Oh my gosh! We have gotten so much badly needed rain it is AMAZING! Well, it would be amazing if it fell a little bit at a time but it is falling in buckets at times! Careful where you drive because of flooded area. I keep hearing about downed trees too! I hope none are falling on people. That would be horrible! Since it doesn’t rain often in this area people do not know how to drive at all in the rain. Please slow down and do not tailgate the person in front of you. Sounds reasonable, right? You would think but I don’t think all do these things. Also in California if you need your wipers, you need to have your headlights on for safety. Makes you more visible, makes sense.
I do hope the rain continues to fill our reservoirs so we can be out of this drought. I really like taking showers and seeing lots of green.
Since it was so rainy over the weekend I figured it would be very slow and I was partially correct. On Friday night when there was the most amount of rain I was the busiest when it was downpouring. People would run and scramble into the taxi. It was almost funny in the way they would flag me and then run to get out of the rain. Everyone seemed to be in a great mood too! Love it when that happens.
On Saturday night it was also downpouring often and the same things would happen, downpour lots of passengers. It was also the night of the Prince concert in Oakland at O.Co with the after party at the Great American Music Hall on O’Farrell and Polk. Most of the concert goers that had taken BART back into San Francisco were looking for taxis to take them either home, parking garage or to the after party. I picked up a lady who was desperate to get to the after party but her phone had died because at the concert, according to her, Prince had a scrambler to kill all cell phones because he didn’t want anyone recording the concert. I don’t know if that is true or not. I let her charge her phone for the 5 blocks to get to the after party at the AMH. When we got to the corner of O’Farrell and Polk the line was already half way down Polk and it was raining very, very hard. Most had no jackets and no umbrellas. It was madness! I know you want to look good for an after concert but in that rain, still bring a jacket and an umbrella. I let her out close to her friends but she still didn’t know where they were and would have to run around yelling to look for them in the pouring rain.
I have had 2 Saturdays in a row with the meanest passengers. I try and start off each ride like they will be the best ride ever and try to chat with them to make my job more exciting and to make them more comfortable. I picked up a lady at the airport and her home was an easy ride to the city but I still asked her if she had a preferred route to take. She said “why you not know” so I let her know the route I would take and she said it would be okay. We chatted a little bit about her trip to LA and visiting a doctor who couldn’t help her this time but she would have to go back in about 3 days. I really didn’t understand her very much. We got to the corner close to her place and she started yelling, “SEE IF YOU LOOK THERE YOU CAN SEE THE NUMBER!” I still didn’t know what she was talking about but she kept yelling the same things over and over again. I was so happy to have her out of my taxi. She gave me a $2.00 tip. Great.
My next unpleasant passenger I picked her up in North Beach and she said to the transit. I wasn’t sure what that meant. I asked her again and she said the same thing. I asked her if she wanted to guide me and she said “go Chinatown, you know Chinatown”. I asked her where in Chinatown, “transit” again came the reply. She then said to take Stockton but when we got to Powell she said go down Powell. Powell had a lot of cars on it, she wasn’t happy it was taking so long so asked me to turn left onto Clay. I did that. Still it was taking too long and asked me to turn down Stockton. After getting through the tunnel she asked me to pull over at the bus stop. Yes, it was a $9.40 ride and she gave me $10.00. Another happy passenger, well, I was happy she was out of my taxi.
I did pick up a guy who reminds me of Malcolm McDowell. I have picked up a few times and he is really nice Irishman. The last time I drove him I said I thought he looked liked an actor but I couldn’t remember at that time what the actors name was. I also asked to take his picture and he was okay with it. I posted his picture along side of Malcolm McDowell's and everyone said they looked alike. I mentioned this to the passenger and he said, I don’t look anything like that, he has facial hair. I told him he could grow facial hair and he would pass for his double. He laughed and said he would try it! We chatted about his construction company and how he does all the maintenance work for a bar so he can drink for free. He also bought a new “step up” van (I am not sure I know what that is) that he seemed very proud of. He is happy to have all the tools he needs with him at all time so he doesn’t have to go home for a forgotten tool. Plus his guys can now ride with him instead of having to get a ride to the job site. As he was leaving he asked me again who he reminded me of again. He was saying the name over and over again. He was going to share with his friends his new doppelganger. He is such a wonderful man!
This past week has been hit and miss with passengers. Not a whole lot has been going on in the city. Everyone has been pleasant and fun. We are in another El Niño heavy weather pattern so I do not think this week will be any better than last week. A few of the other drivers were able to get some great rides out of the airport after midnight since so many flights were delayed. I am always happy to hear of another taxi driver who gets a meter and a half ride (anything out of the city limits 15 miles or out of the airport 15 miles is a meter and a half ride. The half is to compensate the trip back into the city or airport)
I really need to get some sleep today so I will say goodnight for now! Thank you again for reading my blog! I have so many stories in the wings that I will add soon. I promise. I have so many more things to tell you!
Thank you again!
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