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.
