Kihei, Hawaii Whitefish, Montana Bloomington, Minnesota Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria UTC/GMT Iraq Afghanistan Republic of Korea Ocean Grove, Victoria
Optimized for 1280x1024 resolution

Saturday, September 15, 2007

ONCE AGAIN

GRAVEYARD SAVED THE "DAY"

Two major differences between last night and Thursday night. Business was way down and the day drivers held over through the "good" portion of the night. Diluting the income that the night crew received. When the owner transferred the phone to me at 9p, he told me to tell "prima-donna" (#18) to go home. I did. She refused. Stayed until almost 11p Pissed at me, of course. When she eventually called "10-2" my response was just "finally".

Almost the entire crew at night is seriously considering just quiting. Makes no sense to come out if you can't earn an income.

On three of my four dog-watch fares, when they called and I told them that I would be at their location in 10-15 minutes, they bitched. Thought that was too long to wait for a cab. Yeah. Whatever.

I was 7th up when I logged on, out of 9 cabs. Finally got a Four Seasons to Aroma d' Italia (one of my favorite restaurants). A newlywed couple from Queens.

One hour and 45 minutes later they were my second fare when I returned them to Wailea. They agreed with my opinion of Aroma. One of the best Italian restaurants I have ever eaten in. Anywhere.

When I dropped them, another guest at the Four Seasons "flagged" me and I had a return to the "Triangle" area.

Another 90 minutes passed before it was my "turn" again. Like I said, slow. A couple of bar-close and 4 during the "dog" hours.

Finally turned ONE-NINE over to "Murph" at 4:45a and slithered home.

10 fares / 100 miles / 2nd quarter $100 bracket

May this weekend be relaxing for all of you. See you tomorrow.

Mahalo

Aloha


THE PICTURE GALLERY

Hana Area
Mau'i
***





"Let's all be careful out there!"

Friday, September 14, 2007

SOMEWHERE BETWIXT

HEAVEN

Meet Ryan and Christine. They "tied the knot" yesterday. From Kula, upcountry Mau'i, and a friend had donated his apartment for their honeymoon.

Newlyweds, sigh, I just love them. Their faces agleam with dreams of their future. Thats the nice things about dreams. Sometimes they come true.

AND HELL
This is Mercedes. She has just passed out in the driveway of the wrong house. She is covered in her own vomit. Let me tell you the story:

Around 12:45a I respond to a call from the Sports Page. One person headed into Maui Meadows. A small cadre of folks were milling around two young women seated on the walkway to The Page's entrance. My passenger was the tall, shapely blond with an attractive face. The brunette girl assisted Mercedes to her feet with the assistance of two of the male "millers".

Oh boy.

This is gonna be a fun ride, I could tell already.

They load her into my right rear seat, asking her if she has money. As soon as she told/showed them "Yes", I asked for her address.
"Maui Meadows."
"Sweetheart. Maui Meadows is a location. Not an address."
Brunette stick her head in the right front passenger window.
"She's really drunk."
"Thats why I am asking her these questions. She'll be unconscious two minutes after we start moving.

Sweetheart what is your name?"
"Mercedes."
"Mercedes, where in Maui Meadows do you live? The exact street address."
"Kapu." (fake name-Wil)
"Where on Kapu?"
"1-4-4."
"Mercedes, there is no such address as '1-4-4' on Kapu. Think hard now. What is your house number?"
Brunette butts in with,
"She already told you. 1-4-4."
"There is no such address on Kapu. They are all 4-digits. Not 3."
"Oh. I see. What's your address Mercedes?"
Poor Mercedes is totally confused. Her face showed the obvious evidence of very strained thought. The synapses of her brain desperately seeking connection to one another. With minimal success.

Suddenly, the light behind her eyes glowed a brief glimpse of cognitive thought.
"3404 Kapu. I live at 3404 kapu."
"Thank you Mecedes. I know that somewhere along the road you are going to need to throw up. I am putting all the windows down. If the feeling hits you suddenly, just stick your head out the window. Okay?"
"Okay."
At 12:51a we start moving. 1/2 block, 30-seconds, later she says,
"Pull..."
I am at the curb. Stopped.
"...over."
Light up the interior and she is just sitting there, getting greener by the second. Facing me.
"OPEN THE DOOR!
STICK YOUR HEAD OUT THE DOOR!
NOW!"

She turns, gets the head out and lets loose. About 45 seconds later, she turns back into ONE-NINE, closing the door. I hand her some napkins and a paper bag from an earlier "choke-n-puke" dinner I had.
"I am better now. Thanks. We can go."
She gave me a very pretty smile and immediately fell across the rear seat. Out cold.

We get to the address. I illuminate the interior and turn to wake her up. She's vomited on the leather seat. I call her name, loudly. She starts to raise her head. Got it about 1 inch (2 cm) off the surface and then the entire contents of her stomach erupted. Covering the entire rear seat, her face and hair. A large mass sliding down the front of her shirt, both inside and out. Continuing down to her micro-mini skirt. Covering it, along with her thong panties, and finally resting on her thighs and knees.

She jerks upright.

I go around and open her door. She collapses as she tries to assume an erect position. I take her arm and stand her against the right rear quarter panel. And get her purse and cell phone out of the pond of wine and what appeared to be "hot dogs" on the seat. There is a small wad on money lying there. I could see that there was enough to cover the fare, so just left it where it was.

I take her by the arm which was awkward, she was about 4-inches taller than me. Start leading her to the residence. We get about 10 feet before she crumples to the driveway, as shown above.

I gave up. I knew I couldn't leave her like that, against my personal "Code of Honor".

I advise dispatch that I am going to be out of service and the reason. You could hear the sympathy in his voice when he responded. She had told me that her roommate was at home so I decided to pound the door and get some assistance.
"WHERE THE FUCK AM I?"

Ah. She was sitting upright, conscious( in the most liberal of definitions).
"This is where you wanted me to bring you."
"I told you 3404 Kapu."
I point my handheld spotlight at the mailbox.
"This is 3404 Kapu. See?"
"Oh."
Long silence as the remaining 13 neurons in that cute head tried to download this new dataset.
"Maybe its 3604."
"Your address is 3604 Kapu?"
"Yes."
I help her back into ONE-NINE. She started to get in the front seat but I told her that I really didn't feel like cleaning more than I had to.

She climbed into the back, her skirt hem now above the waist line and plopped, literally, into the puddle.

Guess what?

Kapu stops at 3563.

My options are swiftly fading. Start back the other direction on Kapu. Now she becomes "chatty"
"You're my hero. You saved me tonight. If you had left me....
I love you! I really, really love you. Can I fuck you? I really want to get fucked tonight. I give great head. And I do anything, everything.

My house! That's my house! Stop!"
We were at the complete opposite end of Kapu. The beginning of the 3100 block.

I already had her money, wrapped in a paper napkin, on the dashboard. I just stopped where we were and she opened the door and fell to the road.
"I am okay. I am okay. I just slipped."
And she stood up, took 4 steps across the street and walked straight into the side of a black car parked along the edge of the road. Under the street light. Bounced off it. Veered left like some kid's toy and staggered down a driveway, through the car port and then into theback yard.

It was now 1:17a.

Went home and got my cleaning materials.

It was a great night, despite the puker.

14 fares / 140 miles / 3rd quarter $200 bracket

The owner kinda suggested to the day shift that they should come in earlier and not stay out so late. He is short cabs some early mornings and most of those runs are not half-bad. Ergo, we had the night shift and one holdover. We stayed busy and everyone on the night crew made money. I even made it to OGG.

***
A three chapter collaboration between three bloggers.

You have to read it! It is awesome and excellent.

Chapter 1 - THE COP

Chapter 2 -THE PARAMEDIC

Chapter 3 -THE NURSE

***
Have a great day everybody!

Mahalo

Aloha


THE PICTURE GALLERY

Hana Area
Mau'i




***





"Let's all be careful out there!"

Thursday, September 13, 2007

A TWIST AT THE END

OF A VERY, VERY SLOW SHIFT

As usual, I started my "day" at 7p. 6th up in the Wailea queue. A total of 9 cabs working. 5 night cabs and 4 day holdovers. It was past 8p before the line started moving. When that dispatch finally came out there were 8 of us in Wailea. The 9th cab was in Lahaina.

Made it to the #1 position about 8:15p and the phone went into hibernation.
Zilch.
Nada.
Nuttin'.
Made a Marriott pick-up at 9:01p, headed to the "Triangle". Then sat in town for 30 minutes before I get a "Triangle" to a residential condo in far south Kihei.

After that we didn't move. Kimo (#22) had the post-9p phone duty and about every 90 minutes he would ask one of us to call the company number to make sure everything was still working.

By 1:55p, the phone had been passed on to me and all the other drivers were "pau hana". I entered my solo hours. Sitting at the FoodLand bus stop, doing triage on my shopping list and a party couple approach. "Chesty" blond girl and a tall black guy. Wanted to know if I could take them to the Pride of Hawai'i, in Kahului.
A HARBOR RUN!!
That increased my meter by 156%. They spent most of the 22 minute ride "necking". He wanted to get more "frisky" than she was comfortable with, so there were many "starts" and "stops".

10-minutes into that ride I get a call from one of our Wailea Resorts. They had 2 people that needed to be transported to Ka'anapali. Told them that I would be happy to do it but it was going to be just under an hour before I could get there and explained why.

Gently prodded ONE-NINE and actually made the "westside" run by 2:40a. 2 Japanese gents going to The Whaler.

Before I reached the Pi'ilani Highway (SR-31), less than 1 mile into the trip, they were both "sawing logs". Actually, it sounded like they were both operating a large Oregon lumber mill.

That increased the meter by 169%.

By the time I rounded McGregor Point ("Lookout Point") on the return, where our eastside channel become usable again, one of the day cabs was already in Wailea.

Once again, Graveyard saved the night.

4 fares / 106 miles / 3rd quarter $100 bracket

***
Everyone have a wonderful day and I will try to do the same.

Mahalo

Aloha


THE PICTURE GALLERY

Hana Area
Mau'i
***



"Let's all be careful out there!"

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

THE SCARY THING IS

IT WILL GET WORSE

My take-home last night was $26. I spent $30 at the store. Thats a losing proposition. I drove more miles than I metered $$s. All my fares occurred between 8p and 9:30p. And not one of any interest. I am headed to bed.

Oh, my worst shift ever was 6 hours with one $4.25 fare.

5 fares / 61 miles / 3rd quarter below $100 bracket

***

Melissa Plaut:

BIGGER version

USA TODAY story

***
What happens when you:
  1. Have nothing to do
  2. Own a sharp knife
  3. Have a large lime
  4. Own a patient cat
  5. Drink too much tequila
  6. And it's football season?
|
V


|
V

|
V

|
V

|
V


***
***
And thus ends another day in Paradise. Check in tomorrow. Maybe, just maybe, something will happen.

Mahalo

Aloha


THE PICTURE GALLERY

Ha'iku
Mau'i
***



"Let's all be careful out there!"

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

PATRIOT'S DAY!

DO YOU REALLY CARE?


I consider it the day the Constitution of the United States was violently assaulted by our current occupant of the Office of the President of the United States of America. Whether it survives his repeated attacks is "iffy".

"Patriotism means to stand
by the country.
It does not mean to stand
by the president."
---Theodore Roosevelt




thanks Lugosi for the image

***

Did you get your invitation?

***
A unique WORLD CLOCK

***
The Renaissance Wailea Beach Resort has closed.

Forever.

***
Resort occupancy is down.
So they raise rooms rates.

***
These is still a lot of controversy about some of the events of this day. Inconsistencies between what we are told happened and visual evidence that seems to contradict those statements.

The one that stands out in my mind was an interview with a woman whose adult daughter was on Flt 93, the one that crashed in Pennsylvania. It only aired once on CBS-TV and went something like this:
"We're ready to attack the cockpit. The wing is on fire. I gotta go Mom."
WING ON FIRE?
And some wreckage was found over 6 miles away, even though the plane did a vertical nose-dive into the ground. Something happened to that plane before it crashed.

I am not advocating any of the conspiracy theories that we have all heard over that last 6 years but some things just don't add up.

***


Found this quip on Overheard In New York:
Guy #1: Yeah, so the taxi driver took us through the most congested traffic. He did it on purpose!
Guy #2: That's why you have to tell them where to go.
Guy #1: And be firm.
Guy #2: It's like training a dog.
Remember, though, that some of us have a "bite" worse than our "bark".

Mahalo

Aloha


THE PICTURE GALLERY

Ha'iku
Mau'i
***



"Let's all be careful out there!"

Monday, September 10, 2007

THE BEST OF...

THIS WEEK'S E-MAIL

Talk about "unmarked" traffic enforcement!
"So, this is Florida in the winter."
You gotta do what you gotta do.
Only used once.
Damn steroids
We've all had days like this
"And you said she was naked?"
Future shoes, handbags & cowboy boots
***
HOW TO LIVE LIFE...

Be calm, quiet, tranquil
Bloom as often as you can
Stay close to your family
Explore the world around you
Enjoy the relaxing rhythm of waves
Watch the moon rise
Spread your wings and take off on your own
Then enjoy the comfort of coming home again
***
Have a great week, everybody!

Mahalo

Aloha


THE PICTURE GALLERY

Windward O'ahu
Warm Soft Tropics
La Perouse Bay
Mau'i
Big Island
Another Day In Paradise
***





"Let's all be careful out there!"