Paradise Driver

Saturday, July 22, 2006

HERE COME THE PICS

IF I DIDN'T HAVE TO WORK...
...I"D GO BACK TO BED

MOLOKINI

HALEAKALA CRATER

HIKING HALEAKALA

BLUE POOLS

O'HEO POOLS

I'AO VALLEY

WINDSURFING

A WAILEA GOLF COURSE

ANOTHER WAILEA SUNSET

Have a great day!

Aloha!

Later.....

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

DEFINITION

boring
Adj.

so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness; "a boring evening with uninteresting people"; "the deadening effect of some routine tasks"; "a dull play"; "his competent but dull performance"; "a ho-hum speaker who couldn't capture their attention";

"what an irksome task the writing of long letters is"- Edmund Burke;

"tedious days on the train"; "the tiresome chirping of a cricket"- Mark Twain;

"other people's dreams are dreadfully wearisome"

deadening, ho-hum, irksome, tedious, tiresome, wearisome, dull, slow

uninteresting - arousing no interest or attention or curiosity or excitement; "a very uninteresting account of her trip"

Yep. That just about perfectly describes last night.

Between 7:00pm and 2:00am I had 5 "10-13"s and 7 runs. Did 57.9% of the shift's total meter.

From 2:00am to 5:00am I did 3 runs, no "10-13"s. Added the other 42.1% to the meter.

Those "10-13" weren't because the dispatcher wasn't properly screening the calls.

He was.

I should know,

I was the dispatcher.

While bad karma was still plagueing me, at least it wasn't being as cheap. Made some decent money. Karma let me start and finish my shift with OGG runs but tightened the prosperity reins by letting me get "scooped" by a La Bella cab. Almost had a Kahului to the Prince run from Mau'i Downhill, the largest "bike-down-the-mountain" tour company, but the office manager had called both cab companies and they beat me by about 45 seconds. Feces occurs, again.

I am bushed, and will forgo any pics today.

If I wake up early enough, I'll try and find some and post them for you. Check back by in about 10 hours. Currently 8:00am HST (1800 hrs UTC)

Later.....

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

Friday, July 21, 2006

A LITTLE IMPROVEMENT

A VERY LITTLE IMPROVEMENT

10 runs the entire shift, only 1 after 2:00am. Broke $100 dollars on the meter and drove 66 miles (106 km). Only 2 "10-13"s. Pretty slow but it beat Wednesday night. Thank goodness.

Thought there was going to be some trouble at the "Triangle". Saw every (6) car in the Kihei patrol area pull into and around the "Triangle" about 1:00am. Whatever was suppose to happen, didn't and they left by 1:30am. That was the extent of the excitement for the night. As usual, we had more than enough cabs for the shift, a lot of dayshift "holdovers", which diluted the money pool for everyone.

Rather than an exciting or interesting story, I hope you'll accept some more pretty picks instead.

Haleakala Crater
The crater is so large that you could place the entire island of Manhattan in it and still have a bit of room left over.

Honolulu, the Capitol of Hawai'i

The "Road To Hana"
Just 600+ hairpin turns and 60 some one lane bridges to get there, in about 50 miles and three hours. This is the good section of the road.

It doesn't get better

If you go past Hana, past O'heo Gulch (Seven Pools area), past Charles Lindberg's grave site. The road begins to deteriorate. Just past this the road becomes dirt and is poorly graded. Lots of washed out gullies and you are in violation of your rental car agreement. If you break down in that area, you have bought the vehicle. No towing service will venture out on that road. About once a month somebody gets to pay $20,000 to $40,000 for a car they will never see again. Your contract says "don't go". The drive guides say "don't go". There is even a sign posted saying "don't go".
They still "go".

Inside the main tank at the Maui Ocean Center, in Ma'alaea.

Interesting denizens of the deep

Coastline near Hana

O'heo Gulch pools

I have no idea where this is on Mau'i

Sailing the red sunset

I think this is a view from the Kea Lani

Another Mau'i sunset

Later.....

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

Thursday, July 20, 2006

B O R I N G ! ! !

A SHITTY NIGHT

It was obvious that we were busy when I logged on last night. I was assigned as first cab up. We had 9 cabs on the road and I was the only one free. Waited about 20 minutes and got a run from The Grand to Joe's Bar & Grill. Joe's, despite it's name, is a fine dining establishment located next to the Wailea Tennis Courts, about 7/10s of a mile from the hotel. The classic definition of a "pu-pu run".

Waited another half hour for a run from The Grand to Sansei, the best sushi bar on the island. A nice $15 trip.

After that my night didn't go downhill, it just dove off the cliff. The next 4 dispatches were all "10-13" (NO show/NO load). Finally, said "fuck it" at 10:00pm and went home for an extended break. It was obvious that I was suffering from bad karma. Everyone else were getting airport runs or long dinner runs and I was chasing ghosts.

Came back out at midnight and snagged two so-so runs between 1:00am and 2:00am. My final bar run was at 2:20am and these two 20-sumptin idiots, from Palo Alto, CA, only had $12 to cover a $14 run. Obviously my ying/yang was still out of balance.

Final run of the night was a freebie that I do 2 mornings a week. Taking my best friend's (Judy) husband (Dave) to work. I log that trip on my sheet (and pay the boss his 60%) but I won't accept money. These folks are "family".

Drove 63 miles and the meter didn't reach $79.

Thank god that the company pays for the gas. Since dayshift left me with 5/8ths of a tank, I refilled just before I called it a night and put $37.20 (10.337 gals) in the tank. The owner netted $16.08 for my efforts. Spent $33 at the grocery store and went home with less in my pocket than I started the night with.

FECES OCCURS

COMPARISON
MSIE-6

FIREFOX

See the difference? MSIE dumps the damn sidebar about 3/4's of the way down the page.

And mine is not the only blog that this occurs on. I have found a couple of dozen others. I even downloaded MSIE-7 and it does the same thing. MSIE doesn't seem to handle more complicated DHTML applications.

Once again, I strongly suggest that everyone dump MSIE and download the latest version of FIREFOX. Just go here to read all about it and do the download. It doesn't cost you a penny. You won't lose your "favorites". It is about 3 generations ahead of the new MSIE-7. It is safer and faster and better than anything that MSIE even has on their "to-do" list for the next couple of years.

THE TOOTH

To answer some questions.

It has stopped hurting
I didn't have insurance from the Sheriff's Office. I was covered under my wife's policy from the State, where she worked. The divorce ended that.
Taxicab drivers are independent contractors and thus are not eligible for any group plan of medical/dental coverage.
Do to a MI (aka: Heart Attack) I had in late 1999, most private carriers either refuse coverage or rate the premiums so high that it would take nearly 50% of what I make each month.

Ain't life just a bitch at times?

Sorry, no pretty pics today.

Later.....

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

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

ETHCUTHE ME?

WHAT DID YOU THAY?

So there I am, getting ready to start my day. Eating a sourdough english muffin and drinking some iced tea. Took a bite and something wasn't right. My damned upper right front tooth broke off at the gum line. For the next 7 to 8 hours, breathing was a new experience in pain. No tooth, no money, no credit, no insurance. Definately no more smiles. Since I really wasn't in the "mood" to deal with anyone, I took the night off.