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.
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