Of course I ended up in south Austin again. It happened by picking up 2 fun ladies from the HEB Center and taking them to Lakeway. One of their mother's had recently passed and before passing had left tickets to a dance show. They talked about the show itself being wonderful after the disappointments of arriving early and having to wait to get inside, then wait to get to their suite, then wait to have their food and beverages available. For many years I have been intrigued by the different ways people use profanity. Interestingly, profanity does not seem to diminish a person's presentation of themself if it is used certain ways. I don't think there is a blueprint for how that works as it would be different for different people but a disgruntled scumbag loser using profanity would simply affirm their status as a disgruntled scumbag loser. Likewise, a well-educated, well-mannered person using profanity would seem to be an almost tactful use of the language and not change any opinions others may have about them. Anyway, I was proudly able to proclaim once again, and for the first time in about 4 years, that their Uber experience was also "F-bomb friendly". Nice looking ladies, probably in their early 50s, that were slightly drunk, making the conversation all the more colorful and interesting.
I accepted a request out in the Manor area somewhere. As the roads became increasingly isolated, I remembered requests from the past that had literally led me through pastures, some of which ended up in a successful pickup while others seemed more like a prank prompting me to decline the request and backtrack my way back to civilization. Then a message pops up on the app that appears to be one of the driver default messages that says, "I am here". This was odd. Then a few moments later another message pops up that appears to be from the rider saying, "I am at the road in the middle of nowhere". It almost seemed like the rider was communicating with another driver and I somehow was included. As I arrived at the location I saw the rider in my headlights. He looked a little rough and had a gas can in his hands. I am thinking a million different things about what I am seeing and about what I am potentially about to be an accomplice to. As I pulled up, I lowered my window and verified that he was the rider. Turns out that he had indeed had an interesting (aka, rough) life, at least that was the case in the extended section that was shared with me without interruption. The trip was to a gas-station up the road to get gas for his vehicle. This was somewhat of a relief as I now knew the possible purpose of the gas can. As we start to the gas station another trip request comes in, out here in the middle of nowhere, and at the same time he asks if I can wait for him at the station and bring him back. I told him that I had accepted another ride but that if he was quick, I would not end the ride at the gas station and the app would continue tracking us and charging for the trip. The app did indeed track our trip, including the return trip to the gas station when he realized that he had left his phone on the counter inside the convenience store. Of course the inside of the car is smelling like gasoline and I am having crazy thoughts about open-flames and static electricity when we finally get back to where I can drop him off. The moment I dropped him off I lowered all 4 windows and raced away at high velocity to get the gasoline vapors to escape and hopefully not cause a 911 call from the homes along the road due to smell of gasoline. I am scrambling to send a message to the next rider who has been waiting through all of this, apparently patiently as I had not received any communication from him. There was an almost immediate response that was only 2 words but with those 2 words, I knew he was not upset, and things were fine. "Okay boss".
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