Passengers of hell night! My first passenger I picked up from the airport he had an extremely heavy bag, happy he helped me put it into the back of the taxi. When he got into the taxi, he said Marriott. Just Marriott, when I asked which Marriott since there are 7 in the city and much more in the surrounding area, he said Marriott Union Square after looking at his paperwork. He then asked me if I knew where that was. Okay, that I can do. On the way I start doing my normal chit chat but he doesn’t seem to want to talk but he did answer a few questions. My normal questions, is he here for work or pleasure? Just work. Had he been to San Francisco before? Yes. He then received a phone call. He started out okay talking to the person on the other end (in Spanish? Portuguese?) then started YELLING, almost screaming into the phone. He did this most of the ride the other times he would stare at me or look out the window and sing along with the music of the radio. This is one time, I would have loved to know a different language. We got to his hotel and he gave me a .70¢ tip. Nice.
I picked up a great guy on Sutter who looks like George Lucas! I didn’t mention this but I have picked him up before and thought the same thing. His plans for the weekend were to go to the ocean and drink a large chocolate shake. Interesting combination. I hope he has a wonderful time! We also talked about driving up the cool hills in the city. I said that is what I do when I am stressed in the city is to drive up or down the steep streets in the city. They are great stress relievers. All of your concentration goes into making sure you don’t go too fast or too slow. So much fun!
Went back to the airport and played frisbee with a few other drivers! It was so much fun and I was hot and sweaty after that.
I struggled to get my meter to turn on. It happens often in the airport because we are under a lot of concrete. I made it all the way to pick up the passenger and my meter still wouldn’t turn on. I was very frustrated but I let the passenger know I was having troubles with the meter. He said, well I guess the ride is free. I said, sorry I cannot really afford to do that but the ride is about $48 to his destination. I was able to get the meter to go a few minutes outside of the airport. He did ask why Uber wasn’t allowed at the airport, I let him know that Uber was allowed at the airport. The ride on the meter ended up being about $38 and he tipped nicely but not to make up for what the ride should have been. He was dropped off in front of a very expensive home. Guess he needs the money more than I did.
After dropping the wanting a ride for free guy, I was flagged by an older lady with cute yellow pants. She said she forgot her money and wanted me to take her home so she could get her money. I said no problem but could she please leave me something when she goes inside to get her money. She at first she said, no problem but the closer we got to she asked why I didn’t trust her. That makes me trust a person even more. At her home she said, I am afraid to leave anything for you because you will leave with them. I said, here is my business card, I will not leave without you. She said, I don’t want your business card, we don’t trust each other. That is not good. That is what I thought. She goes inside, leaving the passenger back door open with her purse on the seat. She comes back a few minutes later and says “why the meter still on? You are cheating me”. I said, I am still working and the meter is on because I am waiting for you. She said, she wanted to go to Geary but she was going to walk and not take a cheating non trusting taxi driver. I still said, I hoped she had a great night. I can understand why she thought I may be cheating her but I had to wait for her, that is money I am losing if my meter is not on. At this time it is only charging for time, not miles.
I really needed to change my night. Too many cranky people making me feel bad about myself. I just needed a great passenger to change I feel and the rest of the night went SO much better! Thankfully!
Picking up in the Tenderloin is always scary, but I was flagged by the police station on Turk and Jones. He got into my taxi and said he was happy to get out of work. I asked him what kind of work he did, he said he was a police officer. I said, YEAH! He said, yay. I said, no you need to say YEAH! You do important work. He agreed and kind of laughed at me. He has been a police officer for about 15 years and works mostly in a car driving around the Tenderloin. He was fun to chat with for his ride home. I drove like I normally do, well maybe a little bit better. We got to his home and he suggested that I pull into the open space. I let him know that another policeman just yelled at me for double parking but I had not seen the open space that was about 4 cars ahead of me. I did pull over as far as I could (the other time) to get out of the way. He said, he tells the Ubers to move all the time but rarely has to tell a taxi, since they drop off quickly. I hope I can pick him up again sometime! He was fun to chat with. No, we didn’t talk about police stuff the whole time.
Thank you very much for reading my blog! Hope you have enjoyed it.
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