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Thursday, June 15, 2006

SOME EXCITEMENT!

CALLING ALL CARS...


My first run of the night, finally, was from The Grand to Roys. The passengers were from the mainland and the man who road "shotgun" was with Homeland Security. A DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) agent doing the same job, basically, with a different title and chain-of-command.


We were northbound on the dark Pi'ilani Highway (SR-31), near my residence, when the car in front of us suddenly veered left, then right and then pulled to the shoulder. Then both the agent and I saw a man, dressed in brown clothing and sporting a backpack, land on the shoulder, rolling into the dirt. We were past this accident so fast, and the traffic was busy enough to make it too dangerous to try and turn around. It was more practical to keep going and just call 9-1-1. Which is what I did. About a minute later, two MPD cars, going "balls to the wall" passed us headed southbound.


After I made the drop at Roy's I returned to The Grand. Passing the accident scene, there were the two patrol cars parked behind the vehicle that was involved along the east side of the road but the ambulance and firetrucks were on the west side frontage road that parallels the southbound lanes.

Later in the night I spoke to one of the officers and learned that they weren't even sure if the subject had been hit or not. The lady driver said that the man had been walking in the middle of the #2 northbound lane and she thought she had hit him but there was no physical evidence of an impact on her vehicle. When she stopped, the guy begged her not to call the cops because he claimed to have warrants for his arrest. He fled across the highway, to the west, towards my house, and disappeared into the 167 new home construction area just north of where I live.

All the "nighthawks" searched for about a half-hour but never found him.


I guess even idiots have a lucky night on occassion.

* * *

Over all it was a strange night. During the first 7 hours (7:00pm to 2:00am) I only had four runs. The next 4 hours (2:00am to 6:00am) brought me 7 runs. While the tips were good, the meter just barely crept over the $100 mark.

* * *


To make matters even worse, our cell-phone service shut down just after midnight and Kimo, last nights driver/dispatcher, had to wake the owner up and get a different phone using another carrier. We were out of contact with the public for about an hour. This is not the first time this has happened and following SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) I called the switchboard at The Grand and gave them my personal cell # so we would be able to service them per our contract. During the hour the phones were down we just cruised all the bars, wasting gas, to make ourselves very visible. Crazy Brian lucked out and got a run to The Pride Of Hawaii at Kahului harbor.

* * *

I guess the day-shift was pretty miserable yesterday. 5 day drivers held over until almost midnight, trying to make a few extra bucks and screwing the night drivers out of their runs. Feces occurs. Today won't be much better since we only have one pre-scheduled run to the airport at 12:30pm.

* * *


"ICE" (smokeable crytal meth) reared it's head again last night. It was a very warm, humid night and our local version of gangbangers made their appearence at the "Triangle" just before bar close. Walking around wearing hooded pullover sweat shirts, with the hoods pulled up to hide their faces. The story I got was not verifiable but apparently they did find a victim(s) in front of Neptunes and caused enough serious injury that the victim(s) had to be transported to the hospital. There were nearly 100 witnesses but, of course, "nobody taw nuttin'".


While not PC, this is how the deputies I worked with handled this kind of problem.



Later.....

Wil
=8^))
"Let's all be careful out there!"

SPECIAL RESPONSES

Dctaxistories said...
I can tell you still love your ex, Will.
Yes, I do. But we mix as well as oil and water. We are friends and talk/e-mail every couple of months. She keeps me up-to-date with what is happening with the grandkids. A very nice lady.

Oh, its WIL not WILL. I got the "L" kicked out of me a long time ago.



Tropical Screamer said...
A deer. Right.

(How come you have the Friend Finder popping up from your site. Ick.) :)

Darilyn
If you are getting "pop-ups", its not from anything that I have done. Either Blogger/Blogspot is adding it or you have some "spyware" in your browser. I have one piece of spyware embedded in my MSIE browser called "WinFixer 2005" that nothing short of dumping all my files and starting from scratch will clear. When I switched to Firefox, I was never plagued again. Also, MSIE (every build) doesn't always display blogs correctly. It drops the sidebar down to the bottom of the posts. It does this on my blog and some others I have seen.

If you change to Firefox for your browser, this will usually stop. Its free, its better and its like switching from a Ford Pinto to a Lincoln Towncar in its quality. Also download and run Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy and run them on a daily basis to keep your system clean. You might also check your firewall settings to see where it is getting in at.



Cheffe said...
Hotels there are not really cheap if this is a good offer - I think I'll have to stick with the "Chinese Hawaii" - Hainan island.
The major hotels start at about $600-$800 a night and top out at $12,500 a night. So $119 is VERY cheap.

Renting a condo for $300 to $500 a week is a better deal and you won't be paying $12.75 for a "room-service" PB&J sandwich. Tuna salad sandwich goes for $17.95 and a cheeseburger will set you back about $30. And that doesn't include anything else. In the hotels, beer is about $6 a bottle.



Dogbait said...
I like it! Can you find some for us guys?

I saw one image once for a recliner chair that was equipped with a "potty", microwave, refridgerator, telephone, massage, surround-sound speakers and a universal remote inlaid in the armrest. For the ultimate "couch potato".



Later.....

Wil
=8^))
"Let's all be careful out there!"

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

AND ANOTHER WEEK BEGINS

YEAH, RIGHT

Most, but not all of the hotels are sold out this week. The Mau'i Oceanfront Inn (aka: MOF) apparently isn't.

Strange.



That a really good price. And the hidden secret is that it sits on the best beach on Mau'i (in my opinion) and shares it's driveway with the best (again, my opinion) restaurant, Sarento's On The Beach.


NEWLYWEDS

Brad and Amanda are from Dallas, TX, USA. They tied the knot this past Saturday, the 10th. Both are avid Maverick fans (for the rest of the world, the Mavericks are the National Basketball Association [NBA] team in Dallas) and didn't know about their 98-96 loss to the Miami (FL, USA) Heat. I didn't tell them. I didn't want to spoil their wonderful evening.


Oh, thats a Maverick's shirt that she is wearing.


LAST NIGHT

Another slow one. At 2:00am I only had 6 runs. Luckily one was from The Grand to OGG. No calls at all during my solo hours. Though I did handle my regular 4:30am in-town pu-pu run. Got back to The Grand about 4:40am and as I pulled up, Ray, the graveyard room service waiter was waiting for me with a cart full of food and drinks.

Hmmmm. No reservation that I have knowledge of.

What gives?

He wanted to know if I was there for the ????'s party.
"How many people?"

I saw my relief, Flor, with his 7-passenger van pulling in the driveway.
"Four."

"I guess I am. Where are they going?"

"The harbor."

"Kahului?"

"No. Ma'alaea. They're going fishing."

And that is how the shift ended, with a nice run, making a total of 8 for the night. Definately slow, but serendipity made the dollar$ equal to most of the nights last week.


YOU TELL ME

DS (dumbshit) Alex (not to be confused with TMR [The Mad Russian] Alex) claims that this damage was done by a collision with a deer, while he was enroute out to the Prince the other night.

What do you think?

Naw. Me neither.



MY FAVORITE BLOG

The Life & Times of Holly & Scolly


Holly & Scolly

* Gender: female
* Occupation: Demanding Toddler
* Location: Wallington : Victoria : Australia

About Me

I'm a demanding toddler, coming up to 2 years old in July 2006. I'm very smart, love to chatter non-stop and completely run our household!

Interests

* Being THE BOSS
* Books
* Swimming
* Hey Dee Ho (singing dancing & playing musical instruments)
* Riding my Bike
* Swings
* Slides
* Terrorizing my Mummy & Daddy in the middle of the night
* playing with Bunny & Elephant.

Check it out. I think you'll like it.

Link also on sidebar ---> ---> --->



Later.....

Wil
=8^))
"Let's all be careful out there!"

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

A PERFECT (WOMAN'S) WORLD

FOR THE LADIES









Later.....

Wil
=8^))
"Let's all be careful out there!"

CELEBRATIES

DON'T I KNOW YOU?


Saw where Melissa, aka: NEW YORK HACK picked up Jon Stewart.

That got me trying to remember the celebs that I've hauled over the years. Most were unimpressive. Just ordinary folks whom fate has shoved into the public eye.

  • Britney Spears

  • Justin Timberlake

  • Ray Ramano

  • Jason Sehorn

  • Angie Harmon

  • Jennifer Lopez

  • Eddie Murphy

  • Mike Tyson

  • Arnold Schwarzenegger

  • Maria Shriver

  • George Noory

  • Sally Fields

  • Sharon Stone


I know there are more but I can't remember who.

On Mau'i, celebs are "a dime a dozen" and you tend to become non-pulsed. Some are nice, some aren't. Just like every other fare we cabbies haul. They're all just human beings. The ones not full of themselves are generally the best.

Why do celebs take taxis rather than a limo?

Because when a limo pulls up anywhere, people gawk to see if they recognize who is getting out. When a taxi pulls up, people don't give it a second glance and the celebs can go about their R&R with little notice.


STILL 5 BEERS

Never did open that beer or the gin.

Like I said, I seldom drink alcohol.

Must be a personality flaw or sumptin'.


Blogger/Blogspot is still having issues with their new hardware/software. Seems like the more they fix it, the worse it becomes. [sigh]



Later.....

Wil
=8^))
"Let's all be careful out there!"

Monday, June 12, 2006

TWO SWEET KIDS



Me and my "ex". Summer of 1966.
Her birthday is tomorrow, the 13th.



MY WEEKEND

I have been so tired lately that I slept all of Sunday. Woke up about 11:00pm and went back to bed about 5:00am Monday morning and slept until 2:00pm this afternoon.

With no plans for today, I might actually turn on my TV for awhile. With the schedule I work and the time differences for the satellite/cable feeds from the mainland I usually have 78 channels of "info-mercials" to watch.

The trade winds have died off for a bit and you know you are in the "tropics". Very hot and humid. My apartment doesn't have a/c but the windows are open and the fans are running, moving sticky air from one place to another. I am drinking a lot of iced tea. I seldom drink alcohol. In fact, I bought a 6-pack of beer around New Years and there are still 5 bottles left in the fridge. Might be 4 after tonight. Or maybe a nice gin'n'tonic later.

Talk to y'all tomorrow.



Later.....

Wil
=8^))
"Let's all be careful out there!"

Sunday, June 11, 2006

40th ANNIVERSARY

JUNE 10, 1966

Saturday marked the 40th anniversary of my high school graduation. I don't think the "me" then could even begin to comprehend the "me" now.

I had taken a young girl classmate on the senior "skip" day to the "Santa Cruz Beach & Boardwalk" two days earlier. Our first date. We were also going to the senior's overnight graduation party, at the local bowling alley, that night. She was sweet, cuddley, as sarcastic as me and she kissed good.

18 months later, we were married.

20-1/2 years after that we divorced.

Sorry, but this reflection on the past has been bouncing through my mind all night. There was a lot that I was going to write about but its best to just let the past fade into fond memories.

Auld Lang Syne.


LAST NIGHT

When I get pissed, I tend to also get very profane, as one driver found out last night. I hate it when someone screws up and then tries to blame everyone/everything else in the universe for their error. I detest rationalizers. To make matters even worse, he came back after I had chewed him out, stuck his hand in my car window saying,
"You said your piece and I said mine. Lets call it even."

"Unless you want that arm ripped off and shoved up your ass, you had better take it out of my face. You are an amicable, socialable person who is also a two-faced lying SOB and you have the mental capacity of a gerbil. When you have the guts to publicly admit you screwed up, then we'll talk. Now get the fuck away from me."

He went home about 20 minutes later.

* * *

The shift was very slow until about 11:00pm. By that time the day-shift drivers had finally left and Mary M. was on an extended "West-side" roundtrip. That left Harden, TMR Alex and me and the phone started ringing, and ringing and ringing. We ran our o'koles off for the next three hours. The number of trips and the meter total was on par with Friday night.

Next week should be active since all the hotels are overbooked through the "Fourth of July".

* * *

The strangest run of the shift was a pickup from the MPD substation in Kihei. An "ice-head". The trip was only a bit over 1 mile but he was so freaky and agitated that I moved "Maggie" from her normal resting place to my lap. When we arrived at the stated destination he told me to pull just a little further forward. Then forward again. The forward some more. The street we were on is only one very short block long. We finally reached the far end and he wants me to turn left and go a little further.

NO WAY!

I locked the doors and told him that this is as far as we are going. Pay me my $8.00. It took a few moments for the message to be processed by his brain. Just as I expected he moved rapidly to his right, trying to open his passenger door.

A "runner"!

The look on his face when the door didn't open was priceless. He looked back at me, still trying to process his options.

"Maggie" was now in plain view.

He slumped in his seat. Defeated. Tossed $20.00 on the center armrests and I released the door locks.

I didn't wait for him to close the door. Just punched the accelerator and let inertia do it's job.

Later I crossed paths with the MPD Sgt. who had been waiting with my fare when I made the pickup and told him what had occurred.
"You got paid though, right?"

"Yeah, with a $12 tip."

He just smiled and walked away.



Later.....

Wil
=8^))
"Let's all be careful out there!"