Friday, September 27, 2013

The Providential Clockwork Universe: Choice Quotes

Sometimes I am sent to passengers, and sometimes they are sent to me. I have learned any number of things from the people who have stepped into my cab. Sometimes they drop one-liners that are insightful, profound, or just make me wonder: "... Really?"

The other afternoon I pulled up to a Tilted Kilt, which is a restaurant / sports bar with a female wait staff in skimpy uniforms. The woman who was to be my passenger had a slight smell of alcohol about her - maybe she was an employee, maybe she was a patron. Not all passengers talk back, but she asked questions, and I answered as appropriate.

When we got to her apartment she paid her fare, and dropped a gem: "Now I've got to go deal with the boyfriend, who's a Drunkasaurus-Rex. He's kind of an asshole." I would've compared notes about how to deal with alcoholics, but we were at her destination. I bid her adieu and went back to work.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Making connections, one passenger at a time

Drivers who have one of the company's wheelchair vans usually have a list of people who they are to pick up at appointed times. I also have an itinerary, but this I discover one passenger at a time.

The universe has an impeccable sense of timing, and an uncanny ability at arranging for my connections. Sometimes paying passengers appear to take me between my various 'appointments'. Othertimes I get a feeling that I am to go somewhere specific from where my cab is currently sitting. Sometimes non-paying passengers appear to take me in the direction I need to go, or to insert a 'delay' in my schedule, as needed.

Recently I was assigned the fare of a rather old man who was going to Denny's. This he said was his usual Saturday routine, except that day was a Sunday.

His neighborhood was relatively new. I'd gotten to the end of the street and still hadn't found his house number. A jogger coming off the trail said there was an elderly fellow just out of view. I drove over the sidewalk and down the trail. The passenger's property was secluded and seemed very old, and did not-at-all blend with his neighbors' houses. The satellite imagery shows an antique homestead surrounded by a modern development:
the square is about where I found my passenger with his walker