06/26/2024

 Picked up a group of 3 people and when I saw that the drop off was at the speedway I asked what show they were going to.  It was Modest Mouse and The Pixies and that led into an extensive conversation about bands and music with the guy in the passenger seat.

At one point the guy that was in the back talking to the girl that was in the back, commented that he had translucent skin and that you could see through his skin.  He was showing the girl and I wanted to look back but was at a location where I had to focus on the road.  I was having thoughts about that stupid cartoon called Inside Out Boy (or something like that).

06/23/2024

 It's not the "walk of shame" if there is no shame.  

I think this was my first time to drive on a Sunday morning.  I was expecting some walk of shame rides as well as some rides to churches.  I did in fact see both.  

Interestingly, there were a couple of male riders that quite possible were participating in the walk of shame phenomenon but as we all know with most guys, there is nothing shameful to them about a crazy Saturday night that landed them in a strange woman's bed somewhere.  For these guys it is more of a "walk of fame".  Be that as it may, it was a constant stream of rides from about 9:30am until 12:30pm.

There was a quite lady that I picked up and took to a church that was not very close to where I picked her up.  The church was this neat little Catholic church, and I loved the way the circle drive pulled up to a shaded area at a fountain.  It had a great atmosphere about it as others were walking up to attend mass.

One of the riders that I dropped off provided an expression that I had not heard before.  With an Australian accent he said, "thanks for the spin" as he was departing the vehicle.

There was only one ride that was in single digits, so the revenue generated fairly quickly and averaged out to about $30 an hour.

06/18/2024

 Another first.  First time for all of the riders today to be female.

Crazy story from the first rider of the day.  She had an accident in Mexico and the doctor-like person recommended surgery for her wrist.  Scary room where the surgery was done and the surgeon-like person showed her the cell phone recording of the repair while she was under anesthesia.  The people in the room were in street clothes and were laughing at the pieces of bone that were pulled out and set aside.  It really freaked her out.  She came back to the states and had it looked at and the doctor said that the screws that were used were too long and ran all the way up into the finger bones plus, screws were not needed in the first place.  He removed the screws and set her wrist just like any broken bone would be set.  I asked if her kids were helping her out with all of her issues.  She said no and that they had pretty much abandoned her since their father died.  I felt bad for her and the situation she was in.

Was on 71 south of town and heard this odd noise coming from a car that was coming up to pass me on the driver's side.  They did not remove the gas pump nozzle from the gas tank and were scooting down the freeway with the nozzle still stuck in the gas tank and a 6 foot section of hose attached to it and dragging the pavement.

Most of us have heard the term Spanglish, which is a word that describes the mixing of Spanish and English.  Today a nice-looking Indian female was talking on her phone and was mixing Hindi with English.  I am not sure if there is a term for that yet but if there was it would probably be Hinglish.

06/17/2024

 Weird street name that I had not noticed before.  Ptarmigan Drive?  I picked up a lady and dropped her off at an address on that street.  The destination address was clearly visible on the app and as I approached the destination, the address was even more visible on the side of the house.  I usually don't pull into driveways, but the address was so obvious and there was a lot of room in the driveway, so I pulled up.  I tried to make it sound like a special thing for the passenger and she thanked me.  Then she exited my vehicle and walked to the house next door.  I had taken her to the wrong address although it was the one that she had put in the app.  Still, I felt like a dumb ass bragging about curb service when it wasn't even the right curb.

The next ride had already come in and I went ahead and used the neighbor's driveway, that I was already erroneously in, as a means to turn around and head to the Domain.  I picked up the rider and activated the trip in the app.  Guess where this guy was going.  Yep.  Ptarmigan Drive.

So, I am about to enter this experience into this blog and was telling my friend about the weird ass street name.  I realized that the street name surely had some kind of significance or meaning, so I looked it up.  It's a fuckin' bird!  Well, a grouse to be specific but I never in a hundred years would have guessed that it was the name of a living thing.  And how did someone come up with a name like that?  Maybe the same person that came up with the word Pflugerville.

The rider looked and talked just like a person from India.  She was very talkative and informed me that she was from Romania.  She then said that while she lived in Romania, she lived in Transilvania.  Of course, all kinds of random and weird thoughts about Dracula come rushing into my mind.  I kept my mouth shut as I was sure that there were probably many more notable things that Transilvania was known for, and I didn't want to be the shallow American that forms their perceptions based on movies and drama.  I wasn't sure how to successfully get the question out there anyway.  (So, did you know Dracula?)

06/14/2024

Oh!  That was a hooker!  And I’m not 100% sure that it was female.

Did about 4 trips this morning and 5 tonight.  I wanted to do the 12 hour thing again but have a significant sleep deficit that I am dealing with.

06/13/2024

The intent was to drive for 12 hours but after 3 rides I made it back home and decided to stick to my policy of turning off the app if I make it back home at any point during the day/night.

Picked up a rider that had selected the option to share the ride with others.  Upon pick up the rider seemed to be concerned about another rider being picked up.  This doesn't happen very often but tonight it did.  Furthermore, I always find it interesting why a rider would select this option (it is the cheapest) and then be concerned about having to share the ride with a stranger.

The neighborhood where I was picking up the rider mentioned above, was close to where the big fire was last year that spread across a greenspace and burned down an apartment building.  I asked if the rider was living there when this occurred, and they shared what the experience was like for them when the fire broke out.  I was surprised that none of the residences in this neighborhood were not burned down as the area was practically ground zero for the fire.

"He was believing the bullshit he was telling himself".  The conversations between a pair of riders got better and better as the ride progressed.  Funny stories about some of the experiences they had including a couple of acquaintances named Tricky Ricky and Pig Man.  There was also a story about a trip to Bone Daddy's, a restaurant that features scantily clad waitresses and is part of what many refer to as a "breastaraunt".  As the story goes, one of the waitresses was reaching over the table as she serviced them.  The reach made it such that her waist was at eye level, and it was almost impossible to not be looking at that area of her body.  Of course, all eyes were on her and it was noticed that there was pubic hair sticking up out of her shorts.  The rider said it was horrifying and that he was afraid that he was going to throw up if he started drinking his beer.  He then finished the story by referring to the restaurant as "Bush Daddy's" instead of Bone Daddy's.  It was all I could do to not bust out in laughter.

I was not a fan of the "Me Too" movement but an explanation that one of the above riders made, brought the issue perfectly into focus.  His perspective was that with something such as Me Too, many victims were able to realize that they were victims and thus speak up and come forward.  This made complete sense to me and changed my perspective.  As with many things, the problem with this movement started when the media began sensationalizing the issue.

The above paragraph is yet another example of how being exposed to different points of view and perspectives, can make us better human beings.  Having a singular mindset will keep us at a disadvantage when compared to the opportunities of understanding.

06/12/2024

Holy frickin' cow!  It was a profanity parade!  Possibly the funniest ride ever.  When the first words out of their mouth is “I think I would rather shit an egg instead of having an explosion in my ass”, you better hang on.  

06/06/2024

 The plan was to do about $100 worth of trips in the afternoon, get some sleep, and get up at about 4:00 am to see what the early morning demand was on a Friday morning.  I was sure that there would be multiple trips to the airport, and I wanted to verify my beliefs.  I had been struggling with staying awake earlier in the day and even though I took a nap at 11:00am during lunch break, I decided to take another short nap and then get started.  The short nap was longer than what I had intended, making my start time at about 9:30 pm.  Just as always, the rides were coming in one after another but due to the late start, I decided that I would program my home address into the app, pick up rides along the way, call it a night and get my early start.  As I approached home a request came in that made sense to accept.  After dropping them off another ride came in that also made sense and I accepted it as well.  On route to drop off the ride a message popped up telling me that my programed address had expired.  When the ride ended, I was almost at $100 so I just kept going.  Before I knew it, I had over $200 and with it now being a new day, my earnings were showing at $0.  After a brief WTF moment, I figured out what was going on and went ahead and cashed out the money.  As dawn approached and the activity on the roads increased, I set my sights on an additional $100 before my 12 hours was up.

At some point in the night, I ended up at the gas station in Manor where "Mr. Gas Can" (from an earlier article) got his gas and forgot his cell phone.  There were lots of trips in the Manor, Hutto, Pflugerville vicinity.

I picked up a rider that was a huge dude.  Not as huge as "Mr. Perfect Sun Tan" huge dude (from an earlier article) but my vehicle was certainly being influenced by this rider, just as I was about to be.  He talked really fast and had a certain mumbling element to his speech.  I found myself using my mental tools that had allowed me to understand what Cubans were saying in Spanish when I was first exposed to them on a daily basis.  They speak really fast as well.  As it turns out, it is his heart that is huge and he needs this huge body to carry his heart where it is needed.  As we talked about life and the unfortunate occurrences of lives that are cut way to short in life for various reasons including suicide, it became more and more evident who this guy was.  He is one of those people that everyone turns to when they are in crisis.  He commented that he has so many conversations as he supports those who share their challenges with him, but that he does not have an outlet for himself when he needs to talk to someone.  It is always a special thing when a conversation with a rider reveals details that you were not expecting from them.  Over and over, I experience the saying "you can't judge a book by its cover".  This guy is an angel.

Something major was going on at the Mala Vida club downtown on "Dirty 6th Street".  I had taken a gentleman from Round Rock there and picked up 3 ladies from across the freeway and dropped them off there as well.  The line to get in trailed down the block.  The girls had asked if I was going to still be driving at 2:00 am and told them that I hoped to not be.  (We know how that turned out).  At some point after 2:00am I had a request to pick up from the Mala Vida.  It turned out to be 4 Mexican ladies and there are few things more fun than interacting with partially intoxicated Mexican girls.  It was also the longest ride of the night going from downtown all the way out to almost Liberty Hill.  So much silliness, laughter, and an amazing conversation with the lady in the passenger seat about multiple languages and about my adventurous history with my second language.  Very fun ride.

Taking a step back to the 3 ladies that were picked up on the other side of I-35 from Mala Vida, the app had a pick up location in an alley behind some apartments.  I turned up the alley and headed uphill to the location.  There was a low-rider looking car with a guy standing beside wearing his cap sideways, or perhaps it was because the top of his brain was coming unscrewed, and a big enough spot on the side to go around the car.  There were some other people in the backyard of an apartment, and I was not sure what was going on there, but I was sure that I was not going to stop in that alley for a pick up.  They all stared at me as I gracefully and with authority whipped my vehicle around theirs.  I circled the building and as I was coming up to the alley again, I sent a message asking where they wanted me to pick them up.  Just as I sent the message they came walking around the corner from the alley.  Problem solved.

As anticipated, I did have an airport run from Round Rock.  Great conversation with a gentleman that was a manager at a mechanical company, which is right down my alley, as they say.  He asked about my experience and upon sharing that information with him, he realized that we had something in common.  I obtained his contact information and will reach out to him on LinkedIn.  This was not the first conversation like this that I have had.  There have been many, and I begin thinking about how I had within my reach a manner to exert some influence for positive change within various industries where I have witnessed a need.  I was also hungry and running low on gasoline.  There were not any flights arriving at 4:30am and I took advantage of the moment to get some gasoline and a Whataburger #21 with sausage (yes, I changed my Whataburger preference) while waiting for a possible ride request.  This was the first time I had waited in the que for a ride request at the airport although I was really at the waiting spot to consume my food.

A long and detailed conversation with a young man on his way to work in Taylor.  He had been gifted a car and the car kept overheating.  He took it to the shop and the mechanic supposedly fixed the issue and he only needs to go by and pick it up.  In the meantime, he was considering a different vehicle and became enamored with a Mustang.  The downpayment turned out to be more than he could come up with, so his focus shifted back to the existing vehicle.  We discussed every possible scenario that was causing the car to overheat.  The mechanic found a thermostat housing with a small leak and replaced it as a solution to the issue.  I told him that unless it leaked all of the fluid out, this was probably not the primary issue.  We ended up agreeing that the fan for the radiator may not be functioning as when the car is at speed on the road, everything is fine.  The problem occurs when stopped.  Sounds exactly like a fan problem to me.

I almost gave in to my desire to drink a Pepsi and thus kill my 3-day abstention but as I entered the soda section of the store (I was going to do it) I saw that they had the 0 sugar energy drinks that I like.  Those worked better anyway, and I drank 2 of those throughout the 12-hour event to make sure I didn't doze off. 

24 trips in total including the cursing female bartender at 3:00am that thought she was old at 45 years old.  From what I could tell from the conversation, she was a lesbian, but she lit up when I told her that I loved her.  "I love you too" she replied.  Conversation after conversation with a few quite ones scattered in.  It is interesting to see the dynamic of the requests evolve throughout the evening, night, deep night, and into the morning.

I looked at the countdown to 12 hours on the Uber app and I had a whole 10 minutes left before they shut me down.  I signed off and release a sigh of satisfaction at an amazing 12 hours that lasted from dusk 'til dawn.  This is life and is a major reason why I drive Uber and have been driving for almost 9 years.

06/05/2024

I picked up a couple and were taking them to the domain.  At a point during the trip the guy says, "should we just rip his head off now?"  Due to the Uber app being stupid, I had trouble getting to their pickup spot and I thought he was asking his wife if they should rip my head off.  Without turning my head, I shoved my eyes as far to the right as my eye sockets would allow and even after that had to use a massive dose of peripheral vision to try and see if he was really referring to me as the potential upcoming headless victim.  As it turns out, my covert vision attempt revealed that he was on his phone and had said that to the person on the phone.

A group of young girls were going to an event, supposedly on the east side, to skate.  It was entertaining listening to them laugh and argue with each other.  We arrived at the destination on the map and it was a dead-end street northwest of the capital building.  They were confused and said that they would get out and figure it out and once they did, they would contact another Uber.  I told them that there was no need for that, and I opened up my Google maps app and being searching for the facility that they named.  We found it and I simply drove the rest of the distance without stopping the ride until we arrived at the real destination.

06/04/2024

 Some saucy corporate politics, aka cheating galore, at whatever company these people were managers at.  Their rumor spreading certainly didn't provide any relief to the toxic work environment that they were discussing.

Witnessed an awesomely coordinated baby bottle hand-off in massive traffic on 183 near 360.  Driver to driver hand off meant that the driver on the left could not reach across to the driver of the car on the right.  The driver of the car on the right, after a couple of aims, chunked the bottle into the car on the left side.  The passenger and I gained a great deal of entertainment value from the event.  We pulled up next to the receiving vehicle and provided a thumbs up approval of the success.  We continued slowly forward in the heavy traffic, still behind the car that was the supplier.  I commented to the passenger that I was going to pull up beside her and ask if she could throw me a Pepsi.  Was a great moment in the vehicle that was soon destroyed by the insistently bad traffic.

06/03/2024

 A lot is revealed about a neighborhood just by driving down the street.  For example, it is obvious whether or not the neighborhood is part of a Homeowners Association.  In most cases the demographic can also be determined in the same manner.

Finally, a decent smelling perfume - and it was a dude that was wearing it.  Certainly not a turn-on for me but it was a significant change from all previous exposures.

06/02/2024

It has been a while since I only did 1 ride during the day.  I know the first 2 rides that I did, were single rides, 1 on July 29th, 2015 and the other at some point in November 2015.  Regardless, today was one of those.  Picked up a nice lady in Cedar Park and dropped her off in Jonestown.  There are some winding roads that have some significant elevation changes on the road for this trip.  I was taking it easy and slowing down for the curves and dips just in case she was prone to motion sickness.  After dropping her off, I turned off the app and drove like a wild-ass crazy man to get the full "360-degree" experience that the road had to offer.  Stopped in town for a Pepsi and called it a day.

06/01/2024

 I have been averaging about 10 rides a day, some more enjoyable than others.  I had one of the best conversations with a rider that was headed to the airport.  

The great conversation with Shane was just getting started when we arrived at the airport.  On the other hand, there are those riders that you just want to get them to the destination as quickly as possible and then get away from the drop off point equally as quickly as possible.  The ones that smell like alcohol or/and weed and talk about pointless subjects, are tough to take seriously and therefore making it difficult to carry on a real conversation with them.  Then there is the exponential downgrade when the rider is also blasting out a soccer game on the external speaker of their smart phone.

The night did end in wonderful fashion.  I picked up a group of 2 riders and as I was starting the ride on the app, I noticed that it was a Comfort ride.  There are several upgrades that are part of a comfort ride and one of those is that the rider can list their preferences.  Almost every Comfort ride either wants cold air conditioning or the want quiet.  So, my original thought was that I would need to either blast the ac or turn off the radio and keep my mouth shut.  To my delight the preferences said, cold ac and chatting is welcome.  And we chatted.  Very interesting conversations security and security clearances.  Then, I did it again.  I shared the url for this blog and she immediately pulled it up on her smartphone.  If either of them read this post, I hope they know how much I enjoyed our brief moment together and I hope they found this blog interesting and/or humorous. 

Last ride of the night was a female bartender that was getting off work at a bar and was headed to a bar.  I am sure there is a word or acronym that describes that.  We started talking and it turned into laughter and a fun conversation.  I am sure that it would be an absolute blast hanging out with her and continuing the fun.  She gave me a nice cash tip as well.  All $1.00 bills that I am sure was from her tips for the night.  I should have had her stick it into my pockets while I pretended to be a stripper or something.  Fun fun.

05/31/2024

 Austin has some of the coolest bars and restaurants hidden in some of the coolest little knocks and crannies on the east side.

Had a very good conversation about hotel technology and owner attitudes towards taking care of their buildings.  The rider is "in the know" and was very interested in my perspective on the adaptation of technology and owner attitudes about keeping their building current and keeping the buildings in good shape in general.

Another rider that smelled like a urinal block and then during the handful of nighttime rides I had another one with the foodservice nasty fry grease smell.

A couple of days ago I dropped off a rider near Bagdad Road in Leander and decided I was going a mission to find the northern end of road.  It was becoming a long drive that was not making me any money and when I ended up in Liberty Hill, I turned to go back towards Cedar Park.  I later looked on Google maps to see where the road ended.  I am glad that I turned away.  Interestingly, I retraced those steps tonight for a ride request in downtown Liberty Hill.

Finished off the night at the Whataburger on Lakeline and Cypress Creek, which was the first time that this Whataburger had been part of a day's ending.  Here is the list of Whataburgers that have participated, whether they realize it or not.

- Lakeline and Cypress Creek in Cedar Park

- Parmer and McNeil in Austin

- Lamar and Denison in Austin

- FM 620 and Lake Creek Parkway in Austin

- N Bell Blvd. in Cedar Park

- I-45 and 34 in Ennis

- FM 620 and O'Connor Drive in Round Rock

- I-35 and Gattis School Rd