Paradise Driver: A NICE ACTIVE SHIFT

Saturday, February 24, 2007

A NICE ACTIVE SHIFT

AND ONE HELL OF A "BAR CLOSE"

Logged on at 7:10pm and was immediately dispatched to the far northend of Kihei for a pupu run. That was the only time I was in Wailea until the end of the night. Constant movement from one part of town to another. It was my night for dispatch but I couldn't hook up with TMR, who had the phone, until 9:30pm. By that time, the only two dayshift holdovers had faded into the night. We had 4 night cabs working, Tina is off, and nobody really sat still for very long. While I was working Kihei, the others were snagging OGGs out of Wailea. grumble-grumble On Thursday night I had a "No-Pay" at about 3 am. Following an idea from Freddy Beach Cabbie, I took her pic and gave her the info for making restitution on Friday. I told her that if I didn't hear from her that I would file a police report with her pic attached. She called and I was paid about 10:30pm on Friday. Kewl!!

Bar close was hot & heavy. Poor TMR made a pickup just about 1:30am and was about 90 seconds into the trip when he called 10-2 (end of shift - off duty) and said he would call me on the phone. Turned out that the poor guy had a projectile puker. He dumped the entire van load in the middle of nowhere and made them walk home. That'll teach them. Took him almost 2 hours to clean the interior.

I had a 2:00am fare from Makena Surf to OGG for a delayed departure. The flight had originally been scheduled to leave at 11:00pm, then was delayed to 2:00am and again to 4:00am. We arrived at the airport to find out that the plane had actually left at 2:00am. That meant I had a roundtrip.

With me running OGG and TMR dead in the water, that left just Hardin and Crazy Brian to clear the "Triangle". I finally reached the point that when someone called I would just tell them to stand on the curb and grab a cab as it came by. It took them until 3:00am and the vast majority of the runs melted away as time passed. Have to hand it to them, though, they kept going until they couldn't find anyone else.

As the shift crawled towards dawn, I was waiting at The Grand to turn over the phone and reservation sheet to Flor. Just as he is pulling down the drive I get a call from a guy at Safeway wanting to go to Wailuku. That was a great way to start his shift. Just before I handed it all over to him, the phone rang again. A driver with La Bella Taxi, out of Kahului/Wailuku, needed assistance with a 2-cab fare from Wailea Point Condos to OGG.. I knew that my co-driver should almost be in Wailea, it was 4:45am, so I told La Bella that we would assist. Now, Murph had a great start also. Flor kept getting more calls but no other drivers had checked in. When Murph showed up, I told him what was going down and then beat feet for home. I was/am tired.

How good was last night?

4 times better than Wednesday!

See y'all tomorrow.

Thanks for dropping by.

THE PICTURE GALLERY

Sunrise Over Mau'i