In my travels around the great city of Portsmouth I see many things. I see things that amuse me, annoy me, enlighten me, and humbles me. Sometimes I fell like a voyeur of the world. People watching is definantly one of my favorite pass times.
When the cabbing is slow I like to sit in Market Square and take mental snap shots of the diversity of people who inhabit the area. There are the uptight business people in suits in a hurry to get somewhere. Outside of the South Church there are always the same young, misguided youth hanging around looking for their next misadventures. Sitting at the chairs outside of Breaking New Ground ( a coffee shop) there is always a mix of young locals who live in the downtown area, tourist from who knows where and several rough neck motorcycle types. Then every once in a while, if I get lucky, I see that dude who rides his bike with a goggle wearing parrot on his shoulder.
Once I get rolling and I'm cruising around town looking for my next fare or trying to get my customer to where they want to go, I deal with a some of my pet peeves that I try to cope with on a daily basis.
I'm not trying to alienate any of my readers who may be guilty of my pet peeves. So please don't be offended. After all, often the people who annoys us the most are the people we love!
Whats the deal with smokers? I know that the majority of my friends and family are smokers, so please let me know what you think. I find a lot of them inconsiderate of others around them. They often try to light up in my cab, then get mad when I tell them to wait till I drop them off. I also don't understand why they so uncaringly fling their butts out the window. I think its rude and disgusting.
So whats the deal with bikers dressing like they are going to win the Tour De France. Dont they realize the look like 5 pounds of shit in a 1 pound bag. Not to mention I really dont like the look of their moose knuckles and camel toes! I dont have any thing against people who ride bicycles to get where they going. But they expect me to share the road with them but they dont share it with me. I dont think they understand the rule of tonnage. I would never intintionally pull out in front of an 18 wheeler so why would they cut me off! I always feel like the are trying to run some kinda scam on me.
Ok enough of things that annoy me. That is a long list of things. Maybe in future post I will cover more of them.
Every once in a while I get someone in my cab that I find interesting and kinda inspires me. Last week I picked up a guy at his huge ass house. He was went downtown to meet with a client who was interested in buying whatever it was he was selling. A few hours later he called for me to go pick him up. He was kinda intoxicated when I got him. On the trip home, he asked me if I knew what seperates succesful people from average people When I said no , he replied that succesful people arent afraid to ask for thing. I found that interesting because often I catch myself being nervous to ask people especially stangers for anything.
On the other hand, from time to time I pick people up who reminds me how lucky I am. Portsmouth is often considered a hoity-toity city with all well to do people. Though on the outside looking in you may think that. But when you get to the underbelly of the town you find that there are lots of unfortunant souls in the area who have made mistakes in their lives and are paying dearly for it. Ive watched a lady drink rubbing alcohol. Ive picked a family at the bus station and brought them to the homeless shelter. I also brought a woman from the hospital to a local hotel who was telling me her husband had a stroke while working and he may never be his normal again. I could go on and on about some of the people Ive given rides to who were down on their luck.
By the end of my shifts I have often went through a whole roller coaster of emotions. Im exhausted and I just want to go home. But I love it. It makes me feel alive and often I cant wait for my next shift in my cab!
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
That Gut Feeling
Well folks I'm out of commission this week. Hopefully I will be in my cab next weekend. I had a little surgery on my clackers and I'm in a lot of pain. But I know I will be ready for the road soon.
Anyhow I do have a little story. Because I don't carry a weapon I am always a little nervous about either picking up a fare that will turn violent or getting robbed. The more senior cab drivers tell me that its a gut feeling you get if something isn't right. Not to mention my experiences of growing up in Meadowland gives me a 6th sense if some thing is about to go down.
It was really late and the bars have been out for some time. I decided to take one more trip through downtown and get one last fare before calling it a night. There was a group of young men stand there with one punk standing in the middle of the road. He had his hands up yelling for me to stop. It almost looked as if he wanted to play chicken. For some reason I stopped. As he was walking around the cab to the passenger side he was saying something that I couldn't understand but I could tell he was belligerent. The hairs on my neck stood on end and my stomach started churning. I had the window down but the door was locked. I asked, "where ya goin buddy."
As he is reaching into my cab to unlock the door, invading my space now he yells out, "I'm going to fuckin Newington!"
At t hat point I had it with that jerk. He had that door open at that point. So I yelled back, "then you better start walking, motherfucker!" As I drove off.
I heard him yelling and calling me names as I pulled away. But I really didn't care. I knew that guy would be trouble so I left him on t he side of the road. My senior cabbies were right. You know if there will be trouble with a fare and you should leave those jerks on the side of the road.
Anyhow I do have a little story. Because I don't carry a weapon I am always a little nervous about either picking up a fare that will turn violent or getting robbed. The more senior cab drivers tell me that its a gut feeling you get if something isn't right. Not to mention my experiences of growing up in Meadowland gives me a 6th sense if some thing is about to go down.
It was really late and the bars have been out for some time. I decided to take one more trip through downtown and get one last fare before calling it a night. There was a group of young men stand there with one punk standing in the middle of the road. He had his hands up yelling for me to stop. It almost looked as if he wanted to play chicken. For some reason I stopped. As he was walking around the cab to the passenger side he was saying something that I couldn't understand but I could tell he was belligerent. The hairs on my neck stood on end and my stomach started churning. I had the window down but the door was locked. I asked, "where ya goin buddy."
As he is reaching into my cab to unlock the door, invading my space now he yells out, "I'm going to fuckin Newington!"
At t hat point I had it with that jerk. He had that door open at that point. So I yelled back, "then you better start walking, motherfucker!" As I drove off.
I heard him yelling and calling me names as I pulled away. But I really didn't care. I knew that guy would be trouble so I left him on t he side of the road. My senior cabbies were right. You know if there will be trouble with a fare and you should leave those jerks on the side of the road.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
White Lies, Flat Tires, and Rubbing Alcohol
I often wonder why when things happen you look back and you can see the chain of events that led to it. Seems that it is always a string of little things that pile up into a huge pile of stinking crap. Sometimes you may think something as a little white lie is harmless. But that little lie can set off bad karma, realign the stars, piss off the almighty god or whatever else you might believe is the reason for things going wrong. Besides having your own bad juju I think we are affected by others negative energy.
I know... I know... you are wondering why am I talking all this mojo crap. Last night I experienced a chain of events that led to me changing a flat tire and going in early on what was turning into a very profitable night of cabbing.
It was about 11: 30 PM and I just dropped off a party of six at The Page. ( for my old Navy friends that is where Bananas used to be). As they were getting out a young man came up to my window and asked if I would take him up to York, Me. That is about a 45 minute round trip and that would put me out of downtown in the heart of the busy time. There was no way I was going to do that. So I lied to him and said that I couldn't do it because I had to pickup someone else in ten minutes.
About 20 seconds after I drove off I get dispatched to the Moonlight Reader for some people whose car is broken down and needed to find a hotel. When I get to where they are I see a van with the rear passenger tire gone. They apparently drove it on the rim for a while. There were 2 guys and a girl and they obviously on some mind altering substance. After about 20 minutes I finally find a hotel that has a room for them and I'm out of there.
As I'm driving away from those three bozos I get another call to go pick up a lady and make the round trip from her home to a convenient store then to her home again. I pull up and its a small unassuming apartment complex. After waiting about 3 minutes a frail looking lady comes out and climbs into the front seat. She seemed nice enough but, my god, she is reeking of Old Spice cologne. Whatever, different strokes for different folks.
When I'm backing out of her drive way I hear the load hissing noise of the air escaping my front driver side tire. The convenient store is only a couple blocks away and I know its well lit so I drive there. Once there I called my dispatcher, told her of my situation and had another cab to come bring that lady home.
I proceed to go thru the process of changing the flat tire as the lady heads into the store. Within a few minutes the lady comes out and sits on the curb next to the cab. She tells me that after midnight the store doesn't sell alcohol beverages anymore. Suddenly she opens her paper bag and starts guzzling down a huge bottle of rubbing alcohol! I was mortified to say the least. Ive heard stories of hard core alcoholics doing that but Ive never witnessed it. Within what seemed seconds a police officer, fire truck and ambulance shows up and hauls that woman away.
It took me about an hour just to get the spare tire off the bottom of the van and then maybe 5 minutes to change the tire. By then its nearly 130 AM and I have a stupid "donut" tire on the van. I'm covered in dirt and I'm sweating like a pig. I'm really pissed off at the world at that point. My night is done!
Once back at the shop I needed to fill out all the appropriate paper work which put me in an even worse mood. I just couldn't wait to get home.
In hind sight my night started going to hell right after I lied to that guy about why I couldn't take him to York. I picked up the trio with their flat tire and there bad Karma latched on to me. Then I picked up that poor old drunk lady (who I assume wasn't wearing the Old Spice I smelled but instead was drinking it). I believe my bad aura jumped on her and she ended up in police custody.
The lesson Ive learned was to do my best to keep a positive attitude and never turn down a fare regardless if I'm inconvenienced or not.
I know... I know... you are wondering why am I talking all this mojo crap. Last night I experienced a chain of events that led to me changing a flat tire and going in early on what was turning into a very profitable night of cabbing.
It was about 11: 30 PM and I just dropped off a party of six at The Page. ( for my old Navy friends that is where Bananas used to be). As they were getting out a young man came up to my window and asked if I would take him up to York, Me. That is about a 45 minute round trip and that would put me out of downtown in the heart of the busy time. There was no way I was going to do that. So I lied to him and said that I couldn't do it because I had to pickup someone else in ten minutes.
About 20 seconds after I drove off I get dispatched to the Moonlight Reader for some people whose car is broken down and needed to find a hotel. When I get to where they are I see a van with the rear passenger tire gone. They apparently drove it on the rim for a while. There were 2 guys and a girl and they obviously on some mind altering substance. After about 20 minutes I finally find a hotel that has a room for them and I'm out of there.
As I'm driving away from those three bozos I get another call to go pick up a lady and make the round trip from her home to a convenient store then to her home again. I pull up and its a small unassuming apartment complex. After waiting about 3 minutes a frail looking lady comes out and climbs into the front seat. She seemed nice enough but, my god, she is reeking of Old Spice cologne. Whatever, different strokes for different folks.
When I'm backing out of her drive way I hear the load hissing noise of the air escaping my front driver side tire. The convenient store is only a couple blocks away and I know its well lit so I drive there. Once there I called my dispatcher, told her of my situation and had another cab to come bring that lady home.
I proceed to go thru the process of changing the flat tire as the lady heads into the store. Within a few minutes the lady comes out and sits on the curb next to the cab. She tells me that after midnight the store doesn't sell alcohol beverages anymore. Suddenly she opens her paper bag and starts guzzling down a huge bottle of rubbing alcohol! I was mortified to say the least. Ive heard stories of hard core alcoholics doing that but Ive never witnessed it. Within what seemed seconds a police officer, fire truck and ambulance shows up and hauls that woman away.
It took me about an hour just to get the spare tire off the bottom of the van and then maybe 5 minutes to change the tire. By then its nearly 130 AM and I have a stupid "donut" tire on the van. I'm covered in dirt and I'm sweating like a pig. I'm really pissed off at the world at that point. My night is done!
Once back at the shop I needed to fill out all the appropriate paper work which put me in an even worse mood. I just couldn't wait to get home.
In hind sight my night started going to hell right after I lied to that guy about why I couldn't take him to York. I picked up the trio with their flat tire and there bad Karma latched on to me. Then I picked up that poor old drunk lady (who I assume wasn't wearing the Old Spice I smelled but instead was drinking it). I believe my bad aura jumped on her and she ended up in police custody.
The lesson Ive learned was to do my best to keep a positive attitude and never turn down a fare regardless if I'm inconvenienced or not.
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