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.
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