It's Tricky...
I had a good car last night: 15 mpg (very good for one of the old Crown Vics), only about 148k miles (again, very good), PLUS - satellite radio and a CD player.
I didn't have a very good night in terms of the money I made. If not for three good runs, I would've been up a creek. But still, I took a couple very worthwhile hours off to run home and grab CDs, and then hang out with one of my favorite people in the world (who I hadn't seen in months). In the time I actually worked, I netted $15 an hour, which is still much better than my last job. And the whole original point for my taking this one was the freedom it affords me to work as often as I want and as hard as I want - a freedom that I haven't been taking much advantage of.
Anyway, I suppose that for the purposes of this blog, it would be most appropriate for me to talk at this point about my first fare, her (likely false) sob story, the maddening way in which she stiffed me, and how that almost ruined my night. But in all honesty, it's just not very interesting to me right now. I will say that it makes it easier for everyone when people who stiff cabbies just cut and run. I mean really, you don't need to serve me some elaborate deception - the woman tonight, for example, wasted a perfectly good prop she could have used to more nefarious and profitable effect than getting out of a $13 cab ride...
Anyway, maybe it's just the good mood that the CD player put me in, but the stories that leap out at me about tonight are getting a guy that I also had on Monday, who goes up to
around Council Crest, my favorite park in a city rightfully famous for its parks. On the way down the hill (a very fun ride, especially in an old cop car), I was blasting Mike Patton & Odd Nosdom's "11th Ave Freakout Pt. 2" and just had a huge smile on my face.
My next trip after that was an airporter from out of deep southwest Sellwood - about as far away from the airport as you can get while still being on Portland's eastside. A very nice bourgeois white family on their way to their summer vacation on the east coast. $37 on the meter and a "keep the change" when Dad paid with a $50. Good, wholesome, and enjoyable conversation, and a gorgeous view of St. Helens at dawn from the Markam Bridge. They even liked Mountains, which just tickled me.
I had another guy who was really digging Brian Anderegg. One woman loved Shogun Kunitoki and forced her phone number on me. A couple people liked Themselves, same with cLOUDDEAD. It always makes me happy when people in the cab dig my music, because I'm always really paranoid that they'll be completely turned off by psychedelic Japanese harmonium bands, avant-garde hip-hop, or electro-acoustic drones and tip me less. Not a single complaint tonight, though, and several "wow, this is awesome"s. Thank God Portland's the city it is.
Drove into the garage listening to Midnight Marauders for the first time in probably over a year. Phife Dawg would still like you all to know that he like his beats "hard, like two day old shit."
I didn't have a very good night in terms of the money I made. If not for three good runs, I would've been up a creek. But still, I took a couple very worthwhile hours off to run home and grab CDs, and then hang out with one of my favorite people in the world (who I hadn't seen in months). In the time I actually worked, I netted $15 an hour, which is still much better than my last job. And the whole original point for my taking this one was the freedom it affords me to work as often as I want and as hard as I want - a freedom that I haven't been taking much advantage of.
Anyway, I suppose that for the purposes of this blog, it would be most appropriate for me to talk at this point about my first fare, her (likely false) sob story, the maddening way in which she stiffed me, and how that almost ruined my night. But in all honesty, it's just not very interesting to me right now. I will say that it makes it easier for everyone when people who stiff cabbies just cut and run. I mean really, you don't need to serve me some elaborate deception - the woman tonight, for example, wasted a perfectly good prop she could have used to more nefarious and profitable effect than getting out of a $13 cab ride...
Anyway, maybe it's just the good mood that the CD player put me in, but the stories that leap out at me about tonight are getting a guy that I also had on Monday, who goes up to
around Council Crest, my favorite park in a city rightfully famous for its parks. On the way down the hill (a very fun ride, especially in an old cop car), I was blasting Mike Patton & Odd Nosdom's "11th Ave Freakout Pt. 2" and just had a huge smile on my face.My next trip after that was an airporter from out of deep southwest Sellwood - about as far away from the airport as you can get while still being on Portland's eastside. A very nice bourgeois white family on their way to their summer vacation on the east coast. $37 on the meter and a "keep the change" when Dad paid with a $50. Good, wholesome, and enjoyable conversation, and a gorgeous view of St. Helens at dawn from the Markam Bridge. They even liked Mountains, which just tickled me.
I had another guy who was really digging Brian Anderegg. One woman loved Shogun Kunitoki and forced her phone number on me. A couple people liked Themselves, same with cLOUDDEAD. It always makes me happy when people in the cab dig my music, because I'm always really paranoid that they'll be completely turned off by psychedelic Japanese harmonium bands, avant-garde hip-hop, or electro-acoustic drones and tip me less. Not a single complaint tonight, though, and several "wow, this is awesome"s. Thank God Portland's the city it is.
Drove into the garage listening to Midnight Marauders for the first time in probably over a year. Phife Dawg would still like you all to know that he like his beats "hard, like two day old shit."
posted by Crabbie at 6:30 AM
5 Comments:
You get to pick the cab you take out?
I take the cab the superintendent gives me, as I work the extras board. Often on weekdays he'll present you with several options to choose from. Which is nice, as there are some really nice cars and some real clunkers.
If you want to get assigned a cab, you get your pick of the ones that are always up for lease on those particular nights. Same with buying a quarter, half, or full cab.
Thanks I got one more question whats the deal with the Ford hubcaps all the cabs and police cars have steel rims with the silver centercaps. But once in a while there's a cab or police car with hubcaps whats the deal with the hubcaps why are they not as popular?
I think it's just driver preference, and assume that non-hubcaps is the way the Crown Vics come standard, maybe to make tire changing easier.
But more than anything, the cars are so utilitarian and just get driven into the ground. There's not much point in paying extra for hubcaps when you're throwing new wheels on the thing all the time (when a cab gets driven both shifts, then it'll go 300-400 miles in a day).
Thankyou I always wondered that.
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