Paradise Driver

Thursday, September 28, 2006

THE FATES

HAVE A WARPED SENSE OF HUMOR

After the great shift on the prior night, I was hoping that my luck was going to let me have a decent night again.

Dispatched to the front of The Grand at 7:15pm and picked up a lady doing a roundtrip to Safeway. Kewl! Depending on how long she is in the store, I should meter between $45 and $55.

Start up the hill, on Wailea Iki, headed for the high road. Just as I was approaching the top, a 6-point buck (deer) lunges out of the forest on my right. I slam on the brakes, I was doing maybe 30 mph, and jerk the wheel to the right. Alas, the timing wasn't quite perfect. Nailed the buck in his left rear flank with my left front headlight. Broke at least one of his rear legs, maybe both. He drug himself to the center divider. Tried to stand and flee but collasped in the #1 lane for traffic headed the opposite direction. Eventually drug himself out of the roadway to the forest on the northside of the road.

After making sure my passenger was okay, I called for another cab to pick her up. There went my nice run. Called 9-1-1 and the police arrived shortly afterwards. Since there were no human injuries and the damage to ONE-NINE was less than $3,000, there was no report taken.

The cops told me that DLNR (Department of Land and Natural Resources) had been notified and would eventually respond to dispatch the buck. I drove away hearing his cries of fear and pain from somewhere in the darkness. It tore at my soul.

Never could get into the "groove" after that. Calls became infrequent and I finally went home at about 9:30pm. Came back out at 1:30am to cover the "graveyard shift". Just two runs during those hours. Mexican Mary called and I picked her up at 5:00am and gave ONE-NINE to her and was home by 5:30am.

As evidenced by the photos below, there really isn't that much damage to ONE-NINE, which indicates that the speed at impact was probably less than 10 mph.

I still feel miserable about that poor deer.

THE PICTURE GALLERY

Koki Beach
Near Hana

Chinaman's Hat
A famous O'ahu Landmark

"Let's all be careful out there!"

THE LONG WAY HOME

Dropped two guys off at Lahaina Harbor just before 6:00am on Wednesday morning. Going there, from the Fairmont Kea Lani in Wailea, had been a pretty easy ride. Now it was after 6 and traffic both ways was building up.

Part one starts a couple of miles south of Lahaina and ends about a mile past Chez Paul, a really fantastic french restaurant, in Olowalu,

Part 2 commences just as I am entering the pali. Pali is the Hawai'ian word for cliff. This is about 5 minutes south of where part 1 ended. You can see how much brighter the day has become. We do not have long lingering twilights at either end of our days. The Sun sets, it gets dark real fast. In the morning, the rosy blush over the mountains accelerates into full sunlight almost immediately.

"Let's all be careful out there!"

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

IF YOU CAN'T BE GOOD...

THEN BE LUCKY

While I only did 9 runs the entire shift, I drove 166 miles and surpassed the $1.50 per mile average that I should generate.

No interesting fares but everyone was very laidback. That makes for a pleasant, albeit boring, night.

I did make a video on the way back from Lahaina, my last trip of the shift. I was going to post it now but Blogger/Blogspot has been screwing with my site and it took so long to fix that I'll do them up tomorrow.

Besides, Bear wants me to go to bed.

BLOG-KEEPING

BLOGS DROPPED
CharterJames - Jim sent me an e-mail saying he was discontinuing his blog and he has taken it off-line.

The Life And Times Of Holly & Scolly - Access to this blog is now by invitation only. Restricted to family and friends.

BLOGS ADDED
Dublin Taxi - A new cab-blog from Dublin, Ireland.

I am a complete asshole according to my late night pissed pasengers. By day I am an utter gent.Which is why I work days only.

Taxi Parisien - A cab-blog from Paris, France

Cathy's Rants And Ramblin's - Formerly named "arthritis rants", I have had arthritis for more than 25 years. I recently had "total knee replacement" and I need an outlet for some of my frustration. I also have many interests, besides arthritis, that I will post about... All poems and stories are owned and copyright, by the author of this BLOG, unless otherwise stated. All names and dates ( Some people, places and events)of personal stories, have been changed to give my family privacy. comments are welcome.

Helen's Blog - There isn't that much to say, really. I live in England, and go to school,and, well that's about it! Brought up in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, and remain here to this day. And now, I am here to share my thoughts and stories with you!

Just One - Some Women, Some Cameras, Just One (that's our story, and we're sticking to it) beverage. Shake. Serve with twist of venting, crying, bitching, and laughing-laughing-laughing. Men Welcome. Buy us all the drinks you want, but we still won't sleep with you. Probably.

THE PICTURE GALLERY

Rainbow

I'ao Needle

Kanaha Beach

Kite Beach

Spreckelsville Beach

Spreckelesville Beach

Tropical Afternnon

"Let's all be careful out there!"

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

3 SHOPPING MONTHS

'TIL CHRISTMAS

Good ol' Santa Claus is probably busy with data retrieval, dossier updates (have to know who's "naughty" or "nice"), Final approvals of the licensed use of his image in ad campaigns. Fine tuning production schedules. Damn "Tickle Me Elmo" dolls are on backorder. No wonder he vacations on Mau'i after Christmas.

*** *** ***
Interstate 70 was closed for a while this past wek. First snows of the year in the Colorado Rockies. I hope this is a year of really heavy snowfall. The water from the spring runoff is very badly needed. And more snow means more visitors to Mau'i. Okay, I am mercenary.

*** *** ***
Took Judy out to dinner last night. It's actually the first chance we have had to talk in almost three weeks. Usually we are just ships passing in the night. Shes holding up pretty well.

*** *** ***
"TT Tina" has been on vacation in Italy and Greece this month. She sent me this postcard:

The back of the card says"

"Boun Giorno!
I took the train from Roma to Venice (Venezia) today.
I loved the history in Roma, but I love Venice!
Very old.
Very beautiful.
& very busy. (& hot - glad summer is over!)
I've taken about 500 pics & its not even been a week!"

The picture is of the