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Monday, March 26, 2007

SOME MORE PICTURES

OF "QUEEN" NORA

Love is ...
Grandpa
"Princess" and the "Queen"

"Enough of this 'photo-op'."

***
A catamaran with 51 people aboard lost its mast in gusty weather off the Ka'anapali Coast Sunday afternoon, leaving 1 person dead and at least two injured. The boat sank but all 50 survivors were rescued.


***
TMR did bring my money from last night's Speedi-Shuttle "no-pay". He also mentioned that the "Professor" did show up. Interesting.

***
I tried a "bright idea" with the blog today. It didn't work. Back to the drawing board.

***
I added Google Analytics to the Paradise Driver. Not really impressed with it. Just a very poor statistics counter. Stat-Counter is much, much better. So is Site Meter.

***

Found and added a new "Cab-Blog" today.
SoCal Cabbie is out of San Diego, CA, USA.

Just a relaxed day for me. Thanks for coming by and hopefully I'll "see" you tomorrow.

Mahalo

Aloha



THE PICTURE GALLERY

Special For
"June In Florida"
Four Seasons Resort/Hotel

O'heo Gulch
Haleakala
"Upcountry" Mau'i
Tropical Jungle
Lovely Hawai'ian Beaches



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"Let's all be careful out there!"

Sunday, March 25, 2007

THE "PROFESSOR"

WAS A "NO SHOW" LAST NIGHT

So, the question then becomes:
Will he show up for his shifts on Sunday and Monday?
Since I don't work those 2 days, I really don't give a shit.
I give the odds at 50/50 that he doesn't want to work with me anymore, after the lambasting I gave him last Sunday morning. Oh, well, as it says in the "footer", "Feces Occurs". Thats the essence of my Philosophy of Life.

TMR is back from vacation and he held the phone last night. The three "day" cabs bailed by 9:00pm leaving him, Hardin and myself to cover a Saturday night. All three of us raked in the cash. Drove 174 miles (280 km) and had 18 fares.

Started the shift with a Grand to OGG. Got another trip to OGG from the Maui Coast 90 minutes later. Also had a short "out-of-towner" from the far north end of Kihei to the nearest edge of Kahului. The other 15 were typical bar runs.

The calls were spaced nicely and getting the opportunity to take restroom breaks was not a problem and even had time to grab some pupus to snack on. But the pacing was such that it took me almost 2 hours to consume what I had purchased.

I have made the decision to not accept any Speedi-Shuttle hand-offs in the future. It has been quite awhile since the last one, so when I got the Coast to OGG dispatch I was hoping for the best. No such luck. The prior 5 times I have dealt with Speedi-Shuttle, getting paid was a problem. The procedure is that we do the run and then go to their counter in Baggage Claim, present a receipt and get our cash. 5 times in a row, NO CASH. "Please come back tomorrow." Last night was the same. TMR is going to stop by there on his way to work, he lives "upcountry", collect my funds and drop it by my place sometime this evening. That made the sixth time in a row and enough is enough. They have very inept dispatching and routing of their shuttle buses doing the returns to the airport.

If you come to Mau'i and don't rent a car, then using Speedi-Shuttle is a very cost effective means of getting to your hotel or condo. Especially if you don't mind taking the long "scenic route". Just don't rely on them to get you back to the airport in a timely manner. I think we covered 5 or 6 of their pickups in Kihei last night.

***
This is a 3-day weekend in Hawai'i. Monday is the annual celebration of Prince Kuhio Day. State and County Offices are closed but Federal Offices are open.

***
I realized tonight that I get kissed a lot in this job. Intoxicated women, young, old, pretty or plain, have this overwhelming desire to give me a peck on the cheek when de-cabbing (I may have just coined a new word). In no way imaginable could you call me attractive. On the 1 to 10 scale, I'd rate myself as somewhere between a 2 and a 3. I guess the kisses are the result of being "blind" drunk.

***
I hauled a "regular" twice last night. His name is Steve and he earns his livelihood off the internet. Google sends him a monthly check in the 5 figure range. They are not the only one. He has read Paradise Driver and offered me some suggestions about increasing my ranking in Google's search engine and some concepts for using this blog to generate some cab-bi$$. So you might notice some subtle changes in the near future.

Hey! Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Right?!

I know my readership drops drastically over the weekends and I want to thank all of you who managed to swing by. It is appreciated.

Mahalo

Aloha



THE PICTURE GALLERY

Hawai'i
Full Moon Mau'i
Our "Midnight Sun"
Whale Season
December Thru April
Not Just A Sign
But Also
A Way Of Life
Beautiful Flowers
Abound In The
Rain Forests
Haleakala
Beaches
Large And Small
Can Be Found
Everywhere



Tourist Bumper Sticker
***



"Let's all be careful out there!"

Saturday, March 24, 2007

OUR TYPICAL

"SPRING BREAKERS"

~ Erin & Elizabeth ~
College "Juniors" from the Sea-Tac area
Here on "Spring Break"
***
Considering that we were two cabs short for the shift, TMR (#27) returns tomorrow and Hardin (#25) was a "no-show", we were never overwhelmed. Mosied into work at 7:09pm and the phone was in the cup holder, just waiting for me. Logged on and the calls were transferred within 90 seconds. I guess Art was hungry. By 9:00pm all three "day" cabs were pau hana. For a Friday night it was quietly active. The bars were full and people were behaving themselves. The wonderful trade winds we are enjoying may have sedated the population. Tina (#05) and "Crazy" Brian (#09) went "adios" by 2:05am. A couple of decent overnight runs. Relieved by Flor (#27) about 4:30am. Only had one reservation to pass on. That makes for a slow start to the day-shift.

***

The general reaction about the three young ladies from yesterday's edition has been universal. Everyone is flabbergasted that they were as young as they were. You should have seen MY face when I found out. I think my lower jaw bounced twice on the steering wheel

When they got into ONE-NINE, I pegged their age as early 20's. They weren't pulling my leg though. The conversation they engaged in was definitely that of their stated age. Girls in their mid-teens talk differently than their older sisters. There is a drastic change in topics with just the addition of 5 or 6 years of life experience. The main theme is still the same, BOYS, but modified by maturity(?).

I also hope that none of what I wrote be construed as criticism of the girls. They were being typical teenagers, on an adventure. Totally naive to the dark side of the real world. However, I think their parents/chaperons should be horsewhipped.

***
I finally met the new owners this past week. A nice couple from Sacramento, CA, USA. Larry and Darcy.

***
Well, today is Saturday and the "Professor" will be dispatching tonight. Lets see how it goes.

I can always hope.

Can't I?

***
Hey, I really enjoyed your visit.

See ya tomorrow?

MAHALO

ALOHA


THE PICTURE GALLERY

Haleakala
Silversword
Fairmont - Kea Lani

Four Seasons

East Side Of Mau'i
Sorry
I Forgot Which Hotel This Is
A Mau'i Red Sand Beach
Moloka'i
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"Let's all be careful out there!"

Friday, March 23, 2007

WHAT IS WRONG

WITH THIS PICTURE?

~ Brittney ~ Lindse ~ Tara ~

I took it at 2:57am this morning, at The Sheraton, in Ka'anapali. I had picked them up from a private residence in Kihei at 2:09am. The oldest one is a "Junior" (11th grade) and the other 2 are "Sophomores" (10th grade) in high school. They are here on "spring break" from Dallas, TX, USA. All three girls were sober, for which the parents should be grateful, and not under the influence of any drugs. They were very polite and well mannered. This was their first visit to Mau'i.

So what is wrong with the picture?

All the facts I just related is what is wrong.

What were the parents, or chaperons, for these very young girls (15 and 16 y.o.) thinking? G-I-R-L-S this young, and especially this pretty, are fair game for the lowlifes that habituate Mau'i. People blindly come here thinking that Paradise is benign.

It isn't!

Oh, well. I did what I was hired to do. Get them back to their hotel safely.

It was nice to meet some well mannered teenagers for a change though. That is something seldom seen on Mau'i.

***
The earthquake last October caused some fracturing of the rock faces along the Pali.





The Pali is that section of SR-30 (Honoapi'ilani Highway) that runs past McGregor Point along the road between Central Mau'i and West Mau'i. You can check the maps on the sidebar. The north side of Ma'alaea Bay.




To prevent rocks from cascading onto the roadway, the State DOT contracted to have the face of the roadway cuts cleaned up and new steel netting placed on the cliff.




Took these images on "the fly" as I passed by on the detour.






It was a profitable shift. The girls were my final, most enjoyable and longest run of the night. Started the shift with "Crazy" Brian (#09), Maui Jim (#17), Prima Donna (#18), "Dipshit" (#05) and me (ONE-NINE). Alex-TMR (#27) will be back from vacation on Saturday. Tina (#11) was a "no-show" (feces occurs). At 9:00pm, I took over dispatch duties. Brian covered it last week, so it was only fair that I cover it this week. Normally, Thursdays are #27's night for the phone. By 9:15pm both #05 and #18 had folded up shop for the night. #17 stayed around until 10:30pm. After that it was just Brian and me. We were never overwhelmed but we didn't sit idle very much either. By the time Brian left I was pretty satisfied with my "meter". The Ka'anapali run was "icing on the cake".

Around 1:30am I get a call to pick up at a private residence in far north Kihei for a decent trip south to a private residence in Maui Meadows, a subdivision on the Kihei/Wailea border. I tell the caller that I will be there in less that 10 minutes. I was making a drop at the Maui Lu and wasn't too far away. Arrived 9 minutes after the call. It was obvious which house on the cul-de-sac it was. A party was going on inside and it looked like every light in and on the house was illuminated. I sit and wait. I waited for 7 minutes and no one ever came out. 10-13'd (no load-no show) it and headed back to the "Triangle", about 4 miles away. They call back a bit after 2:00am and were dumbfounded when I told them that I had already been there once and wasn't coming back again. The usual "four-letter word" banter occurred between us until they decided that I was extremely anal retentive, my parents probably weren't married on my conception and mom was a canine. When his lack of an adequate vocabulary became repetitive, I just went [click].

While cruising the "Triangle", a fight broke out, in the street, just outside of LAB. There was a MPD car about 25 yards away. The officer activated his "blues", tapped the siren, stepped out and ordered the guys to STOP. He was ignored. 5 "backup" units were rolling his way from 1 mile north. He brought the fight to an abrupt end when he Tazered one of the guys. When it didn't seem to have an immediate affect, the suspect was "zapped" a second time. A Tazer makes a popping, sizzling, staccato sound when used.

I wish we had those back in my "day".

No arrests were made and the cops eventually put the pugilist in Brian's cab, for his final run of the shift.

Prim (#22) logged on at 3:50am and I was back in Kihei at 4:00am. Refueled and handed the phone over at 4:30am, which is also when Flor (#27) checked on.

With a little luck, Friday will continue this week's trend of being active. Unfortunately, I also will have dispatch again.

Y'all come back now, hear.

Mahalo

Aloha



THE PICTURE GALLERY

West Mau'i


West Mau'i Mountains
"Up Country" Mau'i
Ritz Carlton Resort/Hotel




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"Let's all be careful out there!"