08/05/23

 Had to do some stuff on the app to get going again.  It has been awhile and some things had changed causing me to struggle a bit finding my way through the app.

Had a few people finishing up dinner and going home.  Those are always nice.  Had a trio that made me remember a time in my life when there really wasn't any direction in life and I didn't even know it.  It kind of bummed me out thinking about how empty their lives were and they didn't know it.  I wanted to criticize them and tell them life does not revolve around alcohol and weed but then I remembered when that was a big part of my free time.  Friends, fun and laughter is great and is healthy, so my mind was in a challenging place, and I was glad to unload them although I don't believe that they were bad people.  I know that I wasn't a bad person when I was at that stage in my life.

The app glitched a couple of times, throwing me off.  I was headed to pick up a female and drove past the entrance to the restaurant where I would be picking her up.  I was setting at the traffic light scanning my options for getting into the parking lot that was on the other side of the on-coming traffic lanes.  I flashed a quick glance in my rear-view mirror and saw that no one was behind me nor about to be behind me.  The street had a heavy incline that I was setting at, so, I popped the gearshift into neutral and coasted backwards until I could make the left turn into the restaurant driveway.  I am sure that the 2 cars in the other lane were calling me a dumbass, just like I would be calling someone if I had seen them do that.

At the restaurant, the rider was an attractive Latin female.  She walked over to get in the car with a bag from the restaurant and a beer.  When she spoke, I could tell that she was a smoker and that initiates a whole chain of thoughts about her and her life.  Interestingly enough, we headed to her destination, that she referred to as work, with a stop on the way.  The stop was at a lingerie type of store where she lit up a cigarette as she walked to the store, and the destination was a gentleman's club.  My chain of thoughts had been right on the money.  

Now, nothing I said here is negative or positive.  Those who read this and mentally label it as negative or positive and then want to criticize my thoughts, need to be reminded that it was labeled in their mind as negative or positive to justify their judgement of the comments in their mind.  Not mine.

The last trip was a load of typical young college age guys.  On their way to a bar, cursing, but polite when interacting with me.  They always want to play their music on my system when my phone is already hooked up and already playing music.  Then the music that they play is usually horrible.  When they got out of the car at Buford's, I hauled ass away from downtown as I was not in the mood for messing with drunks and it was getting close to 11:00 pm when the rides for people going home start trickling in.

11/11/22

 It is amazing to me how many ride requests were coming in.  9 rides in 3 hours tonight and then when I went to transfer the money into my bank account, I noticed that somehow I had achieved a bonus of $110.  Nice little surprise.

Had a trivial nothingness first time occurrence of having to stop and wait for a train while on an Uber ride.

Very animated conversation with a self-proclaimed 40-year-old single working mom.  We laughed a lot about how much pain is involved on the morning after a night of hard partying.

All of the rides were in the Round Rock area with the last one being the first XL group of riders in a long time, that I dropped off on the east side of downtown Austin.  From there I turned off the app and headed home.

11/08/22

 Started at about 7:00pm and the requests were coming even before I had finished the previous ride.  It has been many months since I drove, and I was surprised that I ended up with 14 rides.

Those 14 rides included one young Latin lady, probably in her mid 20s that couldn't have weighed 75 pounds.  She had some nice smelling perfume, and it was very strong.  I couldn't imagine how she could have put on that much perfume for it to be so strong as she didn't have enough surface area to apply that much perfume to.  The first thing she asked me was if I spoke Spanish.  As always, my answer in Spanish was, "when it is convenient for me".  She laughed and requested that we communicate in Spanish.

One rider claimed to have a medical condition that caused him to talk like he was drunk and stumble around like he was drunk.  I suppose it is a possibility and I am sure the name of his condition is "Drunkashell"

05/27/22

There is just something about driving in bad traffic that just sucks the life out of me.  I am not doing anything physical and setting in a comfortable environment and it still feel like I have been fighting for my life.

I had intended on starting earlier in the morning to catch riders leaving the hotels and heading to the airport, but I decided to catch up on a couple of hours more of sleep.  Even after I turned on the app it was over an hour before I received a request.  As always, once they start, they don't stop and not a single one to the airport.  Thats what happens when you decide to sleep a little later although it was for a good reason.

The first ride was to Howard Station.  From there I was briefly bounced around in Pflugerville until a ride took me to South Austin and my first dose of the bullshit traffic for the day.  From there I ended up in Buda after a second dose of bullshit traffic.  Then a ride to the north for a third dose of bullshit traffic.  A ride that dropped off at Burnet and 183 was close enough for me to set home as the destination and start heading that way.  After dealing with the fourth dose of bullshit traffic, I was close enough to home that I went offline and called it a day, for now.

It was very encouraging hearing a young person speak with respect and confidence.  Especially when they talk about their success in the police academy and how they are working to join the National Guard.  No sir, yes sir sounded great when compared to all of the disrespect that we have been surrounded with for the past few years.  He and his friends were all going to leave Massachusetts and come to Austin Texas.  All his friends backed out and he did it anyway, alone.  He has taken control of his life and is achieving the things that he wants to take on in life.  This was the shortest ride of the day but was by far the most impactful.

8 rides, 10 people, 101 degrees, $97, 4 hours and 48 minutes, 2 curse words (from a rider), 1 seat adjustment, $20 pit stop for a "gas and go", 7 people in right middle seat, 3 people in left middle seat, 1 hydro flask tumble, and 1 gnat smashed and the windshield. 

05/10/22

 Add San Angelo Texas to the list of cities I have driven rideshare in.  Did one ride after an early diner and then another one later so I can get out of the hotel for a moment.  A whopping $12.00 but that was part of the plan.  I was attempting to get at least $30.00 on either Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or all of them, to pay for gas back to Austin.  As it turned out, I simply did not have time to drive any more during this visit to San Angelo.

05/05/22

Lately I have been on the rider side of the Uber service.  In most cases it comes out in conversation with the driver, that I also drive.  Throughout the trip I am comparing the way other drivers do things to the way I do things.  From those comparisons I can decide whether or not I want to integrate something I experienced into the way I do things.  Also, I can make sure I don't do the things that I experience that I don't like.  Not to focus on the negative but here are some things that have irritated me.

- The air freshener in the vehicle that smells like a urinal block in the men's restroom.

- A slow driver that complains about how fast everyone is driving.  The speed limit was 65 and this guy never made it above 60.  Sure, there is pay to the driver for the amount of time that a trip takes but it is not worth getting run over by everyone else that is driving at least the speed limit.

- Comments making fun at someone's luggage.  "That must be your wife's suitcase".  (WTF and no tip for you)

- This is a big one - A driver that sends a message asking if I can cancel the ride shortly after I accepted it, without any reason.  I know the reason.  They are running Uber and Lyft at the same time and received a request for a ride on the other platform that they want to take instead of mine.  This one really gets me riled up.  First of all, I have always made myself available to 1 service, I accept all rides that come in unless I am in a tense moment navigating traffic, and I represent that service well.  In my case it has always been Uber.  Secondly, a driver should never ask the rider to cancel the ride.  The driver is attempting to hide their actions from Uber by canceling the ride and they have a chance of the rider being charged a cancelation fee that would go to driver.  I have no way of knowing why this particular driver requested me to cancel the ride but by that driver not providing a reason why, the situation is suspicious.

At first, I answered the message asking if I could cancel the ride with "No".  "But you can".  However, my phone battery was almost dead, and it kept losing connection so I went ahead and canceled the ride so I could get home.  If a rideshare driver wants to cancel a ride, they can cancel the ride themselves.  A good driver would also send a message to the rider as to why they were canceling the ride before they did so.  

03/10/2022

Add Corpus Christi to the list of cities that I have driven rideshare in.  I didn't have much time so I only did 1 ride in the vacinity of where I was working.

The very moment I went online, a request came in.  It ended up being  student at a nearby high school.  I suspected he was an Uber rookie when he sat in the front seat and he was not wearing a mask.  These are both COVID related requirements that he would have known.  I didn't push the issue as I had my mask on.

I greeted him in English and he looked at me with a confused look.  He then said, in what sounded like perfect English, "I only speak Spanish".  Soooo, I repeated my greeting to him in Spanish.  He looked at me with the same confused look again.  I smiled and began the trip.  As we arrived at tje drop off location, he asked in Spanish if everything was good.  I didnt undetstand why he was asking me that and then he showed me a text message on his phone.  The message stated "ya esta pagado" which says in English, "it is already paid." Someone else had ordered the ride for him.  I then knew for sure he was an Uber rookie as he was not familiar with how the payment system worked.

All was well.  I went offline and drove back the hotel I was working at.

01/27/22

Add Waco and Temple to the list of cities where I have driven Uber.  Helped the lady load and then unload her laundry.  Picked up a nice elderly man from one rest home and took him to another.  Making the rounds I guess.

It struck me as both odd and brilliant that someone would build a funeral home right behind a rest home.  

01/07/2022

I have noticed that most times it takes a while to get the first request.  Then once the first one hits, they become almost continuous.  I started out with the errand of mailing a box that was already ready to go.  I had almost made it to the post office when the first request came in.  It took 4 rides before I finally made it by the Post Office.

All of the rides ended up being in the Cedar Park, Leander, North Austin area spanning from as for south as the Domain and as far north as Liberty Hill.  There have been very few times where this has happened.  It is more common to take someone downtown and then never escape.  I had 2 requests in Liberty Hill which was a first.  

Another first was a person's name that I had never heard before.  

Did about 4 hours of driving today.  Trips were shorter and it took a little longer to get the money I wanted for the day.

Had a family from Minnesota that said it was -20 degrees when they left this morning.  I stated that our 38-degree weather today was probably a heatwave for them.  This was the only group that was very talkative.  None of the other riders throughout the afternoon had much to say.

As I walked into the house, I had a random thought about how a caveman would go out during the day with the goal of bringing home dinner.  Upon his return he would step into his cave and announce to his significant other, Honey, I'm home! but in a grunting kind of caveman language.  He would hold up a malnourished, roughed-up, chicken-looking thing that he claimed to have killed with his club, but that in reality was already almost dead anyway, and he would present it as a trophy that the great hairy caveman had overpowered and brought home for dinner.  In my case, I step in the door after being "out there on the hunt", and say, "babe I am home" in English, hold up my smart phone to celebrate the "victorious hunt" and to signify the electronic equivalent of money that I can transfer electronically to my bank account, and we can go have dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse.  Quite the contrast and definitely evolutionary.

01/02/2022

 I knew I had missed adding another round of rides between Austin and San Antonio to this journal but apparently, I missed 2.  I can only assume that they were uneventful although they totaled to over $200 worth of uneventfulness.

Tonight, however, things were a little more interesting even though it was only for about 2 hours and 50 minutes.

I was temporarily bummed out when a rider received a call from a friend informing him that his young son had been hit by a car while riding his bicycle.  The boy was in the hospital and was unconscious.  His father did not know whether he was going to live or not.  I said a prayer for the child and hope that he pulls through.

Dropped off at several restaurants.  It made me hungry and thus made me cave in easier when my wife called and told me to come home so she could make me a sandwich.  Hooters, Higher Ground, 24 Diner, Eddie V's, Fogo de Chao.

I picked up a lady with a couple of young boys who I assume were her sons, or at least one of them was.  I dropped them off at Hooters.  Wish my mom would have taken me to eat at a place lake that when I was 12 years old.  Oh, wait.  There were no places like that when I was 12 years old and certainly not in the area where I grew up.  And my mom was anti-anything that was even remotely sexual.  It kind of makes me wonder how in the fuck I was conceived.

Haven't had many trips downtown since I started messing around with this again.  Tonight was a little different.  Made the trip from Jollyville to downtown and the trip took us up East 6th Street.  There was not very much going on there at all.  Compared to Sunday nights in the past, it was beyond sad.  The rider stated that many of the bars were bankrupt and that there had been a lot of changing of ownership.  He also said there has been talk of completely blocking off the street and making it pedestrian only.  He sounded like a person who was "in-the-know" but I have no way of verifying that.  After dropping the rider off I continued down West 6th Street and it was much more impressive.  It had a very good vibe in the air.

I had engaged in a good conversation about restaurants with the gentleman that was going to Fogo de Chao.  We agreed that there are lots of good restaurants in Austin and he stated it was because we all like that "hippie shit" that is everywhere here.  He also told a story of a $150 steak that a certain restaurant serves that is in no way worth $150.  He was on a first date with a lady, and she commented about the $150 steak.  He told her that it was not worth that price and guess what she did anyway?  I laughed and he stopped me saying that "wait, there is more".  He said that she only ate 3 bites of the steak.  At the end of the date, she said that she had fun and that they should go out some more.  He told her "NO" which offended her.  He then elaborated as to what one could expect in the future from a lady who only ate 3 bites of a $150 steak.  I must say that he made a good point as he presented his case to me.  Predicting the future from a $150 steak had never crossed my mind.

I had told my wife that I was only going to accept one more ride, but I did 2.  I am glad I did because the last one was a home run from the Hilton downtown out to some apartments behind Bass Pro Shops near the outlet mall in Round Rock.  It was the longest trip of the evening.

Stats: 

- 2 hours and 50 minutes driving

- 45 miles

- 7 trips

- $85.00 before late tips

- 5 Restaurants

- 2 Hotels

- 11 people

- 2 pieces of large luggage

- 1 four-letter word (wow, that has to be some kind of record)

12/04/21

 I can now add the cities of San Marcos, New Braunfels, and San Antonio to the list of places where I have done rideshare driving.

For a couple of months, I have had the thought of turning on the app when I was going to look at projects in San Antonio.  With the feature in the Uber app where you can program your destination and the app finds rides along the way, I felt like I could do that and it would not affect my timing of being at the project.  That is exactly how it worked out both on the way down to San Antonio and on the way back.

The summary of today's topics of conversation were - 

- Young lady that was being "kicked out" of her father's rental property so he could rent it for more money to someone else.  This actually turned into more of a mentoring type of conversation.

- Man who works at a place where they modify pickup trucks and is also part of the family's hemp farm.  We also talked about religion, ghosts, and extraterrestrials, all in the same conversation.  To mash all of that together, one could say that we talked about invisible stoned aliens in thou monster truck.

- Conversation with a nurse about the medical community, retirement homes, and hospice care.  She really likes her job

8 rides and $116 along the way to where I was going anyway.

10/08/21

 And today was the day.

I had no intention of driving today but on the way home from a job, I decided to wash the vehicle.  That lead to a full cleaning of the inside thinking that maybe this would be clean enough for doing some Ubers.  When finished cleaning I opened the Uber app and checked to see what was needed nowadays and basically as long as everyone was wearing a mask, all basic requirements are met.  

There was an active promotion of a $100 bonus for the completion of three trips.  Hmm, I can do 3 rides easily and take advantage of that.  I selected the home screen, the app had me take a selfie to verify identity, and the screen lit up with a map that was on fire with demand.  A request immediately came in and I was officially engaged with ride share driving for the first time since February of 2020.

I had completely forgotten that this was weekend 2 of the ACL music festival and the first riders were headed that way.  I had not re-subscribed to Sirius XM so I just put on a radio station for music.  It sucked for creating an atmosphere.  The music seemed out of touch for the trip and the two guys that were talking, assumedly the D.J.s, were just big dufuses.  I fired up my Spotify and found on of my playlists that would add some feeling for the ride to a music festival.  Hearing one of the girls singing along with a song on the playlist, confirmed that I had done the right thing.  I thought the traffic would be horrendous near the drop off point at Mopac and Barton Springs but it wasn't to bad and the riders wanted to jump out early and walk which worked for me.  Another request immediately popped up. 

The next pick up was not far away and they were going to the airport.  There was a little conversation about how difficult it has been to get an Uber since the pandemic.  Upon dropping them off, just as before, there was someone to be picked up.  Easy enough, I am already here.  That will get me the $100 and I am pretty sure the previous 2 rides were under Surge conditions so there is probably some good money from them although I had not been able to look at the earnings screen.

The app locked up and had us in limbo for a moment at Cesar Chavez and 2nd street.  I turned down 2nd street anyway as the customer had his app going and did the guiding for a brief movement until the Uber app caught back up with us.  I had already accepted the next request and had noticed that my phone was not charging.  I had already accepted the next ride so I took off hoping that it would last until I finished this one.  I went ahead and stopped the app from receiving requests, which is a feature that did not exist before.

It didn't take long to get that unique rider.  "You are about to go to the worst place you have ever been" he told me.  Okay but I don't think so, was my answer.  "Human trafficking, drugs, you name it".  He had many claims of how he had taken care of things in his community and involvement in helping take down notorious local criminals.  I begin to think he was probably full of shit when we pulled into the manufactured home community and said "there they are.  None of them even have drivers licenses because you can't get one unless you are an American citizen".  I just happen to know first hand that this is not true.  He told me what number his home was and asked if I could pull up the driveway for security reasons.  His home came into view and his home did indeed look like one of the worst places I had ever been.  The address was spray painted on the front wall and there were 2 broken down cars in the driveway.  I could barely get into the driveway and the only security threat I could see would be from getting tetanus from stepping on a nail or something. 

I left my mask on until I was a couple of miles away.  I was finally able to look at the earnings and was very pleased with what I saw.  The $100 bonus was indeed there and for 2 hours and 36 minutes I had earned almost $217.00.  A very good way to get going again after more than a year.

07/08/2021

I received an unsolicited phone call from Allstate wanting to quote insurance for my vehicles.  I let him talk and answered a few of his questions not having any intention of changing insurance companies.  However, the prices were great.  It was to good to be true so I had him run through everything again.  It was good, leaving some room for including rideshare driving insurance.  I asked about and was told that it could be included.  So we did.

Had to update a lot documents and agreements with Uber and I just checked my status.  All is approved and up to date.  I am 1 car wash away from hitting the streets again (when I have time).

04/17/21

The emails from Uber are increasing.  The are obviously pushing to ramp things back up.  I am still undecided about my Uber future although I did buy a new phone holder for the car today.

09/23/20

 I just discovered that Google tracks me most of the time.  I searched through the archive back to days when I drove rideshare and the mapping of the places I went was all over the place.  This would be expected of course, but it is crazy to actually see it illustrated. 

09/12/20

Vacuumed the vehicle for thr first time since I stopped driving with Uber.  It wasn't too bad but certainly needed to be done.

08/08/20

 As I was throwing business cards into the recycle container from two recent businesses I have been associated with, I discovered some business card from FARE when I drove ridesharing for them.  This prompted me to look in the back of my vehicle and see if the magnetic signs were still back there.  They were.  These magnetic signs came in very handy at night in helping the riders more easily locate the vehicle.  The signs are fairly large at about 2' wide by 18" tall.  When a rider would say that they couldn't see me, I knew that they were either blind as hell, stupid as hell, or lying out their ass in trying to work around the cancellation fee.  Anyone with eyeballs would not miss these signs.  The business card photo looks the same size as the magnetic sign photo below but that was certainly not the case.

FARE had office space next to the Four Seasons Hotel and if I ever needed anything from them I could just take a few minutes and walk down there from work.  They were very helpful in this respect but not so much in helping me work with the riders to insure they were happy with their ride.

Also included below is the first e-mail that I received from Fare, and the last e-mail that I received from them.  FARE was more expensive than the others and they made it clear that they were not going to be part of "the race to the bottom" with prices, when Uber and Lyft returned to Austin.  They were not willing to compete and the only advantage they had was the ability for riders to save their favorite drivers in the app and be able to request that specific driver in the future.  Of course the ability for that to function depended on whether or not that specific driver was online when the rider needed a ride.  It wasn't really much of an advantage as I was on multiple riders list and never had a rider specifically request me.  I  had already stopped rideshare driving when FARE left as my vehicle at the time was no longer what I felt comfortable transporting people with.

08/04/20

As someone who has been a rideshare driver for several years, I can certainly relate to the recent shooting incident in Austin that resulted in the death of a protester.  I have driven into downtown as festivals or events were ending and there are people everywhere.  You turn a corner and you are in it with no way to get out.  The protesters, being in their single-minded state, do not realize this.  I have seen multiple videos and read multiple articles of vehicles that accidently get caught in a protest and are forced to defend themselves against protester's aggressions.  That is when people, usually the protesters, start getting hurt.  

Being a protester does not automatically protect a person from being a dumb-ass.  All of the yelling and signs-on-a-stick, are not going to protect a protester, or anyone, from vehicles or bullets.  The protester has to shed the single-mindedness and be aware of their surroundings so they can understand what is going on, what their own body movements could be signaling, and what could be developing around them, to keep themselves safe.

Any driver should be aware of what activities are going on in the areas where they could be driving.  I can say that Uber has been good about posting events although I do not know if this event was posted as I have not regularly been on the app.  Regardless, there are resources that can be reviewed before starting to drive so that a driver is aware beforehand of what may be encountered and does not become a dumb-ass driver.  I have seen plenty of those out there.  (12/14/19 post)  They can't even park their vehicle in an empty K-mart parking lot but they think they are qualified to drive in downtown Austin during rush hour or on a Friday or Saturday night.  (before the pandemic)

Everyone should understand themselves, what they are doing, and what is going on around them so that they don't do dumb-ass things.

  

07/22/20

I guess it is safe to say that I am refusing to let this blog die.  I still hold on to hope that one day I will be able to return to the streets in the middle of the night.

In my never-ending job search, I came across a job at Hertz for a Maintenance Manager.  Obviously this is maintenance on vehicles and is not exactly what I have been doing for the past 35 plus years, but it may be close enough.  I adjusted my resume to reflect my early days in hotels when we also had to manage the maintenance to the guest transportation vehicles.  I also included my days of driving a truck and at working for the highway department where I also had to coordinate the maintenance for that.  Of course I included my time as a rideshare driver as well, including the stats that are easily obtained from the Uber site.  That was another reason that made Uber so inviting.  Helpful data was there and available.  Obtaining this same information from the other 2 companies I drove for while Uber was gone, Get Me and Fare, was limited.  Here are the stats

- 4.5 years as an Uber driver so far.  Technically, I am still activated on the platform.  It is also important to note that even when Uber was "gone" from Austin, they remained active in the surrounding areas.  I actually did several rides for Uber in the areas of Cedar Park and Round Rock during that time period.

- 1,369 rides for Uber

- 4.97 Satisfaction Rating.  It stayed at 5.0 for a very long time.

- $14,436 driving for Uber

- $226.56 driving for GetMe.  I knew it wasn't much but I thought it was more than that.

- $3,482.55 driving for Fare.  I had signed up for GetMe and Fare at about the same time but was able to get processed through GetMe first as they did not require a review of the automobile by a mechanic.  Immediately afterwards I received a call from Fare.  The caller had a voice like "Puddy", the guy that played Elaine's boyfriend in Seinfeld (Patrick Warburton) and the conversation went like this.

Fare, "when are you going to start driving?" 
Me, "as soon as I get the vehicle reviewed by a mechanic." 
Fare, "can you do it soon we need some drivers?" 
Me, "lol, okay.  I am surprised to receive this call."  "I will get going soon." (I am still laughing to myself because of who he sounds like)

You have to know the voice I am referring to or there will be none of the intended humor.

- 71.5 miles was the longest trip.  Corsicana Texas to Garland Texas.

- $75.00 approximate highest earning single trip.  The one from Corsicana was $73.76 but I believe there was one with GetMe that might have been a few dollars higher.  The GetMe ride was a group of bikini-clad females leaving Lake Travis and going to the Residence Inn on 4th street.  Just in case you were wondering who the riders were and what they were wearing.

07/07/20

I never took many pictures while rideshare driving.  There wasn't time and many probably would not want to be photographed.  Plus, the phone was already in use with the rideshare app.  Here are the only ones that were taken.

The first one was a very common sight when going through downtown heading North on Congress Street.

The second one was mentioned in one of the posts.  After dropping off the rider, I drove up on someone selling lemonade on the sidewalk and stopped to get some.  This was out past Leander off of highway 183 almost to the intersection of 183 and 29 near Liberty Hill.  There were only a handful of times that I made it out that far on that side of town.

Photo number three is also mentioned in a blog post.  I do not like pets in the car but was always accommodating to the riders.  This one was well behaved even when his owner left him with me for about 10 minutes while he went into the bank to get money so he could recover his car that had been towed.  This was in the Lakeline area and the drop off was almost to the airport.  I had to stop and clean the dog hair out of the car after the ride and THAT is why I don't like animals in the vehicle.

The last one was a picture of a property for sell in Round Rock or Georgetown, by a realtor friend of mine.  I posted the photo on Facebook, prompting a brief exchange of pleasantries between us.

That is all.  More than four years of driving and these are the only photos that I took.

07/03/20

I gave a friend a ride to down south of Austin yesterday and that was the closest thing to an Uber event that I have had since I stopped driving several months ago.  It was, in a sense, a rideshare type of ride but it was not an "Uber" ride.

The latest update from Uber discussed earnings averages of the drivers.  The information stated that they were averaging $20.00 an hour which I thought was pretty damn good especially considering the situation.  There were a few nights that I only made it to a $10.00 an hour average but not very often.  I usually ran more towards the $30.00 an hour range.  The update also shared rider demand information.  It was not a surprise but did further deepen the sadness felt about downtown as the information and the accompanying map showed that most of the demand was in the Round Rock area.  No indication of any demand in downtown.  Before, there would be so much demand in downtown that the area on the map in the app would be such a deep red color that it was almost black.  Red of course indicating a very high demand.  Its just sad.  The soul of downtown Austin is gone.

06/09/20

I was attending an event that was only a few miles from downtown so I decided to make a quick pass through downtown.  It was going to be the first time I had been downtown in a couple of months.

"I should not have done this," was my first thought as I exited the freeway and could already see and feel the sadness.  I could see the indicators of the protests that had been taking place including the barricaded police station.  I turned onto 6th street and observed what appeared to be an abandoned town.  There was no one.  The bars and restaurants were all boarded up and the inevitable tagging had taken place.  Businesses closed, no one in the cafes and restaurants, none of the usual foot traffic from all of the office buildings, hotels and restaurants.  No scooters, no taxis, and no Ubers.  The only activity was around the construction sites.  I turned on Red River to get towards Caesar Chavez street.  As I passed the Fairmont I could see people setting inside at what appeared to be a restaurant.  That was a little encouraging but a very far cry from the quantity of people that would usually be seen.  I turned right on Caesar Chavez and headed for Mopac.  I had seen enough.

The contrast to what downtown was before, is saddening.  Downtown is dead.  I sincerely hope that it can be revived and that the vibe that was always in the air before, can return.  I can now say with 100% certainty that there will not be a big rideshare demand for some time.  I had stated with optimism before that I would continue rideshare driving once everything returned to normal, thinking that normal would be in a matter of a couple of months at the most.  That simply cannot happen.  I wont say "impossible" although I probably should.

It is very likely that this will be the last entry in this blog.  It is unfortunate but I can say that it was interesting and fun.  It made a lot of stories, in fact, the only thing I regret is that I did not start doing the blog sooner.  When reading this blog, be sure and click on the older dates as well.  I noticed that those don't always expand out so they can be selected for reading.  There is a lot of stuff spanning several years.

Thanks for reading and I am hoping that this is not the end although its nice to know that every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

05/19/20

I just updated my profile on LinkedIn by putting an ending date for driving with Uber.  I had to do that so it would show further down the experience list and allow my last hotel job to show higher on the list.  As it currently  stands, the last ride I performed was on January 30th, 2020.  I will also be cancelling the rideshare insurance tomorrow.  No need in paying $60 a month when I am sure that I wont be needing it for a while.  The intention is for this to only be temporary but it may be an extended type of temporary.  I would certainly rather be driving and sharing experiences with the riders.

04/03/20

I just opened the Uber rider app.  They are out there.  There were 6 in this area.  I cant beleive there is enough business out there that would make it worth the risk of being exposed to the virus.

03/20/20

I had slowed down my driving due to a hurting shoulder that made it extremely uncomfortable while driving.  Just when that was coming around this damn virus thing started becoming an issue.  I wasn't in a hurry to drive thinking this would soon pass.  This is not going to pass soon.  It is bad and is going to alter the way we live our lives, possibly forever.  The alteration could be for the better or it could be for the worse.  I am optimistically hoping that by the end of May, we will know.  Once this does pass, I anticipate a very high demand of rideshares as people will feel the freedom.  As long as I do not fall victim to this intruder, I will be there with the app a blazin'.

With that, I will close out this journal entry with the hope that the next entry will be one of liberation, celebration, and fascination.

01/28/20

I needed to get out for moment so I turned on the app.  Within 5 minutes I had a request.

Picked up some ladies at Moonshine in Avery Ranch.  A conversation about some of the shows they had all been to broke out.  That conversation then focused down to Bon Jovi and the timelessness of the band.  I had to interject myself into the conversation and share my exposure as well.  Bon Jovi and Ratt, probably about 1984 or 85 ish.  Fun conversation.

01/26/20

I was picking up in Pearson Place at Avery Ranch.  The destination popped up and in one of those moments of random and unexplained outbursts, I blurted out COAST TO COAST MOPAC STYLE!  The trip appeared to be from one end of Mopac to the other which is what prompted the outburst.  Of course as we got closer to the destination and the map was zoomed in more, I could see that we weren't even going to make it to Slaughter.  Fortunately for me there is not a way for rhe rider to select "dork" when they rate the ride.

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.

01/11/20

So I discovered that Corsicana does have Uber coverage via the Waco area.  I turned on the app to start grabbing the rides but after an hour, there had been NOTHING.  I turned on the rider app to see how many other drivers were out there.  There I was, all alone on the map.  I zoomed out to about a 90 mile radius.  There I still was, setting in the middle of a sea of no one divided only by the multiple lines representing asphalt laden vehicle paths.  Maybe its the colder weather.

We were playing dominos when it happened.  A rideshare request in Corsicana!  It took a while to accomplish the pick up and then, upon starting the ride, I was pleasantly surprised to see a destination in Garland Texas.  Going to have to stop for gas and the rider was okay with that.  This was going to be my longest ride since I have been driving for Uber or any of the others.  The previous record holder was a ride with Get Me (while Uber was not in Austin) and it was from Lake Travis Volente area to the Marriott Courtyard downtown.  Possibly one from downtown to Georgetown but this one would out do them all.

Surprise Dallas!  I'm back!  Unexpectedly so, but here I am.  Upon dropping off in Garland I had immediately set my destination for Corsicana but I was Northeast of downtown Dallas so I was expecting several rides as I worked to get back to Corsicana.  My expectations became reality.  

The app had me picking up at an Applebees that was not there.  I was able to text the rider and they told me that they were across from Target.  No Target anywhere in sight.  I quickly opened the Google Maps app and typed in Target.  The first one on the list  was on the same street that I was on so  I selected it.  There it was on the map about a mile away.  Also indicated on the map was Applebees, right across the street.  I pulled up right as the rider was asking if they should get a different Uber.  From there we had an awesome conversation all the way from Rowlett to Garland.

I used to work in this area.  The hotel had a different name and things looked a little different but all was recognizable.  I don't miss it one damn bit.

I took a young lady down to Henderson street near downtown.  I didnt know that area was there and there were people everywhere on a 33 degree night.  I was briefly stuck in a repeating cycle for this area and it was a bit difficult to navigate with the activity levels and road construction.  There were some very nice femalescapes to enjoy which made the pick ups in a difficult spot, more bearable. 

I dropped the last riders off near American Airlines Center and that was far enough away to break the chain on Henderson.  From there I zipped through downtown Dallas in a world record time and roared onto I30 at Elm street, which lead me around to I45 where I hit light speed and was gone.  See you next time Dallas.

Turned off the app at Ennis and went to Wal-Mart to get a head of cabbage for Charlie.  Will get some more gas after I wrap up  the night with a number 21 at the Whataburger on I45 in Ennis Texas at 2:30am.

01/10/20

Finished getting the vehicle serviced in Round Rock and headed out to .near Hutto to return some rental radios from work.  Turned on the app at about 10:30am and got a request just a few minutes later.  This was a young man that worked at Sonic and was very enthusiastic about his job.  He shared with me the various specials and other things they regurlaly have going on and we ended up talking about management where I provided some quick advice.  Good rider and it turned out to be the only one for the day.

12/15/19

I little activity on a Sunday night.  It started out as just a couple of individual incidents of people going to their gatherings but the short night ended up being a double record breaker.

I had a large group of employees from a restaurant in Cedar Park that was closing for the night and going to what sounded like the company Christmas party in Georgetown.  Absolutely the most profanity I have heard from any group since I have been doing this.  Of course that is not a fuckin' problem for me but wow, it was a lot.

I decided to take FM2243 from Georgetown across to Ronald Reagan Blvd to get home.  There was not much going on, as was expected, and it was a nice cruise.  I was surprised when a request came in.

The most amazing conversation to date.  There are few things I love more than talking about unique and crazy situations that we go through in life, and how funny they can be to talk about.  I do not recall how we somehow arrived at a conversation about a pregnancy test for cows that involves the cow "peeing on a stick" instead of having to shove your hand and arm into the cows butt.  Then the indicator of pregnancy on "the stick" would have an indication of "Moo" if pregnant or an indication of "Meh" if not pregnant.  That is the most I have laughed in my Uber surroundings since I have been doing this.  I am still smiling as I set here writing this.  Thank you Holly for an awesome and very humorous conversation.

12/14/19

Started a little before 6:00pm and rides were almost constant until I turned off the app at about 1:00am.  Fairly straight-forward night with lots of Christmas parties although there was an atmosphere of impatience out in the traffic, especially downtown.

Some of these rideshare drivers are not very good at what they do.  Just because they have a car and can drive it doesn't mean that they are qualified to be on the streets as a rideshare driver.  It doesn't make it okay to stop and block lanes of traffic just because you turned on your emergency flashers while you wait for the passenger.  You need to get your ass and your emergency flashers and go around the block until the rider shows up.  They will just need to wait for you if they come out while you are on the other side of the block.

Several groups of girls and not any groups of guys.  Multiple trips to the Fairmont tonight.  

A couple of comments from the night.  These are each from different riders.

- "I don't trust drunk boys.  Girls are different.  They make noise and and act silly but boys are different and I don't trust them when they are drunk".

- " I told the guy that just because I was flirting does not mean that I want to have sex with him".

People talk about personal stuff when they are in the vehicle which is one of several reasons that I typically do not mention names in this blog although all I ever see as a ride share driver is the first name of the person's account that is being used.  Listening in on these conversations gives me a little window into a lot of differing opinions from a lot of different perspectives.  Many times it is an educational experience for me while other times it is an experience that will serve no purpose for me, or anyone, ever.

And to get to see all of the cool Christmas lights all over town, is great!

End of night taquito stop was at the Whataburger at 620 and Lake Creek Pkwy.

12/13/19

Picked up a group of 1 nice-looking girl and 4 guys at HEB Center that was going to Pflugerville.  A conversation about board games started and that led to a description by the girl of a board game called Descent.  Apparently the game functions around a topic that is presented and each player proposes discussion towards the topic.  The example the girl used in her description was a subject of whether or not it is acceptable or not to pee in the shower.  The conversation immediately diverted from board games and the vehicle erupted in opinions on whether or not it was acceptable to pee in the shower and the variations of how to pee in the shower to perhaps make it more acceptable.  I was laughing so hard and was asked my opinion.  The girl was setting next to me in the passenger seat when she realized that I was agreeing with her she called me a son-of-a-bitch as an expression of pleasure and compliment.  All the guys except me stated that it was okay to pee in the shower.  Then one of the guys in the back announced that he had farted and needed a window to be lowered.  Everyone gave him a hard time about that.  Then 5 minutes later the same thing again.  The girl and I laughed and I told her there would be a "per fart" surcharge and made the motion on my phone like I was adding in the surcharege.  She laughed loudly and called my a son-of-a-bitch again.  This conversation / outburst lasted for the rest of the trip.

There have been several times where I have picked up a pair of riders and one of them is in the position of teaching the other the ropes or the tricks of the trade, etc.  It is unclear whether this person has been assigned to this type of role as "the master" or if he just thinks he is.  "You know.  I didn't know anyone here and now look at me.  If you just stick around me it will help you're career."  Usually you can tell by the "Padawan's" response or lack or response as to whether are not he thinks the "Master" is an idiot.

12/12/19

Had a rider from downtown going out to the Hilton airport.  Once I dropped him off the new pickup system for the airport kicked in.  I had read about this a few days ago and the rider that  I had just dropped off asked if I had experienced it yet. 

A pop up came up on the app asking if I wanted to take advantage of nearby opportunities.  I felt look like I should give it a try so I would be familiar with it.  So I did and it worked just fine.  I was really pleased when the destination of the rider popped up.  Airport to Cedar Park.  Nice.  I was close to home and called it a night.

12/11/19

I am trying to decide whether that specific aroma is a ladies perfume or some type of a side-effect to the feminine consumption of alcohol. Those are the two common denominators every time that this smell presents itself.  Maybe its both.  ??

Every once in a while there is a request into an area that I drive by almost daily but have never gone in to.  Many times it is an unassuming street that is barely even noticable.  Then there is that first time where you make the turn down that street and only a few feet away from the intersection is a huge neighborhood that you didnt know even existed.  As you navigate through the neighborhood you end up leaving at a completly different place than where you came in and discover that you are on a different street and it is one that you drive on every day and know very well.  Its like you have just been transported through a time warp or something and you are left wondering what had just happened.

11/27/19

I had taken the day off work as we had plans to head out to dad's today but a sick little one changed all of that.  I went ahead and turned the app on while I was doing some other tasks around the house.  To my knowledge, I had not drove on a Wednesday during the day and being the day before Thanksgiving I didn't have any idea what to expect.

I have been doing this for over 4 years and today was the first time I had picked up or dropped off at Dell.  It was dropping off in this case.

Picked up a nice couple that was in town for the holidays to have Thanksgiving with their daughter.  The daughter used her account and then sent a text as to whom I would be picking up.

I had to cut it short at noon as I cruised through the HEB parking lot and saw how busy it was.  Had some things I needed to get before they were all gone.

11/08/19

A trifecta of scholastic engagement.  Dropped of my daughtet at an elementary school, had a rider to a middle school and a rider to a high school.

His car had been towed overnight.  He had a fairly large dog and a series of stops to complete to get his car back.  We finally ended up at the final destination in east Austin.  The dog was well behaved but shed quite a bit of hair.  The rider had given me an extra $20 tip so I decided to go offline and clean up the hair.  Since I was also hungry it made sense to just return home to clean the car and get something to eat.

I probably had a conversation with my soul-mate and now will never see her again.  I dropped her off at the airport and she flew into the setting sun.... Except it was raining and was 1 pm in the after noon.  It was the most awesome conversation.

I was immediately pinged for a pick up in the arrivals area.  I dropped him off close to Airport and 2222.  Upon looking at the earnings for the day, all was good and I called it a day.  

Fridays during the day are busy.   

11/02/19

It did not feel like 20 trips even though I was fully aware that I drove for almost 8 hours.  Was able to take advantage of some of the promotions to the tune of about $50.  Throw in another $14 in tips and that makes for about 30% of the earnings coming from being a good, friendly driver and making sure that I am in the right place at the right time.  Even when there is no desire to be downtown. 

And of course the first ride was from the Lakeline LaQuinta to downtown.  After getting bounced around downtown for a few rides, I set my home address in the app so I could get out of downtown.  I made it to the UT campus and started getting bounced around there with the rides supposedly on the way to the destination that I had set.  That address timed out but I had made it far enough away that the gravitational forces from downtown couldn't reach me anymore.

Coming into downtown on Congress street from the South is a completely beautiful experience. Such so that I almost missed a left hand turn comimg down the hill.  

Those frickin' flashing yellow left turn arrows are tripping me out for some reason.  They are an excellent idea but seem to make my mind drift kinda like the Jessica Alba shower scene in Machete.

Another first tonight.  Dropped off at Terry Blacks BarBQ and picked up without moving an inch.  I dont think the doors even got closed between riders.  Passed by Terry Black's 3 times tonight and the line was out to the street each time.

Picked up a group of guys that had been to a show at Stubbs.  They were very impressed with the performance and just as I was about to ask who it was, one of the guys blurted out that during one of the songs he could feel hair growing on his balls.  That pretty much killed my question and all interest that I had in who the group was.

Another party up in hills.  6 young girls and 2 of them were drunk as hell.  Almost like a flight attendent on an airline I went over the drill of where the barf bags were and what my expectations were.  I turned the a/c cold and drove those winding, dipping and diving roads like I was hauling a nuclear bomb as I tried not to cause motion sickness.  It worked.

Back to the hills in a different part of the lake where the driveways are almost vertical.  Deer and foxes walk right up to the vehicle while waiting in the driveway.  Another drunk person.  Actually, no, he was not drunk.  He had "over-served" himself.  I cannot help but recall Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker.  (I did not know that they had split up until just now when I looked them up to make sure I spelled the names correctly)

Picked up another supposedly drunk  guy that the bartender was arranging the ride for.  It is always interesting how much more in control the older drunks are when compared to the younger drunks.

The last ride ended up being just up the street from my house.  So close that I had to go out of my way to get to a Whataburger.  I wanted to add a different one to the list but the closest one was Lake Creek and 620 so that is where I went.

11/01/19

The second I went on line a request came in and it was a good one.  Uber Comfort from Cedar Park to Downtown.  $30 plus a $20 tip.

I saw a surge zone that was south of downtown and headed in that direction.  The traffic was messed up and I couldn't go very fast.  Just as I was breaking through traffic and had touched the outer edge of the surge zone and gained $1.25 on the next ride, the surge zone moved.  I kept pushing south on I35 and caught up with it just in time to exit on 290 where the heart of the zone was.  I watched and counted up as the bonus began to ratchet up the deeper I plunged into the zone.  It made it up to $4.00 and then a request came in.

Good and fun conversations with the next group of riders.  I was confirmed brain dead when I sat at a traffic light waiting to turn left with a flashing yellow arrow and no traffic around.  I knew then that it was going to be a short night.

Bounced around uptown Austin awhile.  A really good looking hearing impaired lady was one of my passengers tonight.  I always try to accommodate any way I can and the two of us were able to communicate good enough for all to turn out good.

Had a rider that talked an enormous amount about food and specifically sushi.  His business partner has a large number of restaurants 3 of which are well known and frequently visited here locally.  Good conversation and apparently an octopus has balls.  I was going to ask which tentacle it would use to scratch them but I got distracted.

Nice elderly oriental lady guided me away from the tollway as we made our way to drop her off.  I learned a little work around for that area if I ever need it.

10/29/19

A request came in about a half hour after turning on the app.  The route was taking me right by the gas station on Brushy Creek that has the lowest gas prices ever.  Yes, I completed the worlds fastest $10 splash and go pit stop.

She was a 38 year old lady (she blurted her age out during the ride) requesting a ride from her home, to 7-11 and back to her home.  During the ride she asked if I was married and we briefly discussed her marital situation or lack of as well as my own.  I made it back home after this ride and was sure that I was done for the night.  That was not to be the case and I ended up getting home at 12:30am.

After a couple of bounces around Cedar Park I had a request that took me all the way to Manor.  As I was arriving back in Austin I received a request on Airport Blvd.  I was about to arrive when a call from the rider came in.  "Are you close?  We're cold".  I told them that I was right around the corner and the caller seemed happy to hear that.  Upon arrival there were two people waiting outside a club.  One got inside but the other one was acting silly, I thought, then he began to stagger backwards while loudly babbling a bunch of incoherent bullshit, then tripped on a curb block and went crashing to the sidewalk.  He was very drunk.  His friend stayed in the vehicle which was a good 30 feet away and kept asking him if he was okay.  I never thought that he might be dead but he laid there for a moment without a single movement.  He finally got up and staggered towards the vehicle.  The door was wide open and he still missed the target but eventually got in with no help from his buddy.  I reached back and patted the pocket on the back of the seat and clearly stated that the barf bag was inside the pocket if he needed one.  His friend said he was fine but the drunk dude immediately grabbed it and put it over his mouth.  Their destination wasn't far away and I tried not to make any drastic moves with the vehicle to help keep the dumb-ass from throwing up.  We made it to the destination where the drunk guy opened the door and fell out onto the grass in the yard that was nearby.  His buddy finally showed a little concern and was helping him.  I rolled down the window and asked if everything was okay and the moment I received confirmation that all was well, I hauled my ass out of there at the highest optimal velocity.

I had already set my home address on the app when I left Manor but still received 3 more ride requests including the one above.  Did not plan on stretching tonight out this late but the Manor trip was a win even though it was the reason that the night got stretched.

10/27/19

A busy Sunday evening.  The 2 trips in the downtown area revealed a very active place with a great vibe.

It is amazing the many different professions that people have.  There are entire industries out there that are completely unknown to some yet they are there and are the life sustaining force for all of those who are in that industry.  So many things that can be learned when our mouths are shut and our brains are open to any possibility.

Remember the Flintstones?  Remember the part in the intro where they are at the drive-in and are being served a large rack of ribs?  The ribs are placed on the tray that is hooked on the side of their car and the car turns over.  Yeah.

A group of riders from a week or so ago selected the station of PopRocks on Sirius XM and it is still playing.  A slightly better station than the other two I had been switching between.

10/22/19

Oops, I did it again

Into the midnight hour

A 10:30pm a request to downtown sparked off an explosion of activity.   1 3-trip series bonus, 2 surge bonuses, and 3 tips made for an unexpected Tuesday harvest that was carried out on a 1/8 th of a tank of gasoline.  On top of that I successfully tracked down a store that was still open at 12:45am so I could purchase some frickin' ham that no one mentioned was needed when we were in Target 4 hours earlier.  I now know that Randalls in Cedar Park is open until 1 am.

10/19/19

First trip at 7:35pm went downtown. Somehow I was able to miss the craziness of the football game when it finished.  I ended up west of town again during that time.

About 1:30am.  I made a run for it on Bee Caves Road, away from downtown.  I ended up getting pinged with another request in the west and after that was successful at escaping tbe grasp of downtown.  

This last request was a drunk guy leaving a party.  It appeared that he had been at a formal event but most of his clothes were in his hands and not on his body.  He apologized and stated that he had gotten carried away with the partying. 

#20 at the Whataburger on Lake Creek and 620/45.

10/18/19

Late start at 10:30pm made the night feel weird.  No rides to downtown which was the way I prefered it tonight.  

620 through Lakeway was the most travelled road tonight and had a drop off at The Grumpy Grouper.  The last time I was there was several years ago.  In a previous post there was a rider that I picked up and the first thing he blurted out was "ya got any weed?"   That was the previous time at the Grumpy Grouper.

Actually made it home at 1:30am but stayed online.  Mostly drunks that time of day especially when the bars close at 2:00am.  Received 2 more requests.  Barf bag saved the day / night / car.  Stopped it there and swung by Whataburger to close out the day. 

10/17/19

I had almost 0 intention of driving until midnight but that is what happened.  The first request pinged me from directly above as I was still in the parking garage and the pickup was at the hotel.  In fact it was a night with a bit of a hotel theme.  Omni Downtown, The Archer, Omni Barton Creek twice and the Grand Ducah.

Good conversation with a gentleman that was part of a big Republican Party gathering at Omni Barton Creek.  He asked for my honest opinion about the President and I shared that with him.  The conversation turned into a conversation about the "homeless" (yes " ") issues in Austin and how he does not agree with how the mayor is going about it.

I was tried when I started and tired when I finished about 3 hours later.  Averaged over $30 dollars an hour and was 1 ride away from another bonus but had to call it a night.

09/21/19

The plan was for tonight to be epic but little did I know about how epic it was going to be.

I turned the app on earlier than usual at 6:00pm and within seconds a request came in.  That was the last time I saw the home screen until I went off line at 2:45am.  One request after another adding up to 22 requests for the night and over $300 both of which may be personal bests.  Even when I set the address to my home address I still received 3 more requests as I worked to steer towards home.

Lakeshore Boulevard ended up being the frequently traveled road tonight and I only had 2 requests related to the UT OU football game.

When I received the first football game related request, the app was routing me to the standard pick up spot.  The rider called and wanted to know if I could pick them up on I35 service road at Manor Road.  I was only 1 exit away but was headed the wrong direction.  I accelerated my way through the traffic and did a u-turn at 38 1/2 street.  She was still on the phone describing the clothes they were wearing  when I spotted them about a quarter of a mile ahead of me.  "I see you and I am coming up fast."  The traffic light was red and they were not far from the intersection as I caught up with the vehicles in front of me.  Thinking that I had the timing worked out in my head I told her that I was the next vehicle.  She repeated that out loud to her friend who immediately bolted onto the street, yanked open the right rear passenger door of the vehicle in front of me and climbed in.  "Not that one, the next one, the next one", I was almost shouting over the phone.  She got her friend out and they loaded up in my vehicle rolling in laughter.  "Oh my God", she said.  "You should have seen the look on that guy's face".

I could only imagine some of the scenarios surrounding adopted children or children in foster care.  After a long ride with a couple of ladies involved in this discipline, I have so much respect and admiration for those who try to help kids in these situations to be able to still have a chance at a good lo life.

Had several groups of younger than me guys and the usual f bomb sprees with some other stuff thrown in.  "Oh my God dude.  They have incredible genetics" at least 15 times.  For the first time I became tired of hearing these 2 guys talk.  "Its gas" is apparently the new cool thing to say about something cool.  Became completely bummed out as one of the guys began to talk about his failed dreams of making it to the NFL and that damn song by Lewis Capasomebody was playing.  It is the number 1 song for 8 weeks in a row now and just wish it would go away.

Then later, as the guy in the group that sat in the front seat borrowed one of the other guys phones to play music, he read a text to his buddy that had been received.  "Hey man, you got a text from the chinese chick.  It says, I think I want you to f*** me again."  All riders blurt out stuff like I am not there or like I am one of their group.  No descretion whatsoever.  These guys talked a lot and seemed to be good friends but for me they had a vibe that felt odd.  Almost like they were misguided in life and had no direction.  It was a very empty and alone type of feeling.

There was one group of guys where we once again successfully sqeezed 8 people into the vehicle.  Then later a group of large ladies filled up the same space with fewer people.  Great and fun conversation with these ladies.

The last ride of the night was crazy fun.  I picked up 2 young couples at Rock Rose and the conversations immediately started.  By the time the ride was finished, I had 2 Pepsis, over $50 in tips, some of which was placed in my right breast shirt pocket (freebie thrill for her) and had been addressed as a DILF by both of the young ladies.

Tonights adventure ended with a #20 at the Whataburger on 620 and Lake Creek Parkway.

09/20/19

Was feeling completely drained of energy but around 11:00pm I decided to turn on the app anyway.  Wasn't too long before a request came in.  Dont understand why the app can guide me to a pickup using "backways" but cant guide me back to where I just came from via rhe same "backways". 

Took 3 gentlemen from Moonshine (north) to their homes and picked up a group going to Rock Rose street in The Domain.  Rolled down the street's a few yards and picked up some guys going home.

One group liked my voice and kept telling me things to say.  "I think it was the Clintons", was the one they got the biggest kick out of.  They said something about it sounding like Ashton Kuchner's dad's voice.  I have no idea of the accuracy of that.

Here is a conversation take away.  Comment from rider.

- 30 minutes is a long time.  Ask any guy.

Note that the driver does not necessarily agree with the comment.

09/12/19

Always like it when they cancel and I get a cancelation fee.  3 rides on the way home.

The "kung fu" school I drove by looked to be finished with classes for the day.  I found an odd humor about the way it looked to see one of employees vacuuming the carpet while still wearing his "karate kid" uniform.

09/07/19

My acceptance rating just took a hit.  I turned on the app and immediately started receiving requests from downtown, which is about 20 miles away.  I accepted the first one but then the rider cancelled.  We probably both said "holy shit" at about the same time due to distance away that I was.  Another came in and I declined it while trying to hit the offline button as I realized what was going on.  Another one came in and I declined it as well, then was able to get offline.  Obviously the UT game has just finished and the app is reaching waaaaaaaay out for drivers.  There would be a pick-up premium but it would still not be worth dead-heading it down there, fighting through the traffic to the pick up point, fighting the traffic back out and then dropping off at a hotel only a couple of miles away.  Even with surge I might get $20.  That would be good if I was already downtown but I am far from downtown.  Oh, and I was downtown earlier today, not doing rideshare but took a moment to do some recon with rideshare on my mind for later.  I could tell that it was going to be a massive night downtown tonight.  I have become very good at downtown rideshare driving but tonight I do not want to be down there.  I will go back online a little after 11pm and hopefully get in on the 11pm ish demand up here closer to where I am at.  Otherwise, this may be the first rideshare post where there was not any actual ridesharing that took place.

08/29/19

Sometimes, at first site, there appears to be a mismatch between people and their interests.  I could not help but feel this way when a tall, 22 year-old beautiful female with a British accent, loaded up in the passenger seat next to me and then went nuts when she saw a '65 refurbished Ford pickup truck.  It did look very nice.  I cannot help but wonder what the chain of events in her short life were, that lead her to this specific type of vehicular interest.  Oh, and it was a real turn on to hear her say words like Uber, beer, and any word that ended in "er", with her British accent.  I am sure she was turned on by my Texan accent as well.  We had an awesome conversation.

In fact all of the riders tonight were talkers.  This most likely was the first night where that has been the case.  Lots of interesting conversations.  Tarrytown to ATX Cocina, back to Tarrytown then to Shady Grove, The Oasis on Lake Travis to the Renaissance Hotel in the Arboretum, Estancia Brazilian Steakhouse and dropping off at Seaholm area.

08/25/19

Avery Ranch to Georgetown, Round Rock to the airport, a canceled ride and a guy with freshly turned brake rotors, made for a Sunday Slam Dunk of a quick $75.00.

The airport ride ended up having both terminals included which was good as I had not been to the South terminal yet.  This gave me a daylight opportunity to figure it out.  No arrival passenger to pick up this time.  Disappointing.

I was about 100 yards away from the pick up point when the rider cancelled.  It always ticks me off when I am that close and they do that.  I am sure that it is not anything mischievous but I always have this vision of a couple of kids watching me approach on the app and see how close I get before they have to cancel the call before the grace period time runs out.  I guess it could be considered as payback for those times we would call someone and ask them if their refrigerator was running, and when they said "yes" we would tell them they better go catch it.  Then we would hang up.

It is interesting how a specific road will end up being the road most traveled for that given day.  I have made comments in previous posts about this phenomenon.  Today, there were not enough rides to really qualify any road although I35 at the Kamer Road area was visited 3 times today.

08/20/19

A most awesome Tuesday evening and night from my rideshare perspective.  Not the weekend type of riders although there a couple of "clubbers" but steady all night.  I finally had to go offline and go home.  14 rides and $104, on a Tuesday.  First time ever for me on a Tuesday.

Another great conversation from the passenger seat and from a female.  Her frickin' driveway was almost straight up for 50 yards.

08/15/19

Almost 11pm when I finally left work.  Had a nice little flurry of activity that ended up with a drop-off at Mopac and Wells Branch that left me in a good spot for a little shorter drive home.

I had picked up this last group after rolling 25 feet down the hill on 7th street from where I had just dropped off the previous group.  Some just starting their fun on 6th street while others were done.  Well, almost done as they were having a good time all the way to Round Rock.  They were Mexican Americans and we were laughing about the different accents of saying my name.  The guy in the group was cheering on one of the girls as she kept saying it more and more sexy.  Then she added the word "abajo".  "Abajo Yose, abajo".  I had to keep myself from getting too carried away as I think she was actually serious, based on the way she was looking at me.  I was tempted to say, "hasta donde", but I kept things professional and kept myself out of trouble.  The next headlines would have been,
Uber Driver Overtaken by Fun Foreign Phonetical Fornication game.

08/14/19

Sometimes it just works out.  Picked up a rider at the Doubletree on 15th street and dropped him off at the Domain.  That put me half-way home with the earnings paying for a couple of days gasoline.

08/12/19

Very busy.  I probably could have made a million dollars tonight.

It was after 6pm and I was thinking most of the rush-hour traffic would be done.  NOT.  I picked up the first rider on West street next to the new big ass library.  We almost immediately ended up with a conversation about the idiots that many refer to as homeless but these people are not homeless.  You could give them a house and they would have it destroyed in less than a year.  Most of them are just stubborn belligerent assholes.  We had a good conversation and as she was exiting the vehicle with her nice looking workout gear, I thanked her for such a good conversation.

I knew Keller Williams was having a big event at the Convention Center but as I made my way to Mopac I thought maybe my timing was off and I was just going to miss out.  I got a ping from Mopac and picked them up.  They were going to the Launderette which was the first time in a long time that I had dropped of there.  Before we arrived I had received another request and from that point forward, it was on.  Uber X, Comfort, XL and even a LUX tonight.  Ride after ride and they were all dropping "F" bombs.  I was starting to feel like Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941.

I finally got to see those darn bats flying out from under the Congress Street bridge.  Just happen to pass over the bridge at the perfect time.

As always, after each ride I start migrating towards home.  If I make it I stop and if I don't make it, I don't stop.  Surprisingly, at about 9pm my migrating pushed me out of downtown, passed the Arboretum and Domain areas and nothing going on in the Lakeline area at that moment.  I made it home and went off line.

Lots of tippers today.

08/10/19

One of the later starts that I have done but I knew that even at 10pm there would be someone wanting to go somewhere and that I would probably end up downtown sooner or later.

Sure enough, a request came in.  Beautiful young lady that went straight for the passenger seat.  We talked for the duration of the trip to downtown Austin.  I noticed that the app had me going to I35 but in our conversations I wanted to run her by West 6th so she could see that area.  Even as we turned south on Mopac, the app kept trying to redirect us.  I begin to suspect that something was up downtown and then I remembered that it was Pride weekend.  My offer to show off part of the town turned into a traffic and pedestrian nightmare as the events were ending and we were right at 5th and Guadalupe where they had all ended.  I was finally able to make our way to 6th and Colorado and she was fine with walking a few blocks to 6th street.  She asked if it would be safe and I told her it would but to not talk to strangers. 

So, I dropped off the first rider but was still stuck on Colorado and now another request had come in from west 6th and I had no way to turn around and get back to 6th street.  It took forever to get up to 7th street where I turned west and then begin working my way to the pick up.  I had been texting the rider and letting him know what was going on.  I made it to the pick up spot and couldn't find them.  I went around again and saw who I thought was them across the street but I was in no position to get over there so I started around again.  They sent a text letting me know they were outside and I explained to them that I thought I had seen them and was going around again to be able to pick them up.  I went up an extra block and then turned west on 6th giving me lots of room to maneuver in the packed traffic to get over to them.  DAMMITT! the guy yelled out when I pulled up and called his name.  He wasn't mad, just relieved that I had finally made it.  I too expressed how glad I was to see them and to finally get them into the vehicle.

After dropping them off I had a pick up at BT2 and going downtown.  Dropped them off and had a Pool ride with 2 of the riders going back to that same place.  The other group in the pool was headed to Top Golf.  From there picked up someone on Rock Rose in the Domain that were going out to 360 and 2222.  Got pinged from Shooters and took them to Steiner Ranch.  I usually don't have a problem with 2am stuff but I was feeling like I was going to fall asleep so I headed home.

08/09/19

I was supposed to head home after work today and I did, kinda sorta.  I turned on the app and set my home address to see if I could sneak a ride in while I was headed home.  Since I was still downtown, there was a very good chance I would get a request even with the address restriction in place.

I immediately got a ping and it was just around the corner at the state capital.  As soon as turned left from Brazos street on to 11th street the riders spotted me and began waving at me.  I easily pulled up and two nice looking oriental ladies ran to the vehicle and jumped in.  "We have to get to Greyhound and catch a bus" they franticly stated.  "Okay, we are on our way", I responded and we took off.  I looked at the clock at it was exactly 5:00pm.  "What time does your bus leave", I asked.  Keep in mind that the evening rush-hour traffic is in full effect although it is usually a little lighter on Fridays.  They told me that their bus was at 5:25pm and because sometimes the busses leave a little early, they were not sure they were going to make it.

By now we were on Lavaca and I could see that there was a delay up at the light at MLK.  I cut across 17th street to Colorado and then continued over to MLK and successfully avoided the jam up at the Lavaca and MLK light.  MLK to I35 was a little slow but it was moving and the turn to the I35 ramp was packed and not moving.  I swung wide and stayed on the frontage road bypassing all of the stopped traffic and then had to do the same thing again and the next on-ramp.  As I zipped past 38 1/2  street I held to the far left lane.  I could see that past the tracks and up the ramp the traffic was moving slower in the other lane.  I was easily able to slide through the traffic, over the hill and down onto the on-ramp to I35.  The next exit was the one that I needed so I never really merged onto I35.  The whole time I am taking glances at the clock and we were getting really close on time.  I exited on 2222 and just as before I was able to slip through in the left lane all they way to the traffic light and after a brief wait for the light to change I lifted off while in a left turn for the final leg of the journey.

I could see the building with the Greyhound letters across the side and could also see that there was no traffic for this final stretch.  I accelerated rapidly, then slowed equally as rapid to turn into the driveway.  The time was 5:20pm.  Nice, we had made it with 5 minutes to spare.  The ladies had already bolted out of the vehicle thanking me as they ran to the door.  I once again began my journey home as the earnings for the ride popped up on the screen.  Wow.  It seemed like more than what it should be.  As I stopped for traffic on Airport Blvd I reached up and opened the detail section of the earnings to see why it was so high.  What I saw made me smile.  It was almost like receiving a secret message.  The ladies had added a large tip to the ride signifying that we did make it in time and that they were pleased with how I had accomplished that.

I made it the rest of the way home, picked up my wife a daughter and we headed out to try out a restaurant that I had seen on one of the past journeys.

08/08/19

First ride was to the airport.  Just like earlier in the week, when I dropped off I immediately received a request for a pickup.  This time I nailed it.  Yellow Zone 3.  Present and waiting when the rider arrived. 

As I headed up the acceleration ramp, that was at a slightly steep angle and was aiming the vehicle at the sky, the collision warning system picked up a traffic sign that was 20 feet up in the air and activated the collision warning.  I almost had a natural disaster in my pants as the alert was totally unexpected due to the fact that there were no cars in the vicinity.

Third and last rider of the day was headed to the Mohawk to see Mike and The Moonpies.  Her good friend's son is in the band.

08/07/19

After making it all the way out to 2222 on Balcones, it was good to finaly get a request so I could get away from the fumes of this frickin Dodge Charger that was somehow picking the same roads that I was.  I think I breathed in enough of that crap to take care of the ozone layer for the next 2 years.

Took three people out on 620 south of Mansfield dam.  Surprisingly I immediatly got another request out there.  I pulled up to the Hudson Tavern and waited for the rider.  I saw him coming in my rear-view mirror and although he was not staggering or anything, I could tell that he was drunk.  He opened the passenger side door and before I could greet him he announced to me and anyone else that was within a hundred yards in all directions, "I am day drinkin!'".  We had good conversation and he was guiding me through the navigation of the roads to get to his house.

I had no idea that today was Blues on the Green at Zilker Park.  Picked up a group of 4 guys in Cedar Park and dropped them off at the event.  Made it all the back home without another request and called it a night.

08/06/19

Wide awake at 5:00am so I decided to head out early and see if there were any riders going downtown.  I set the address on the app and made it to work really early as no one was going my way at that time of the day.

Much later evening start than what I wanted, in fact it was almost 10:00pm when I left work.  Still was able to get 2 rides.

08/05/19

The evening rush out of downtown was over but I turned it anyway to see if I could get a few rides.  Made it almost to the arboretum before getting pinged.

The ride was to the airport and after an uneventful trip and dropoff I immediately got pinged for a pickup.  The pickup was in the new pickup area that I was not familiar with yet.  After two misses and having to loop all the way around, I figured out how to get in to the pickup area.  The rider was there patiently waiting and then off we went to the Hyatt Regency.

From there I made it home without any additional activity.

08/03/19

Dropped off first riders in Leander in one of the new subdivisions. The streets weren't even on the map.  Turned the corner and some girls were selling lemonaide so I stopped and bought a cup.

The next rider was on an HOA board of directors somewhere and was on the phone for most of the ride, dealing with a problem of a neighborhood dog that had been biting other dogs and people.  It was one of the longer rides that I have done.  Leander to down south past where Mopac ends.

I kept Mopac ablaze tonight with over half of the trips being via Mopac.

All male group of 3 riders.
Rider 1:  we should do our formal thing
Rider 2:  yeah, I would be totaly down with that.
Rider 3:  ....

Rider 2:  which dates should we bring?
Rider 1:  no dates, just us.
Rider 3:  .....
Rider 2:  we have to bring dates.  I could bring Sarah.
Rider 1:  Okay.  I could bring Katie.
Rider 2:  who the fuck is that?
Rider 1:  she's got big fuckin tits!
Rider 2:  .....
Rider 3:  .....
Driver:  .......

One female rider was having her 25th birthday.  She wanted different  music and climbed into the front seat to find a good song on the radio since I was driving in downtown and couldn't mess with the radio.   Another large group of females was able to get their Bluetooth to link up and play their songs, all of which I could have done without.

3 Comfort rides tonight.  Uber may be on to something by adding this level of service.

Finished off the night at 1:45am at the Whataburger on 620 near Lake Creek Parkway.