the traffic and I would then be free to quicly get them to their destination.  The lady had an incredibly uncomfortable aura about her and she kept her mouth moving the whole time.  I was glad to drop them off.

Picked up several elderly couples that appeared to be traveling together.  The ladies were drunk and everyone was having a good time.  One of the ladies that had not used Uber before did not understand how the driver knew where to pick them up at.  The guys in the group begin to have fun with this and told her that it was magic and that the app knows what you need.  Kind of like Santa Clause, but without the gifts, I added.  I then told the lady I was psychic and could read her mind.  That is how I now where to pick them up and where to take them.  Oh dear God, you don't want to be reading my mind.  As she would talk she would hit me on the shoulder like one of the good ol' boys.  Lots of fun with this group.

10/30/18

Not quite the $100 plus night that I experienced last Monday.  Downtown was dead but I did get 1 rider and that was enough to "pay for the gas" to get home.

10/27/18

I hear some of the things that these, not yet mature guys say, and remember some of the things that I said when I was that age.  All I can think of to say is that "guys can say some really stupid shit".  "Bros before Hos" with Hos being a reference to all females and the overall reference being that your buddies have priority over girlfriends or women.  There was a female in the group that didn't care a whole lot for what they were saying.  She said something that was quite profound.  "When will people realize that we are all alike and start focusing on personalities?"

Damn dogs shed all over everywhere.  I was nice and told the riders that it was okay that their dogs ride in the vehicle.  I like dogs but I don't like dog hair all over the place.

The first request came in at 7:10pm and it was non-stop after that until a stopped at about 1:45am.

10/25/18

Let's just call this "Ladies Night".  All riders were female and all of the conversations were great.

The first rider was from Puerto Rico.  She had a beautiful accent as she spoke perfect English.  Then she practically yelled out, oh my God, scaring the crap out of me, and then saying that this was the most beautiful sunset she had ever seen.  I turned and looked and indeed it was beautiful.  The most beautiful I had ever seen also.  As I dropped her off I stated to her that I was glad we got to share that sunset together.  She laughed and said, me too. 

The profound element to this experience is the following.  We will never see each other again but we will remember this moment for the rest of our lives.  A permanent beautiful memory with a complete stranger that only a few moments earlier we had never seen before in our lives.

But there is more.  The last ride of the night found myself and the rider driving straight into a huge and rising almost full moon.  Moments later we were treated to this same moon as a backdrop to a lake with the reflection off of the water being breathtaking.

Incredible evening of ridesharing.  Setting sun, rising moon and beautiful ladies to talk to.

10/22/18

Mondays can be incredible.  It was non-stop for 4 hours.  17 trips.

10/20/18

That guy was damn weird.

Almost made it to Liberty Hill.

Why is Rock Rose blocked off?  Let's pull around the corner.  That "wanna be cop" has really got the wanna turned on.

All of these guys voices sound the same.

This lady has said "fuck", in one form another, 53 times in 13.43 minutes.  She didn't look like someone who would use that word so frequently.

I felt very uneasy tonight for some reason.  Somehow I managed to make it through downtown and the campus on i35 without getting a ride.  As I got closer to home I shut off the app and stopped at Whataburger for some taquitos.

10/18/18

I received an XL request as I pulled out of the parking garage at work.  As I made the final turn to arrive at the address, I saw a large number of guys and 1 lady.  She made a hand signal to acknowledge my arrival and after a brief moment her and a group of the guys started walking my way.  I immediately noticed that the guys were carrying on as if they were drunk.  The lady got in on the passenger side as the others loaded up in the seats behind us.  They weren't drunk, they were plowed and it was only 8:30pm.

She was beautiful.  The first thing she said was to put on some music because they were going to be loud. She stated that she was the "sponsor" of these guys and it was a bachelor party.  I asked what a sponsors role is at bachelor party and she laughed as she told the story as to why she was there.  The plastered guys are carrying on this whole time.  She had been living out of town for several years and was in town  visiting.  All of these guys were her classmates at school and she had found out about the bachelor party upon her arrival. She decided to crash it and ended up having to take care of all of her drunk friends.

One of the guys yelled up, "hey ×××××× are you going to invite your friends over?  Are they hot?"  She answered, "let's suppose that I do, what will ya'll do?" Three or four answers came forward all at once. "Make out", "talk", and one yelled out "Fuck!"  She looked at me and said, "you see what I am dealing with" and then said to the guys, "let's suppose that I will not be inviting them over".

We arrived at our destination a short distance away and they begin to get out.  She turned to me and thanked me to which I graciously responded to.  She may possibly be one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen.  She was in complete control of this crew and herself the whole time.  Amazing.

One of the guys apparently forgot how he got in the vehicle and was trying to get out by releasing the seat.    Either him or one of the others had a beer that I did not see and as I was reaching back trying to fix the seat, I noticed that beer had been spilled in the seat.  "Idiots".  I pulled up the street and luckily had some left over napkins from Subway and was able to clean it up without any residual smell.

10/17/18

I stopped by Uber and picked up my Beacon yesterday.  Today was the first opportunity to try it out and it works good.

Always a little irritating when there is a ride request at a spot that you had just driven by.  I was over 6 miles away and ended up going back the same route that I had just taken.  I could not figure out why the app had reached out that far but then I remembered the Uber XL will do that.

Toughest time ever at getting to a pick up spot in the university.

Speaking of the university, I got stuck in that area before I was finally able to get out with the drop off point of the above mentioned rider.

10/15/18

Cold, rainy and at times, windy Monday night.  Yesterday it was 94 degrees and today 44 degrees.  From the moment I turned on the app it was busy.  I thought I was the only one doing rides downtown until I saw a Lyft driver go by. 

I had an interesting chain of pickups and dropoffs.  Took a couple to Uchi, dropped them off  picked up another couple at Uchi.  Dropped them off at Halcyon and picked up two guys at Halcyon.  Dropped off fhe two guys on Davis street near the Van Zandt.  Picked up a couple on Davis street at the Van Zandt and took them to Manuel's.

Made $100 for 3 hours work and 13 rides.

10/12/18

Friday and I took off work today as I usually do on the second Friday of each month.  I decided to see how the morning works for Uber and was shocked to see how high the demand was in the mornings.  It is just a large and maybe more than the evenings.

The first riders of the day went to an office complex in what I call the Riata area.  Interestingly enough, the last rider of the day was picked up from this same complex.  I knew that I would have at least one run to the airport and sure enough I picked up at the Aloft hotel near home and went to the airport.  Traffic sucked and I should have stuck with where the navigation told me to go and it wasn't 183 all the way which is what I thought would be better and was not.

Of course once I dropped off at the airport, I was within range of downtown activity and begin to get little short rides around the outskirts of downtown.  I took a long lunch break and spent it with a close friend downtown.  After that, the ACL festival goers took over.  Multiple rides with 8 of us in the vehicle and the last big group was having a large time that was a blast.  Somewhere out there are a couple of videos of the entire group, driver included, belting out Don't Stop Believing right on tune and in unison.  We were stuck in such bad traffic that I was having to decline additional ride requests coming in.  We finally looped around from 6th street to 5th street and they decided to walk from the Mean Eyed Cat to Austin High School and on to Zilker Park.  Before the loud music and singing took over, one of the riders was talking about a radio station that had announced that a specific day had been designated as "coming out day" for gays.  He added that this was completely ridiculous as gays do not come out when they are told to.  They will come out when it is right for them.  I thought to myself how this makes sense.  I related it to my dislike for others signing me up or making me volunteer for groups or events.  I will volunteer me and my time to the groups or events that are right for me.

I went offline and headed to the north to get in a higher paying area on the map which was lit up with red everywhere except where I was.  I started up Mopac but rush hour traffic was on and I immediately exited onto Enfield and went up to cut across on Exposition.  The high demand zone kept shrinking away from me and I never really caught it so I decided to go back online with my home address activated.  Even with those restrictions placed on myself I immediately received a ride request.  I picked her up and dropped her off near Mopac and Parmer and received another request.

This request would end up being the final one for the day at the very complex where the day had started at 7:30am.  The gentleman came out and I noticed he had a severe limp.  We immediately struck up a conversation that eventually gravitated towards the ACL music festival.  He mentioned that he had a disability and then told me about his last visit to the festival.  He told about how he was interrogated by the police at the entrance to the festival about what his disability was.  He had already gone through the "vetting" process to obtain the specific wristband but yet was being questioned by the policeman.  When the event was over, he had asked the event staff help is there was a way someone could help him get to the ride-share pick up point that was a long way from the event.  He said that they looked at each other and had no idea of what could be done, while droves of event staff in golf carts were buzzing back and forth.  It was a very enlightening conversation from an informed perspective of the ADA subject matter.  I really enjoyed to short moment we spent talking together.

I turned and looked in the back and there was a butt-load of cat hair in the floor mats.  "Where in the hell did all of that come from?"  I am sure it had to be someone in that last big group but that much stuck to someone should have been noticeable.  I have seen full grown mountain lions that did not have that much hair on them.  I stopped to get gas and cleaned most of it out.  It was flying everywhere when I swept it outside.  It reminded me of that scene in one of the American Pie movies.

10/06/18

7:30p to 3:45a     A personal record of 20 rides and over $240.

The night finally got started with a trip form nearby up to Georgetown.  Had a nice conversation about the UFC and WWF.  I dropped him off and wondered if I would be able to get a rider that was going a little bit further south.  Sure enough, picked up another one at the Cinemark at the Round Rock Premium Outlets and made my way back down 35.

Took a couple to Kura Revolving Sushi Bar, left, and immediately had a request to pick someone up from the same place.  The next ride is the one that took me downtown.

The Austin City Limits music festival had ended for the day and traffic was interesting.

Picked up a gentleman and then another ride came in.  I realized that he was a Pool Rider and I had not noticed.  He started groaning and complaining about having to go pick up someone else.  He offered to give me a good tip if I would just swing by his destination.  Honestly, I didn't care about the additional tip.  I just wanted his whiny complaining ass out of my vehicle.  Dropped his ass off at the Fairmont Hotel and headed out for the 2nd Pool group.  It was a young male and female and the moment I let the male know that we had another Uber Pool pick up, he started cursing and carrying on like a brat.  Why do these people select Uber Pool and then cry like babies when the y have to share a ride.

Pulled around to make a pick up at the Casa Chapala Mexican Restaurant.  There was some great music playing in the outside seating section and these two people dancing and having a great time near the front door.  Turns out these were my riders.

The last leg of the above mentioned Pool riders were a couple of Spanish speaking ladies that had been to the music festival.  They had noticed on my Uber profile that I spoke Spanish and we talked about how I had learned Spanish until we made it back to their hotel.

It was late and I turned off the app to go home.  Then I remembered the address feature and decided to turn it back on with my home address as the direction I wanted to pick up riders for.  Couldn't hurt anything and maybe I will get lucky.  And that I did.  Picked up a rider on E. 6th street and he was headed up almost all the way to the area where I live.  Perfect way to have the night end.

10/05/18

Well, the planned $200 night didn't happen.  It was later then usual when the first ride request came in and that was actually an indication of the night ahead.  Stopped at a little after 11:00pm with a whopping $30 bucks.  But that's okay as I have some of the best stories of them all.

Had a vehicle full of riders that I picked up at Jardin Corona in Cedar Park.  I believe that most of them were from England.  At one point one of the riders was observing the United States flag that was at a business near the intersection of 183 and 1431.  He commented how beautiful it was and how patriotic Americans were.  He went on to say that this is not found in England any more and that many British look to Trump as an admirable nationalist.

The final request of the night took me 15 miles to the west of Cedar Park on 1431, and down a dirt road called Adrian Way.  I grew up on dirt roads and had no issue diving in and extracting the riders from the location that was over a mile into the darkness.  Just as I was about to arrive at the destination, the rider cancelled.  I was pissed but okay, I will get the cancellation fee and maybe a long pick up fee.  I begin to have thoughts about why I had been lured down into this place only to have the rider cancel.  I immediately turned around and got the hell out of there.  Once back on the pavement, I stopped and logged my compliant with Uber.  In true Uber supporting style, there was a cancellation fee added to my account when I checked the app the following morning.

This wasn't the last ride but I saved it for the last section of this post.  I received a request immediately upon dropping a rider off at the shopping center in the southwest corner of Lakeline and Cypress Creek.  The app suggested that I needed to exit the shopping center and go all the way around the block to get to the location.  As I pulled out of the parking lot I realized that the pick up spot was near the same area that I had just left, so I modified my course.  As I pulled up to the location a text arrived from the rider.  "play flogging molly and Ill add 5 to your tip".  It seemed somewhat cryptic and I opted to the thought that the rider was suggesting that I should find something to do for a moment while they finished and came to the vehicle.  I responded that all was good and to take your time.  On a hunch, I thought I would turn on Spotify and see if there was such a thing as flogging molly.  Sure enough, there was a band named Flogging Molly.  I turned it on to see how their music was.  Then a lady come out of the bar and got into the vehicle.  "My husband is messing around and will be right.... OH MY GOD, THAT IS FLOGGING MOLLY!"  That is what we were listening to inside!  The husband shows up and I am giving him a thumbs up as he reaches for the vehicle door.  His wife is completely stoked and is yelling how great it is that I had Flogging Molly playing and it became obvious to me that he had not told her that he had suggested it to me.  In the conversation on the way to drop them off, it became apparent to me that this musical group shared a deep connection with this husband and wife.  Especially the wife.  She now believes that the Uber driver / me, is part of some kind of divine connection or purpose.  We arrived at their home and she went inside to get tip money as she did not understand the app.  The husband thanked me over and over about how that experience had worked out.  I was impressed by the couple.  It was obvious that they love each other and are great together.  And I am now the Divine Uber Driver.  At least for them.            Most awesome trip to date.

09/29/18

I can confirm that ladies do refer to men with nicknames.  In a previous post (10/26/16) I had overheard 2 ladies talking about how they use nicknames for men to identify them amongst each other.  Tonight I had a different group of ladies that were doing that.  This confirms that the phenomenon does occur.

Personal record of 19 rides tonight and once again easily broke the $200 barrier.  Big rally at Auditorium Shores for "Beto" in his Senatorial election efforts, in fact the first 3 rides were Beto related.

It didn't feel like 19 rides and before I knew it, it was after 2:00am.  Several Uber Pool riders and they actually left tips.  Pool riders usually don't leave tips.

9/24/18

Two riders were talking about their cell phone service and why it was or wasn't doing what they wanted it to do.  They were using all of the technical jargon that is associated with this technology and I begin thinking about how none of this existed only a few short years ago. 

9/28/18

Rider: "How does this look?"  "Too much boobs?"

09/22/18

I had this one posted before but accidentally deleted it.  Probably just as well as the previous one was way too detailed and the reader would loose interest quickly.

Right at $215 for the night, a new money record for a single night.  It was also a record breaking night in that I had multiple pick-ups to north, farther north than I have been before.  Georgetown, to be specific.  Downtown Georgetown is alive on the weekends.  I was surprised.

A few rides later, I ended up in Dripping Springs for multiple rides.  This was the farthest to west southwest ish that I had been.  On my way to one of the pickups in Dripping Springs, I seemed to be getting deeper and deeper into the country.  I finally reaching the next turn and that lead deeper and deeper into a pasture.  Then out in the middle of nowhere, there is a security gate.  I glanced down at the app and saw that I had a message.  It was the gate code.  Deeper into the pasture we went and then there it was.

Reached to turn off the app a couple of times but the ride requests kept coming.

The last ride of the night was at the Platinum Mens Club.  As I was pulling up 4 strippers were leaving and they walked right past the group of guys that were waiting for me.  They got into the vehicle and begin laughing and cursing to which one of the asked me I could just ignore the ones in the very back that were doing most of the cursing.  I told him that profanity was not my concern that instead I was more concerned about them letting the 4 strippers escape.

I got home at about 3:30 am after 14 trips.

09/08/18

Started out in Brushy Creek.  I pulled into the apartment complex and saw a vehcile coming out of the gate and made a mad dash to dive through the gate as it was closing.  The pick up showed to be inside the property and where I usually wait at the front of the property, I thought I was being clever by makeing the risky dive through the gate.  I then noticed a message from the rider that said they were at he front.  At the same they called and I let them know that I was headed back up towards  the front.  I laughed and told them about my dive through the gate thinking I was being smart.  She laughed and said they saw that and thought that it was me.

They were sisters and were going out together for apparently the first time in a while.  The conversations were good as we headed towards the programmed drop off address.  To get to that address the navigation kept trying to take us from Parmer road over to 183 and then south.  Parmer road passed very close to the drop off address.  I told the passengers as we approached Avery Ranch Blvd that I was going to continue on Parmer to see if navigation changed its mind about 183.  As we passed Avery Ranch, then Lakeline, then 620, the navigation was sticking to 183.  At McNeil I gave in and headed over to 183 and then went south.  One of the ladies was talking about how bad of heartburn that she was having and wanted to stop at a convenience store to get some Tums.  As she was getting out of the vehicle she asked if I wanted anything to which I answered no, that I was fine.  She asked if I was sure and I told her that a Pepsi would be great.  To my surprise she asked if I wanted a bottle or a can.  I was impressed and told her a can if they had it.  As she was inside I commented to her sister about how that question of a bottle or a can had impressed me as I do have a preference to cans.  When she came back to the car she had one of the huge cans of Pepsi, to my delight.  "Oh my God, you got he big one", I said, to which she responded that this was all they had.

We were close to this apparently "one way in and one way out" destination, and continued talking about the origin of the bottle or can question.  We were getting deeper into a residential neighborhood and they had been talking about their destination being a club called The Maverick.  We arrived at the indicated destination of Maverick Street and West Cow street.  No club.  They went to work looking up the correct address and told me it was in Pflugerville.  I turned to get back over to the freeway as they finished getting the address.  It was on Grand Avenue in Pflugerville.  They asked if we were far from that location and I told them yes but it wasn't too far.  They put the correct address into the Uber app and away we went again.

I was asked if I watched the show, The Walking Dead.  I told her that I was aware of it but had not watched it.  She stated that the group of people who responded and worked on the rescue of victims and survivors at the World Trade Center site after the attack, are referred to as the walking dead, due to the asbestos and other hazards that they were exposed to.  The lady that bought me the Pepsi is one of the walking dead.

They invited me twice to join them for the evening.  It would certainly be enjoyable as we seemed to had a great connection.  Lots of laughter, and good conversation.  This was one of the best rides to date.

08/23/18

I like the airport rides.  Usually lots of freeway and easy drop off.  But there is always that time when things try to make it difficult.  A completely missing freeway exit ramp for example.  The navigation said it was there but all of the orange cones and yellow construction equipment didn't care what the navigation said.  No worries, we will go up one exit and cut back.  That worked okay even though it was rush-hour traffic and therefore a little slower than preferred.  Especially since the rider was concerned about having enough time to get to the airport.  The first thing she said when I picked her up from the DoubleTree Hotel was, "how long will it take us to get there?"  Of course we made it with plenty of time to spare.

As I drove away from the terminal I noticed the usually icon on the app that shows your position in the que for a picking up from the airport.  I was never one to set around and wait for a ride so I had never picked up at the airport before.  The icon indicated that I would be in spot number 11 when all of the sudden the notification of a pick up sounded.  I looked and it was at the airport, lower level, column J.  And just like that I had my first pick up at the airport.  Easily made it to the rider and we headed out for a location on Hancock near Mopac.  He was on his phone most of the ride but as we were getting close to the drop off location, he mentioned a book that he read named Boys Adrift.  That lead into a very interesting conversation about the topic and I will be purchasing and reading that book.

08/28/18

I think my brain is permanently damaged.

I was like and she was like and they were like and then someone walked up and was like and I said like and then like we like.

The first group of young people were not a dirty looking group of college kids, but they needed to take a bath.  I had to air out the vehicle on the way to the next trip after they got out.  I pulled up in a drive way for them to get out.  I was sure that I could just pull up the drive way and turn around in the parking lot I could see behind the house.  NOT!  It was worse than that parking lot over near Hotel Ella.  How in the heck do these kids get in and out of this place?  What a major pain in the ass that put my backing skills to the ultimate test as I backed my way around a corner and back out all the way to the street in a driveway that my vehicle barely fit in.

Getting stuck in West Campus can be a killer.  I try not to decline any requests and thus when I accepted a ride that ended up being in West Campus, I knew what was about to happen.  One large group gets a ride to another spot not far away.  They get out and you immediately get another ride with a large group going not too far away.  In some cases it is almost right where you just came from.  I finally had 2 riders going to Rainy Street.  That was far enough away to break the West Campus chain.

I continue to be amazed at the fact that with well over 1,000 trips and 3 years, I have only had 4 repeat riders.

08/18/18

It has been over a month since I have had time to drive.  I dont really have time now but needed  some stories for this blog and some money too.

With the first ride at 9:30 pm, I didn't think it was going to be much of a night.  I was wrong.  $108 in 3 hours is not bad for a hobby.

Two full loads of huge guys.  Profanity galore.  The first group was from New Jersey and had been to Lake Travis.  They kept talking about these girls that they met and apparantly received a "FLASHING" as part of the program.  We were able to squeeze all 7 of them into the vehicle with the 7th one sat between the middle row seats and as we got closer to the destination he commented that he was bleeding out the ass from having a butt cheek on each seat.  He asked if there was a cleanup charge for blood. I told him that it was only if the blood was out of someone's ass.  Lots of laughter.

06/26/18

I don't really care to much for the Uber Pool option.  It can mean that there could be additional complete strangers in the vehicle and it definitely means that there will not be a tip.  My preferred name for this option would be Uber Imacheapass.  Oh well.  I had an Uber Select rider yesterday so I guess it all works out.  Why did they build the new Oracle building in that part of town?

I was considering turning the app off when a request for Uber Pool came in.  It was an easy pickup right off of Mopak and Far West.  I pulled right up the address which was an apartment leasing office.  I get a call from the rider asking where I am at and I tell him that I am at the apartment leasing office.  The rider sounds really red neck trashy and tells me that I was at the wrong place.  I start to back out and see a person talking on their cell phone about 25 feet from my vehicle.  I can see that what he is saying is the same thing that I am hearing on my phone so I roll down my window and shout "hey, I'm right here".  "Oh, shit!  The app always messes up and I thought you were across the street", he said.  He was carrying the smushed up remains of a six-pack of beer and talked like he had drank more than that six-pack.  He smelled like it too.  Mix in the smell of cigarette smoke and clothes that looked like he had obtained them from underneath one of the bridges where the so-called homeless people hang out and you have a social catastrophe waiting to happen.  "You must be rich", he said.  "How do you recline this seat"?  He reclined it way back.

"These mother-fuckers are assholes here.  One guy parked his car and his didn't seem to know that his bumper was about to fall off.  I went over to let him know and he shushed me away".  "He thought he was too good to talk to me or shake my hand.  It happens a lot".  He plugs his phone into the charger and Hank Jr. automatically starts playing from his phone.  I had not heard Hank Jr. in a very long time.  "Too many crazy people here".  I asked him where he was from and I could not hear a word of his response because of Hank Jr.

About that time a nice looking Mercedes passed by.  "Fuck you!  You think you are better than me?"  I asked him where he worked.  "I work where ever the fucking pay is good".  "There goes another one!  Fuck you!"  The guy was drunk and was being a red-neck asshole.  We made it not too far away to another apartment complex and I dropped him off.  He wanted to know my name and to shake my hand.  After that I took off around a corner and as soon as I hit the freeway, I rolled down all of the windows to flush out the odors.

06/04/18

1 hour, 6 rides, $31.41.  I am okay with earning over $31 an hour to drive around town and have interesting conversations.

05/30/18

I knew when I turned on the app that I was on the wrong end of the demand.  At 8:30 in the evening, the demand is for rides coming into downtown and I was headed out.  As my vehicle and I presented ourselves to the streets, it was obvious that the demand was going to be light.  However, the hour was approaching when people would be leaving the restaurants and either going home or to their next stop-off of the evening.  99% of the time the demand cycles for rides are amazingly predictable.  I was thinking about this as I got closer and closer to home.  The demand predictability for this day was looking to be one of those 1% days.  Then it happened.  A request.  I was in the middle lane and an exit ramp from the freeway was upon me.  It takes the app a moment to catch up and there were numerous times that in that brief moment that the app was catching up, I would pass by an exit that I needed to take but had no way of knowing it yet.  Now, anytime a request comes in and I am on the freeway, I immediately exit off of the freeway at the first opportunity.  Such was the case with this request.  I dove for the exit and made it off of the freeway.  Moments later when the app caught up, I was in the right where I needed to be.

Picked up a large group of high school kids from a residence near Oak Knoll and took them to what they were calling home near West Campus on North Lamar.  It is always interesting, although sometimes irritating, listening to them talk and thinking about how things were when I was that age.  One girl mentioned that her parents "tracked" her which sounded strange even though I knew exactly what the was talking about.

A couple of pickups from the Domain.  One gentleman was going downtown to the Sheraton.  I don't know what he was working with from his backpack but there were some strange noises coming from the right side of the middle row.  It almost sounded like he was assembling something and I said a quick prayer and asked for forgiveness and that my family be taken care of, just in case something was about to go down.  No fear.  Just covering the bases.

There was a comment that Ronald Reagan was a Star Wars fan.  I knew about the program named Star Wars but didn't know that it was because he was a fan.  Not sure if it is true and I wasnt in a position to verify it.

Another interesting comment from the back seats was a statement that China is externally Capitalist and internally Communist.  Also that Russia has the most expensive airspace on the planet.

It had been a long time since I dropped off at the Palladium Men's Club.  2 guys and 1 girl.

So, $82.00 in 2 hours on a Wednesday that started out with me on the wrong end of the demand stick.  $40 an hour will work for me.

04/24/18

Oh my.  She has got herself a Sugar Daddy.  And Sugar Daddy has got himself a good one.  She carries on great conversations and asks all of the right questions.  Except when she asked if they should go to Vancouver.  Sounded like a reasonable question but Sugar Daddy's response of "oh fuck no" caused me to think otherwise.  Sharp looking couple with no shortage of "financial support".

Beautiful and classy middle-aged brunette in a leather skirt.

Pick ups at the Hotel Ella always show on the navigation as this crappy parking lot behind a student housing apartment building.  I made the mistake of pulling in there (again) and almost not being able to get out with all of the vehicles jammed in there.  It was obvious that none of the vehicle owner's last name was Parker.

Had another first time Uber user tonight.  I always try to give the first timers a good initial impression of Uber.  It appears to have been a good experience for the group as they were apparently compelled to leave a tip.  For the small period of time I was driving, it was a good night for tips.

I just wanted to "pay my way home" and next thing I knew it was almost 10:00pm.  I had to be back at work by 1:00am so I just went back to work.  Made over $80.00 in about 2 hours.

04/12/18

We had decided to go to the gym and my daughter and I were going to go swimming while my wife worked out. My daughter had cough so it was decided that she would just go to the kids area. I did not want to work out so I just decided to drive. 

A couple of hours earlier I had to make the decision and inform my wife that we should stop looking at houses because we were in no position to buy one.  This caused an argument as she was not wanting to put her dream on hold.  The argument stopped and we went into the silent phase.  At the gym she had just came over to where I was setting and we had begun to talk about the house situation again when I was pinged for a ride.

I pulled up to the main entrance to Apple and noticed two males with dogs to assist them, standing at the drive way.  I drove by slowly to see if either of them where the riders and  neither looked up to acknowledge me.  I  decided to go ahead and park to wait for the rider to show up.  While parking I received a phone call from the rider describing where they were and what they looked like.  I responded to the  caller by saying that I was parked right next to him and was looking right at him.  The caller said okay we are coming over and that is when it hit me.  Holy shit these guys are blind and I am trying to be a smart ass.  I immediately rolled down the window and told them to hang on just a moment while I pulled the vehicle up into a better position. I then jumped out to help.  One of the gentlemen wanted to ride in front.  I asked him to hold my arm and then led him and his beautiful dog over to the passenger side.  I then returned to the other side and assisted the other gentleman and his beautiful dog.  One the way we had a couple of good conversations.  One of those was regarding another Uber ride that they had requested and the driver had a mattress and other stuff in his vehicle and was also delivering food.  The rider commented that it appeared that he had several side jobs going on at the same time.  I commented that he was probably a plumber also and the passengers burst out in laughter.  As we approached the destination, I asked where it was that they were going.  They told me Buffalo Wild Wings and even though they had been there before, all they knew was that it was close to Walmart.   We circled Walmart and did not see it.  One of the men then commented that when he steps out of the front door it is facing a highway. That was the clue I needed and I headed for the frontage road of the freeway.  The man asked if I could give him a description of where the restaurant was located so he could better describe if for the next driver.  Then, out from behind the trees, I saw it.  I immediately shared the location with the riders.  We arrived at Buffalo Wild Wings and I assisted them out of the  vehicle.  One of the gentlemen thanked me and stuck out his hand for a handshake in the opposite direction from where I was.  I stepped over in front of him, shook his hand and expressed how glad I was that we had met. 

On the way back to the gym I was thinking about how fortunate I was to have my sight but more importantly how fortunate I was to have had the opportunity to be in these gentlemen's lives for a few moments.  It kind of made the house thing seem silly.

01/20/18

Not a very busy night but I did meet the level of the quotas that I used to set for myself.  Did not have a single trip to downtown.  There was surge pricing on for 4 hours but I never got a ride down there.  On one ride over to East Austin I had 2 Chihuahua dogs which was a first.  The guy gave me a $20 tip after I had already told him that I would take care of it.  I had not planned on going very late but ended up going until 2:00am.

Usually white people dont carry the odor of the food they have prepared but this guy was bad.  I had to roll down the windows and let the vehicle air out while i was on the way to the next rider.  Earlier in the evening the rider smell was tortillas.

01/08/18

Started at 4:30pm and had steady activity until I turned off the app at about 8pm.

Having lots of problems with the navigation on the app.  It really annoys me and wastes fuel.  It also irritates me when riders cancel and I am only a block or so away.

There is a new Target opened at Dobbie Plaza.

I do not care for the Uber Pool option but I make it a habit to not turn down any trip requests.  Usually the Uber Pools end up being just a single rider but this evening, for the first time, there actually ended up being 2 riders on the pool.  To complicate things, I ride request came in before I had finished dropping off the 2nd rider.  There was some confusion on my part, but once the second rider was closed out in the app, the waiting rider's information popped up and off I went to pick him up.

01/09/18

I like the rides where I feel like part of the group.  And the smart ladies and having conversations with them about intelligent things is really a charge.

Picked up a group of 1 lady and 2 men that were going to the Haymaker restaurant.  We all talked about various things and at one point I heard the lady pronounce a word that qued me to think that she spoke Spanish, and her English was flawless.  As we approached the drop off point we passed a newly opened Peruvian restaurant and she pointed it out and pronounced the word Peruvian in Spanish (Peruana) to which I said in Spanish, ah , hablas Espanol.  O, si she replied and stated that her mother was Peruvian to which I added that my wife was Peruvian.  Oh my God the lady exclaimed and I added that I had proposed to my wife at Macchu Picchu to which one of the guys in the back erupted in a Yeaahhh!  He proclaimed that he was the first person to see Macchu Picchu in 2017.  The conversations on the ride were great and the ride certainly ended with a bang.

01/13/18

This was the first time in a long time that I had the full intention of going deep into the night, but the night just would not get any momentum.  At about 7:00pm I had a shorty from around the corner going over to a nearby club and another one, also from nearby going to the same club a few hours later.

In between those there was a rider that smelled like a dirty goat and a very intriguing female who was very interested in conversation.  She did not mind sharing details of her life and I cautiously entered into her conversations.  I later found out that she was a hair stylist and that explained almost everything that I was wondering about.  She wanted my phone number as she was going to be needing a ride a little later and wanted to call directly.  And about 45 minutes later she did.  On the way over to pick her up in Leander, 2 ride requests were made.  I am sure one of them would have been for downtown and once I get the first downtown ride, the night is on.  I got close and texted her that should make the ride request and I should be the closest.  She called and said that she wanted to just pay cash instead of go go through Uber.  I dont like doing things like this but I took her on her errands and we continued the previous conversations along the way.  Once I dropped her off, I turned Uber back on and headed south once again.

Picked up some well off and super nice ladies in the Brushy Creek area.  They were headed to the Domain.  Once they were in the vehicle I complimented them on how nice they looked tonight and they all 3 exploded with gratitude.  Lots and lots of conversation and comments about the man in their life and how those men would interfere with what an independent lady was accustomed to.  Really interesting conversation between them and on a couple of occasions they included me.  When I dropped them off I thanked them and told them I felt like I should get out and hug all of them.  They thought that was so nice and reached up to the front seat and patted me on the shoulder.

Picked up one couple from a club on Burnet Road and took them to a place in the middle of an industrial complex.  There was some kind of club in there and it was full.  Not sure what it was.  We stopped at a convenience store on the way and while the man was inside his wife talked about how much she still loved her husband and she showed me the ring that he had recently bought for her.  When he returned the conversation eventually lead to a point where I commented that she had shown me the ring.  She said that she was amazed that he had selected such a beautiful ring.  The man confessed that he had help from the male jeweler but that the ring being displayed on the felt finger thing had made all the difference.  Such though that he thought about buying the felt finger thing as well.  We all had a really large laugh about that comment.

It took 9 trips and 11:30pm before someone was going downtown.  Picked up 3 young ladies on the 4th floor of the Red Garage at the Domain and began the trek to downtown.  OMG, my brain was so tired by the time a dropped them off.  Listening to them talk about one of their friends and their circle of friends and who knew who in each circle of friends and the guy that one of them should stay away from and the friend that only hangs with this one guy because no one else will hang with her, HOLY SHIT!  Give me a conversation with some sustenance.  As we exited Mopac and closed in on the 5th street split, I begin preparing myself mentally for the extremely heavy traffic that I felt like I would be finding.  Indeed,  when dropping them off at West 6th and Neches the traffic was bumper to bumper as anticipated.  The streets were alive.

I immediately got another ride request that was about 50 feet away.  Somehow I managed to get over 2 lanes in standstill traffic, and pick up the waiting couple.  We steered to the right on Rio Grande street and escaped the madness of West 6th street.  Dropped them off and had another pick up waiting.  Picked them up and received another request before I had finished dropping them off.  Then one of the drunk little pricks threw up in the middle seat and on my back.  I was pissed and when we got to the drop off spot I got out to see what the hell the damage was.  The kids friend was apologizing profusely and was not getting a response from me.  He offered to go get some paper towels and I accepted the offer.  I was super pissed.  They were looking at me like they were about to get their ass kicked and the thought did cross my mind when the kid started throwing up again in the yard where I dropped them off.  I was going to put my foot in his ass and push him over into his own vomit.  His friend and I cleaned up the mess fairly well considering it was after midnight and we couldn't see very well in the darkness.  This whole time the next rider is waiting to be picked up.  I finally got the disaster to a point where I felt like I could pick up the next rider without them knowing there had been an incident, and left.  Once I picked up and dropped off the next rider, I turned off the app and headed towards home.  I was also almost out of gas so I stopped in at the HEB and did some more clean up and put gas in the vehicle.  Still pissed.  I turned it in to Uber to charge a clean up fee and I gave the rider a low Star rating.

The next morning it was apparent how bad of a job that was actually done in the clean up.  The sunshine of the day revealed much more clean up was needed.  I am still pissed.  A new fucking car and this punk is throwing up in it.

01/12/18

A personal record of 5 trips to the airport today.  Also near record of earnings in one day.  First time to drive during the day.

01/07/18

I was leaving work at 2 am, which is when the bars close, so I turned on the app to give some rides.

Very irritating sequence of events with the first rider cancelling and the second rider not showing up.  I think this was the first time I have cancelled a ride.  Finally picked up a large group across from Stubbs and took them up the Coronado Hills area.  And then there was another one that cancelled and I was almost to the pick up spot.  The good thing about the 3 cancelations was that I received a cancelation fee from all three of them.

Was almost home and got pinged.  Picked up a gentleman in Brushy Creek and dropped him off in Hutto.

Made it home at 4:30am.