A LACKLUSTER SHIFT

THAT TURNED INTO

PAYDAY!!

When I arrived to pick up ONE-NINE, the Grand had turned on the pixie lights on the trees that line the entry and exit drives. A bit earlier than normal but always beautiful.

NEWLYWEDS!

~ Donald & Kristina ~
Oakland, California

It was an unadventurous night. The rides were short and the people pleasant. From 7p until 2a it was just dinner and bar run pu-pus. Everybody tipped nicely. We were just wrapping up the night when the phone rang at 1:55a. It was United Airlines. Their flt#46 had been canceled due to mechanical failure. 200+ people needed to be moved to the Ka'anapali Beach Hotel, over on the "west-side". The lady wasn't sure if we would be needed or not. I told her that she had best make a decision real quick. I had 3 drivers scheduled to end their shift in 5 minutes and I needed to know RIGHT NOW. She called back at exactly 2a and requested everything I could send. She got it. ONE-NINE and 3 vans.

Arrived at OGG at 2:30a and immediately picked up a single passenger going back to Kihei. An island resident. Made it back to OGG and loaded 4 folks to Ka'anapali. 2 seperate couples, so I was paid twice for one trip. One of the other drivers had called 2 of our day drivers, Mary (#21) and Maui Jim (#17) and they were out of bed and on the road by 3:20a.

When I got back to central Mau'i, United called again (about 4:20a) and advised that there were still 35 to 40 people left. I wanted to go get them but my relief, Murph, was waiting at the garage to do the changeover. There were enough cabs working to cover the cleanup. To complicate things, we had a 4:30a reservation for 5 people to OGG out of Wailea and I hadn't been able to raise the other early day driver , Wally (#05), to come in a bit early to cover it. The passenger count and amount of luggage was more than ONE-NINE's capability. Radio traffic was bouncing between our east-side and west-side channels and I was able to get Maui Jim to call out another driver. who finally made the pick-up at 4:45a. I turned the shift over to Murph at the same time and headed home. There were no other vehicles to drive and I don't have keys to any of the other cabs.

I tried to get the return on my Ka'anapali trip for Murph to pick-up but the people weren't interested in scheduling a return at the time I dropped them Gave them my card and asked that they call at least 2 hours before they needed to be picked up. I told Murph not to hold his breath. Looks like we are going to be very short on cabs between 9a and 2p today, since the majority of them will be doing the returns.

It is rare that United cancels a flight. Not like USAir.

15 fares / 157 miles / 2nd quarter $300 bracket

Everyone enjoy your weekend. I'll see ya tomorrow.

MAHALO

ALOHA

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THE PICTURE GALLERY

The first 4 images are courtesy of Maui Action Photos. Mahalo, Van.

Haleakala

Hana Waterfall

***

"Let's all be careful out there!"

PRETTY SOON IT WILL BE

REALLY SLOW

My first fare was 3 ladies going from The Shops At Wailea to a relatively new condo complex in Makena. Just south of Makena Surf. Was back in Wailea by 8p. Terry (#07) took over the phone at 9p and advised #1-8 and #0-9 that is was time for them to go home. "Dip-Shit " (09) was not happy. The evening dispatcher has advised, over the radio, that there was a 9:20p reservation from the Kea Lani to the Westin, in Ka'anapali. The rule is that those day drivers who will not accept their turn at dispatching must call it a night at 9p. With his departure I became first up in Wailea and got the run.

A nice young couple from SoCal. Brother and sister, they are here for a friends wedding. The nuptuals will be today. Derek (24) and Julie (22) were the type of siblings that we all wish we had. Both worked for their dad's construction/supply company. A very pleasant pair.

The trip went easily until we got to the north end of Lahaina. Traffic ground to a halt at the Lahaina Cannery Mall. Took about 30 minutes to inch our way past the problem, there are no detours available. I don't know what happened but the power poles line the mountain side of the road and, where the bottle neck was, there was a pole lying on the oceanside seawall. I couldn't see evidence of a traffic collision. I am sure that eventually our local rag will have some miniscule details to purvey. I'll pass them along when I find out.

Worked my way back to Kihei and sat.

My next, and final, run was at 2:30a, from the bottom end of Kihei into Wailea.

That was it.

3 fares / 96 miles / 1st quarter $100 bracket

***

I dispatch tonight. Hopefully there will be some activity.

TGIF!!

MAHALO

ALOHA

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THE PICTURE GALLERY

***

"Let's all be careful out there!"

NOT HALF BAD...

FOR A WEDNESDAY

~ Jeff (San Francisco) ~ Adam (Tahoe) ~
~ Megan (Tahoe) ~ Keller (SF) ~

These four were a delightful bar close.

The sad part is that we are nowhere close to topping out yet.

OUCH!

My first fare was an OGG. Only had to wait an hour for it. Didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Around 2:45a I get a call from the Marriott. A guest wanting to go to the airport. I explained to the front desk lady, over the phone, that the airport was closed until 5a and security kinda takes a dim view of people just hanging around.

Go figure!?!

She disconnected, then called back less than 2 minutes later. Her guest was adamant about leaving. I knew immediately that this was going to be just one act of of lovers spat. Made the pickup at 2:48a. No luggage, no shoes, no cash (he had plastic). I was correct. Consoled with his bruised ego and, before we were half way through Kihei, convinced him that this was a bad move on his part and to deal with whatever issues he had when he was alert and sober. Dropped him back at the resort at 3:05a.

Never make decisions when you are tired, stressed and/or intoxicated.

7 fares / 108 miles / 2nd quarter $100 bracket

If you are west of me, Happ TGIF!
The rest of us still have another day to go. Ugh.

MAHALO

ALOHA

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THE PICTURE GALLERY

So. You Don't Believe In Mermaids, eh?

***

"Let's all be careful out there!"

A VERY NICE DAY

A VERY NICE EVENING

The son, the "daughter" and the "ex" all called today to wish me the best. And then to cap the evening, Richard and Judy took me out to dinner. We spent a very enjoyable 2+ hours together. It is so nice that he doesn't drink. Judy was looking as great as ever. Her eyes usually close when a flash goes off and in the shot (above) she is deliberately forcing them open. That is the cause of the "strained" look. I had OUTBACK's new roasted sirlon. Not half bad. It comes with au gratin potatoes and steamed fresh veggies. Sadly, I passed on the veggies, can't chew carrots anymore. Substituted their chopped salad with blue cheese dressing. I can still handle that. Used to be that I could go to dinner, order the largest serving available for my entre, consume everything on my plate in just a few minutes and then finish off whatever others left behind. Not so anymore. Takes forever to eat anything and, thus, I eat a lot slower. Took about half my dinner home in a doggie bag.

It was hot here yesterday. The temp reached the lower 90's and the humidity was in the upper 80's. The NWS said that the trades would be returning in the afternoon but they never reached into Kihei. Maybe today.

Today's THE PICTURE GALLERY is abbreviated. Sorry. Haven't had a lot of time to scrounge the web for acceptable images. I'll try harder tomorrow.

Back to work tonight. We should start seeing some early Thanksgiving Holiday arrivals on Friday.

Manana.

MAHALO

ALOHA

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THE PICTURE GALLERY

***

"Let's all be careful out there!"

I AM NOW OFFICIALLY

A SENIOR CITIZEN

60 Years Old!

Well my PC has officially died. I was downloading the update for my FIREFOX browser and when it went to restart, the tower wouldn't "power up". I am going to have to take it somewhere and see if it is the power supply or what. There are a lot of pix and documents that I really don't want to lose. I'll be spending the rest of tonight searching for new pix for this blog. I had only uploaded through today's missive. The rest are still sitting on the inaccessible hard-drive. The last time I checked, I had nearly 10 gigs of images/videos/documents stored.

No rest for the wicked.

Couldn't find the disc, piss poor filing system on my part, to install the driver for my printer on the laptop but there was one on the net that only took 2 hours to download and install. And that is using a 54mbs highspeed (RoadRunner) connection.

I think I will also get a USB memory stick for storage. I could keep these so as not to use up the memory on the laptop and they would be universally transferable. Anyone else use them? Any recommendations or advice?

***

A GHOST STORY


This happened about a month ago just outside a little town in the mountains of North Carolina, and while it sounds like an Alfred Hitchcock tale, it's real.

A guy was on the side of the road hitchhiking on a really dark night in the middle of a thunder storm. Time passed slowly and no cars went by. It
was raining so hard he could hardly see his hand in front of his face.

Suddenly he saw a car moving slowly, approaching ghostlike in the rain. It slowly crept toward him and stopped. Wanting a ride really bad, the
guy jumped in the car and closed the door, only to realize that there was
nobody behind the wheel. The car slowly started moving and the guy was terrified, too scared to think of jumping out and running. The guy saw that the car was slowly approaching a sharp curve, still too scared to jump out, so he started to pray and begging for his life; he was
sure the ghost car would go off the road and into the marsh and he would surely drown, when , just before the curve, a hand appeared through the driver's window and turned the steering wheel, guiding the car safely
around the bend. Paralyzed with fear, the guy watched the hand reappear every time they reached a curve. Finally the guy, scared to near death, had all he could take and jumped out of the car and ran to town.

Wet and in shock, he went into a bar and, voice quavering, ordered two shots of whiskey, then told everybody about his supernatural experience. A
silence enveloped and everybody got goose bumps when they realized the guy
was telling the truth and was not just some drunk.

About half an hour later two guys walked into the bar and one says to the other:

"Look Bubba, there's that idiot who rode in our car when we were pushing it in the rain."

***

Tonight I'll be going to dinner with Judy and Richard. Probably OUTBACK Steak House. That is a relatively safe place for Judy to eat.


Everyone have a great day!

No work "talk story" tomorrow but I'll come up with something.

MAHALO

ALOHA

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THE PICTURE GALLERY

Mau'i

Haleakala Sunrise

***

"Let's all be careful out there!"

WHY GOD MADE MOMS

I THINK WE'VE ALL SEEN THIS BEFORE,
BUT ITS STILL GOOD FOR A RERUN.

Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions:

Why did God make mothers?

1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.

2. Mostly to clean the house.

3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

How did God make mothers?

1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.

2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.

3. God made my Mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.

What ingredients are mothers made of ?

1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.

2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?

1. We're related.

2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's moms like me.

What kind of little girl was your mom?

1. My Mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.

2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.

3. They say she used to be nice.

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?

1. His last name.

2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?

3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

Why did your mom marry your dad?

1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my Mom eats a lot.

2. She got too old to do anything else with him.

3. My grandma says that Mom didn't have her thinking cap on.

Who's the boss at your house?

1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because dad's such a goof ball.

2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.

3. I guess Mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.

What's the difference between moms & dads?

1. Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work.

2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.

3. Dads are taller & stronger, but moms have all the real power 'cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friend's.

4. Moms have magic; they make you feel better without medicine.

What does your mom do in her spare time?

1. Mothers don't do spare time.

2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

What would it take to make your mom perfect?

1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.

2. Dye it. You know her hair. I'd dye it, maybe blue.

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?

1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.

2. I'd make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it and not me.

3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

***

Its the start of a new week. I hope it brings to each of you the goal you strive for.

See you tomorrow!

MAHALO

ALOHA

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THE PICTURE GALLERY

Mau'i

Haleakala Sunrise

***

"Let's all be careful out there!"