05/29/19

I had my story after the first ride and was going to call it a day but instead stuck around for 3 more ride requests.

Picked up a group in West Campus.  One of the girls dropped the "F" bomb and then apologized.  Gave me a chance again to do my DJ voice announcing that "this Uber ride has the added bonus of being "F" bomb friendly".

Then one of the guys in the group starting talking about weird dreams that he has had.  Apparently one of the dreams was taking place in a bowling alley and he was badly beating everyone in bowling.  Such so that he ended up shitting all over the bowling alley.  His dream not mine although in all fairness we have all had strange dreams.

Another item out of this group had to do with a short friend of theirs who was dating and even shorter girlfriend.  Someone in the group used the word "midget" and was immediately scolded by the rest of the group, for using the "M" word.  A correct word was identified and used for the remainder of the conversation.  It is great that there is a level of respect for everyone regardless of their "variables" and I hope everyone is happy with the this.  When I was growing up some of my friends would have called them fuckin' dwarfs and went on about their day.  A lot has changed in 40 years and it has changed for the good.

05/23/19

Oh yeah!  A smorgasbord of four-letter words surrounding  a cornucopia of f-bombs. A very colorful conversation with an ex military gentleman that was equally as interesting as it was colorful.

It is UT graduation this weekend.  I had one rider tonight that will be part of those activities as he is part of the "UT Class of 2019".  He didn't talk much but I was able to get out of him that he was glad to be graduating and would be going on to law school after a brief vacation period.

Dropped off the rider in an area near Mount Bonnell and couldn't find my way out of the damn neighborhood.  I usually just turn around and retrace my steps but I was sure that I knew where the roads would lead me to.  They did not lead me to anything except half a dozen cul de sacs on the sides of hills.

Wow how the tall, shapely, confident, well spoken, sociable, engaging, Australian accented female had my attention.  Additionally, I was running extremely low on gasoline and was not sure how I was going to work in a gasoline stop.  Like a dream she climbed into my vehicle and then said, "would it be okay if we stopped somewhere so I can buy some cigarettes".  "Of course", I said, knowing that my problem had just been solved.  There was a convenience store near by and we pulled up to it.  "I'll be right back," she said as I was trying not go into shock at the $2.74 a gallon price of the gasoline.  I had $10 pumped into the vehicle and was back in the drivers seat and she never knew what had happened, although it may have seemed odd to her that I was parking next to a gas pump when there was acres of parking next to the store.

I screwed up twice on one ride tonight, which has not happened before.  I drove past the frickin' hard to see drive way when trying to pick them up, then I took the wrong entrance ramp getting on the freeway.  I decided it was time to go home after this trip.  I offered compensation to both (it was an Uber Pool ride and there were 2 people) and neither accepted stating everything was fine.  Then I went home.

05/22/19

Blues on the Green.  I never know it is coming up but I always know when it happens.  Did a few pickups of people that were going to that but I wasn't really into the thought of a bunch of short rides so I set my home address and turned to the north.

The ridesharing gods once again came through.  I picked up a man from the Amtrak station and his dropoff point was about 2 miles from my house.

I really don't care to know about a person's medical conditions and some are more than willing to help make you aware of their's. I learned about a new one today but I can't spell it and don't know how to pronounce it so we will leave it at that.

05/20/19

Interesting conversation that was initiated by talking about the weather.  Some say it is clicheic to talk about the weather but it was perfect to get the conversation going today. 

This rider was determined to have a career being a stuntman.  His dad was young at heart and had a life surrounded by race cars, motorcycles and the likes which is probably what helped to have such an idea in ones head.  The rider ended up as a financial advisor but his dad, at 70 years old, still does that stuff.

He said that the front part of the male brain does not completely form until 24 years of age.  This is the part of the brain that controls reasoning and is why young males do some of the crazy things they do up to thay age.  Great conversation.

I dropped the rider off at the Saxon Pub.  I have dropped off there a lot but not lately.

From there I turned south on Lamar to move towards the next ride request that had come in.  I pulled up next to the restaurant and the ride was cancelled.  Fortunately Uber charges a cancellation fee after a period of time on an active request.

05/19/19

I have had suspicions for quite some time that there could be a lot happening on Sunday evenings.  People wrapping up their day at the lake, the golf course, sports bars, etc.  I finally was able to take a moment today and test my suspicions.  I was right.

Not a lot of blog worthy stories from the riders (or the driver) but I had this strange idea to do a "mash up" of a single sentence pulled from things that each rider group had said.  Of course these are out of context as they were from the 4 separate trips from the evening, but they were actual words that were said.

Rider 4: "He was behind me and knew who I was just by seeing my bottom".

Rider 1: "Ohhhhhh".

Rider 3: "That's what makes us who we are".

Rider 2: "That's fuckin' awesome".

I think this week is the least serious driving week that I have ever had.  I did it at weird hours and odd days, whenever I wanted to, and am still coming away with at least $231 for the week.  If I do this every week that is almost an extra $1,000 for the month.  Not bad for just messing around.

05/18/19

Could this be an addiction?  I was restless and finally turned the app on at 1:00am.  Immediately got a ride request from the Wild West and all of the anxiety went away.

And what a request it was.  Cedar Park to the Mueller area followed by another on E. 6th over to Lamar and Shoal Creek.  Left me in the heart of surge city and upon picking up another group near W. 6th on their way to the Arboretum, I had generated $20 in Surge charges alone.

One of the guys in the last group, that consisted of guys and girls, expressed interest in going to a strip club.  No one else was for it and one of the guys had never even been to a strip club before.  "We would be supporting someone.  It would be putting food on their table.  She probably has a couple of kids so we would be keeping a family alive".  Before he was finished, he had declared that going to the strip club would be philanthropic.  Made sense to me.

05/16/19

I needed to get home and do it couple of errands so I set my home address in the app and headed out.  I was expecting something but was not expecting a trip that would end only a couple of miles from my house.  Jackpot!  Lamar and 12th to 183 and Anderson Mill.

Texas Card House

05/15/19

Second time in the Rob Roy area of West Lake Hills but the first time during the day when I could see the surroundings.  Some beautiful houses and an even more beautiful view.

No smells today so maybe we are done with that chain of events.

05/14/19

A rare Tuesday outing.  First ride was a home run.  Avery Ranch to Alamo Draft House on South Lamar.

Different day, different smell.  I think the guy was a human cigarette butt.  Not looking forward to next day's smell.

It is very difficult to pick up on Congress.  Thanks to rider Matt at Coopers BBQ for realizing this and walking to 2nd street and walking righr up to the vehicle as I was turning around.

05/13/19

If that guy stands to close to the pizza warmer at CiCis it is going to be FLAME ON for him.  Very strong gasoline smell.  After I dropped them off at CiCis, I rolled down all of the windows and headed north on Lamar.  Took forever to get to a point on Lamar where I could pick up some speed and get some air moving.  Then just as it was clearing out I drove through the "stinch zone" of a dead animal and had to start all over again.

05/04/19

OMG!  How many weddings, proms, festivals and miscellaneous social events can one city have at the same time?  People everywhere!

It was sunny and beautiful all day today so I was sure that I would have  a ride from the lake.  And so it was for the second ride of the night.  Lake Travis to downtown.  Highest fare of the night.

One couple was discussing why they had not invited one of their friends. 
Rider 1: "He would want all of the attention and get on everyone's nerves".
Rider 2: "Okay so lets wait and see how things go and if they suck anyway we can invite him over and see what happens".

You could hear the whole town cheer when the Houston Rockets won tonight.  I picked up 2 females from one of the clubs on West 6th and they were extremely pumped up about the game.  They had an accent that I couldn't quite figure out.  In the conversation and somewhere in between the barrage of "f" bombs, I figured out that they were from California. I think they were using some kind of California dialect like the whole "valley girl" thing several years ago except this was  definitely not valley girl stuff.  One of then commented that James Harden's beard was gross and looked like a blob of pubic hair.

Some things I hear are just sad and can bum me out.  There are some sad and misguided individuals out there.

I had picked 2 couples from a spot that was a little calmer and they were headed out of downtown to the Doubletree Hotel up north.  I thanked them for getting me out of downtown.  From the same hotel I picked up a pair of prom goers.  As I was diving them to their destination, I recalled how it is the young and inexperienced drinkers that cause the messiest problems.  Hopefully I can steer clear of them.

Picked up from a wedding venue and during conversation discovered that the wedding was Star Wars themed.  Mom didnt seem too excited about that.  Dads light saber activated in the back seat.  (Star Wars prop)

Are the girls with a raspy voice destined to party more or do they have a raspy voice from partying more?

The requests had been comimg in before I had even finished with the ride I was on so I had no idea what my status was for the night.  After the Stars Wars wedding drop off, I went offline to see where I was.  It looked very nice.  I did my traditional wrap up at Whataburger with a #20 and an additional taquito with cheese and bacon.  Tonight was at the Whataburger at Parmer and McNeil.  It is well after 1:00am and this place is packed with a line out the door and a line of vehicles around the building.