01/23/20

Many of the posts that I have left begin with an insinuated expression of joy for a trip that is going downtown.  Today, upon picking up the riders and seeing where the trip was going, I cringed at the downtown destination.  It was still early enough in the evening that traffic was going to be horrendous.  The riders were aware of that and away we went.  With the exception of short sections of 183 and Mopac, it was horrendous.  It was like the beginning of the movie Office Space without the old guy and his walker.  Instead of the old man, there was a more sinister critter making light of my lack of velocity that I was experiencing.  There were several times I looked out the window to see a skinny mosquito-looking insect flying up and down and all around.  It would zip ahead of me slightly and then zip back to the window.  I think I could actually see its eyes looking at me with an expression of "c'mon slow poke.  Is that all you got?"  Then it would fly ahead only to return and look at me again with an expression of, WTF dude.  I hope I splattered his skinny little butt all over my windshield once I finally got up to speed.

Once I dropped the riders off at Terry Black's BBQ, I immediately put in my home address to start working my way back home.  Before I even made it back to Mopac I received another request and although it took me to the south, the rider was heading north taking me about halfway home.  The app was directing me along one path and the map was showing another path.  By the time I figured out what was going on I had passed the exit and then it corrected itself leaving me on a path to be taking the rider on a longer ride.  I apologized to the rider and explained what had happened.  She strongly assured me that all was fine and that I should not worry about it but I was determined to put forth some form of an effort to fix the error.  I came up with the idea to turn on Google Maps and plug the destination address in to there.  Once that was done and Google Maps was tracking my location and directing me to the destination, I completed the ride on the Uber app so it would stop charging the rider.  I had explained to her what I was up to and she again told me that I should not worry about it.  I did it anyway and at the drop off let her know what I had done and apologized again.  As I was about to get onto the ramp to 183 from Lamar I noticed a tip had been posted.  It was from the rider and the tip made up any of the savings that I had gained her.  I smiled and stated out loud that she definitely wanted me to know that she was okay with the issue that had occured.

I made it home without any more requests and turned off the app, missing out on a $3.00 bonus by getting 1 more ride.  It could have easily been a $150 night but I am beat down for the day.