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Monday, January 21, 2008

GEORGE CARLIN'S NEW RULES...

FOR 2008

New Rule:
Stop giving me that pop-up ad for classmates.com! There's a reason you don't talk to people for 25 or 30 years. It's because you don't particularly like them. Besides, I already know what the captain of the football team is doing these days. He's mowing my lawn.

New Rule:
Don't eat anything that's served to you out of a window unless you're a seagull. People are acting all shocked that a human finger was found in a bowl of Wendy's chili. Hey, it cost less than a dollar. What did you expect it to contain, caviar?

New Rule:
Stop saying that teenage boys who have sex with their hot, blonde teachers are permanently damaged. I have a better description for these kids:
"lucky bastards"

New Rule:
Ladies, leave your eyebrows alone.

Here's how much men care about eyebrows:
  1. Do you have two of them?
  2. Okay, we're done.

New Rule:
There's no such thing as flavored water. There's a whole aisle of this crap at the supermarket. Water, but without that watery taste. Sorry, but flavored water is called a soft drink. You want flavored water? Pour some scotch over ice and let it melt. That's your flavored water.

New Rule:
Just because your tattoo has Chinese characters in it, it doesn't make you spiritual. It's right above the crack of your ass and it translates to "chicken with broccoli." The last time you did anything spiritual, you were praying to God you weren't pregnant. You're not spiritual, you're just high.

New Rule:
No more gift registries. You know, it used to be just for weddings. Now it's for babies and new homes, graduations and getting out of rehab. Picking out the stuff you want and having other people buy it for you isn't gift giving. It's the white people's version of looting.

New Rule:
When I ask how old your toddler is, I don't need to know in months, "27 Months".
"He's two" will do just fine. He's not a cheese. And I didn't really care in the first place.

New Rule:
If you ever hope to be a credible adult and want a job that pays better than minimum wage, then for God's sake don't pierce or tattoo every available piece of flesh on your body. If so, then plan your future around saying, "Do you want fries with that?"

***
In the "My Pictures" file on my laptop, I finally decided to see what was in the "Sample Pictures" folder. My first thought being:
"I must be too dumb to know what a picture is."

Pretty.


***
A Somalian arrives in Minneapolis as a new immigrant to the United States. He stops the first person he sees walking down the street and says, "Thank you Mr. American for letting me in this country giving me housing, food stamps, free medical care, and free education!"

The passerby says, "You are mistaken, I am Mexican."

The man goes on and encounters another passerby. "Thank you for having such a beautiful country here in America !"

The person says, "I not American, I Vietnamese."

The new arrival walks further, and the next person he sees he stops, shakes his hand and says, "Thank you for the wonderful America!" That person puts up his hand and says, "I am from Middle East , I am not American!"

He finally sees a nice lady and asks, "Are you an American?"

She says, "No, I am from Africa!"

Puzzled, he asks her, "Where are all the Americans?"

The African lady checks her watch and says...

"Probably at work!!!!!!!"

***
Septic Truck Sign


***
A recent study found the average American golfer walks about 900 miles a year.

Another study found American golfers drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year.

That means, on average, American golfers get about 41 miles to the gallon.

Kind of makes you proud.

***


***
Have a great Monday!

Mahalo

Aloha


THE PICTURE GALLERY





***


Over The Limit?
UNDER ARREST!
Please don't drink and drive


"Let's all be careful out there!"

Sunday, January 20, 2008

STICK A FORK IN ME...

I AM DONE!

Spotted this the other night. The specialty rental companies used to offer these but I haven't seen any for years. This is from the apartment complex across from Safeway. A once popular electric car.

Rear View:
Interior:
Control Center:
Sat for two hours before my first fare, an OGG out of Wailea. By midnight there was less than $70 on the meter and 3 fares on my "trip sheet". 5 hours of pure boredom.

The beginning of the new day improved my fortune. 8 fares and almost an additional $100. The vast majority of that during the dog-watch (2a-5a).

Except for the OGG and one bar-close fare, all my passengers were residents. What does that tell you about our current state of tourism? Geez, it was Saturday Night, for crying out loud.

Life's A Beach (LAB) called for a pick-up about a quarter to 1. The caller said the gentleman wanted a taxi but didn't speak English. The ball was now in my court. Pull to a parking space in the FoodLand lot, as close to LAB as I could get. Legally, there is NO Parking-Stopping-Standing allowed at the curb next to LAB and the Police seldom enforce the issue. But it is also a dangerous place to be as bar close approaches. DUIs speed around the corner of the intersection, oblivious. After a short wait a little latin gentleman approached me. He spoke no English and the last Spanish lesson I took was way back in 1966. Some how, I finally recognized enough words, combined with expansive gestures, to understand that he wanted to know how late we worked. Luckily I can still count up to 29 in Spanish and know the words for "day" and "hour". So I said "24/7" and he actually understood me. He came directly to me an hour later and I drove him the 6/10th of a mile to his condo. $5. WOW! But he did give a 20% tip.

11 fares / 108 miles / 3rd quarter $100 bracket


Suzanne Pleshette passed away last week. So did Allan Melvin.

My earliest memories of television include him.

She was 11 years older than me but when I was in my 30's I thought she was one of the sexist women on the face of the planet. When her husband, Tom Poston, died last April I didn't even know they had married.

The Ol' E-Mail Bag is loaded this week. I'll share it over the next 2 days. Also, I'll get back to the REAL ID, which was postponed due to technical difficulties.

Have a fantastic day.

Mahalo

Aloha


THE PICTURE GALLERY





***

Over The Limit?
UNDER ARREST!
Please don't drink and drive


"Let's all be careful out there!"

Saturday, January 19, 2008

FINALLY GOT OUT OF TOWN...

AND HAD A PUKER

At midnight, I only had 5 fares and was in the low $60's on the meter. For a Friday night, those are pitiful numbers. We had four on the night crew and we all spent a lot of time sitting. At midnight we were down to three cabs and then things began picking up. Not overwhelmed at all but steadily active.

Picked up one of our "regulars" and his girlfriend about 12:30 AM. A very hard working guy from Micronesia, this was the first time he has ridden with me that wasn't work related. I was happy to see that. His girlfriend had surpassed her capacity for alcohol a while earlier. When they had arrived at the bar, she told him that she wanted a "sweet" drink. He got her a Long Island Iced Tea. Then they started doing tequilla shots. And she hadn't gotten sick. I was impressed.

That is, until about ½ way through the ride. I heard her start frantically scratching at the left slider door. The slider door windows do not recess. Then she started trying to open the slider while we were still doing about 40mph. Thank goodness for auto-locking doors. I knew what the problem was at the first sound and was already bailing off to the shoulder. Stopped, released the door locks, jumped out and opened her door as she begins to projectile vomit onto the pavement. No "chunks", just the "Iced Tea" and a lot of tequilla. Very minor insulting of the cab's interior. Easy to clean up, actually our "regular" took off his t-shirt and used that to clean up the mess. Of course, since it was just liquid, it will take a bit of time for the fragrance to dissipate. I sprayed a lot of Febreze when I parked at the end of the shift.

About 2:15 AM I pick up a nice guy from FoodLand, headed to Ha'iku. From Puerto Rico, he had been stationed on O'ahu when his enlistment in the Army ended and found a job in Pearl Harbor. I had to pull out my mapbook to find the street.

Naturally, while I was gone from Kihei, the phone starts ringing. Couldn't help a single one. In fact I just barely made a 3:45 AM "special" that I had. The journey to Ha'iku is about 45 minutes each way.

10 fares / 120 miles / 4th quarter $100 bracket

One more shift to go. I've given up trying to predict how biz will be. 2 years ago I was typically doing 28-35 runs per shift at this time of year.

Enjoy your weekend. I'll be back tomorrow and hope you will be too.

Mahalo

Aloha


THE PICTURE GALLERY





***





Over The Limit?
UNDER ARREST!
Please don't drink and drive


"Let's all be careful out there!"

Friday, January 18, 2008

ANOTHER MUNDANE...

MEDIOCRE NIGHT


I rarely receive "snail" mail, less than a dozen pieces per year. Imagine my surprise when this showed up yesterday. Its from Peggy (Day to Day Life of a Very Lazy Gardener) . From her recent diving trip. Mahalo, Peggy!

An improvement over the prior two shifts but nothing out of the ordinary. Never left town. Things really didn't start moving until after 9:00 PM. We had 3 cabs at the airport for a "Meet & Greet" (13 passengers) and 3 cabs to cover the south side. Which was just perfect. The call/cab mixture was right on the mark. I am going to stop using the moniker "Crazy" for Brian and will now call him "Lucky" instead. Once again he was in the right place & time when a fare to Lahaina was dispatched. Shortly after he left TMR snagged a fare to Wailuku, which just left #22 and #14 (me) to cover the load. Which wasn't hard to do.

Everybody was back for bar-close and it was a normal Thursday night. A brawl broke out on Keala Street, which separates the "Triangle" from FoodLand. We call Thursday night "Fight Night". That is the most common night for trouble. There were 5-7 different fights going on with 30 to 50 people cheering it all on. 8 patrol cars responded from the Kihei District Police Station, which is next door to FoodLand, and had finally cleared the mess by 2:30 AM. MPD doesn't do a lot of preventive patrol in Kihei. Some of the guys do but the majority are usually just sitting in the station waiting for a call.

Tips ranged from 100%, on a small pu-pu, to $13 on a $12.80 and "keep the change". Gee, thanks. And that was on a resort/resort run. You know, people with money.

13 fares / 93 miles / 3rd quarter $100 bracket

Well, its TGIF. Everyone enjoy your weekend. I'll be here if you want to drop by.

Mahalo

Aloha


THE PICTURE GALLERY





***



Over The Limit?
UNDER ARREST!
Please don't drink and drive


"Let's all be careful out there!"

Thursday, January 17, 2008

ANY IMPROVEMENT

IS POSITIVE

I came across this bill when I was counting my money. Click on image and look in the bottom right border
Well, that piqued my curiosity.
Here's the site and this is what I found out.

I've seen these before but never had the whim to check it out. The stamp is on both the front and back of the bill. Check your folding money and see if you have one like it.

This is the busiest it got last night:
Me, sitting in front of the Tiki Lounge looking across to Dog & Duck.
Kimo got lucky with two OGGs and one over to Wailuku. I know TMR made it to the airport at least once and I think "Crazy" did too. I made it to far north Kihei once and never went past the Four Seasons, at the south end of Wailea. A maximum of 9 miles apart.

Took three lasses (grandma, mom, grand-daughter) from Wailea to Antonio's, an Italian restaurant in the Long's Drug Store shopping center. Grandma showed up first at the resort, when I responded to the dispatch. A very pleasant lady from Sydney, somewhere in her mid to late 70's. I asked her how many passengers there would be and she said "4. Maybe 5". A few minutes later the 40ish mother and 9(?) year old grand-daughter climbed aboard. And shut the doors?! I inquired if this was the entire group, mom replied "Yes." It was easy to tell that she was not in the best of moods.

Had an enjoyable chat and had all three laughing by the end of the ride.

Just as I was clearing, I heard another cab pick-up on a duplication of my fare. Not to slight Antonio's in any way, its very good, but it is not a prime tourist destination from the Wailea crowd. I filed away the info, wondering if the two runs might be related

A couple of hours later, I get the call for their return. This time the passenger count was 5. We added dad and teenage (15?) grand-son. Mom and dad spoke a couple of times, in quietly harsh tembor. I could understand everyone but dad when they spoke. He enunciated in the most classic Australian accent I have ever encountered. It was a very quiet ride.

Just before midnight I picked up 5 guys going from north Kihei to the "Triangle". One of them turned 25 today and they wanted to start the birthday celebration at the stroke of the witching hour. They all stated that they were going to be late for work today. TMR was the lucky one to take them home.

Sitting in front of the Tiki Lounge (see photo above) about 12:45 AM and one of the security guards asks me if I am available.
DUH!
He had a guy with him that they desired off the property. About a 3 mile ride to his house in north Kihei and I found one of the biggest liars I have met in a very long time. He claimed he was a cop from Newport, Rhode Island USA, having been on the force for 27 years. Currently on sabbatical. He also said he was 43 years old and has been living on Mau'i for almost 2 years. Gee, thats strange. I didn't know Rhode Island hires 14 year olds as cops. He also kept trying to get me to help him go back to the bar and "rescue" his blind date from being raped by "persons unknown" because she was on the verge of passing out when he was forced to leave. Assault & Battery plus Kidnapping, thats a really smart idea. Oh, and she was 20 years old (? in a bar! Yeah, right), then 21 and finally, maybe, 22.

Gave me $12 on an $11.90. Big spender.

8 fares / 91 miles / 2nd quarter $100 bracket

Mahalo

Aloha


THE PICTURE GALLERY





***



Over The Limit?
UNDER ARREST!
Please don't drink and drive


"Let's all be careful out there!"