A TASTE OF...

...THINGS TO COME

~Noelle & Alex~
~Orange County~
~California, USA~

This beautiful couple had been going full tilt when I picked them up at the Four Seasons a bit after 10p. Took them out to the Maui Prince. They had been up since the wee hours of Thursday morning, California time. Had flown to Mau'i, on Thursday, for a wedding of some friends that afternoon. They have to leave this weekend. Even I am tired just thinking about it. I bet they slept good last night.

Didn't get off until 5:45a, my usual 5:15a "special" had overslept, but during that 10 hours and 45 minutes I logged 20 runs for just under $300. Not shabby at all.

By 8p, all the day cabs were history and one night cab left at 8:30pm. She had been sitting since 6p with no runs. That left just three of us for the night and then things began to move. #09 and #27 got OGG runs within minutes of each other, leaving me as the only cab available for everything on the southside of the island. I was constantly on the move from one fare to another. After clearing OGG, #09 picked up a fare from there to Ka'anapali. That took him out of the picture for 2 more hours. #27, when he got back, and I never quit moving. Between 7p and 2a I was able to cover 14 trips and 61% of my meter for the shift. The 2a to 5:45a period added 6 more trips and the other 39% of the income.

Asked around and all of the hotels reach 100% occupancy by Wednesday, the 20th. Some will be at 100% by Monday, the 18th. If you can see Dollar signs ($)-($) where my eyes should be, you are right. The average tip last night was right around 40% and that will improve next week. During the two week holiday period I usually get 50%-75%.

KA-CHING

When #09 returned to town he got a famous black TV/movie "star" as a fare. I don't know where they went to or who this "star" hooked up with but #09 didn't get off-duty until 4:45a. #09 spent all of the hours after bar close parked outside some residence in central Kihei. I don't think the "star" was watching the "boob-tube", but I am pretty positive that the word "boob" played a prominent part of his nocturnal activities.

I had two scheduled runs to OGG at the close of my night. One at 4a and the other at 4:30a. No way I could handle both, so I called out a day driver (#27-Flor) to cover the second one. The one I took was a nice young couple from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is a Constable with the Calgary Police Service. Calgary is a city of 1-million people but they only have 1,600 sworn officers in the entire department. That means that on a really good night they might have 400 cops on-duty. I am willing to bet they usually have between 250-300 on the street at any given moment. Thats stretching things really thin. Reminds me of my prior life when we had 30 beats and two sergeants to cover an area of 720 square miles (1,865 km²) and a population of approximately 650,000 (at that time).

If everything follows form, last night will be called a "slow night" next week.

I can hardly wait.

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THE PICTURE GALLERY

KA'ANAPALI

MAUI MARRIOTT

Old Lahaina Lu'au

Sunset At The Lu'au

"Let's all be careful out there!"

I ACTUALLY HAD TO

DECLINE A RUN TO THE HARBOR

Last nights income pattern held to form last night. 5 runs and 32% of the shift's earnings between 7p and 2:00a. 7 fare and 68% of the money came during my solo hours. A little after 3a, the Maui Coast called and had some people wanting to go back to the ship, in Kahului. I still had 3 runs pending and a 4:30a reservation, from the Maui Coast, to OGG and a 5:15a on the Kihei/Wailea border. There was just no physical way I could fit it into the lineup.

OUCH!

That would have been another $45 on the meter. As I have redundantly whimpered over the past month or two, times are lean. With all the runs I had during my solo period, I was like a tiger shark on a feeding frenzy and really hated letting a "good one" slip through my fingers.

Oh, don't tell anybody but it is possible to drive the Mokolele Highway around triple digits at certain times of the day?

***

Ordered my Christmas dinner. A pre-roasted turkey, big enough to feed 6 adults (or 1 teenage boy), pie, gravy, rolls, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry/orange sauce and some vegetable. Corn, I think. $50. All I have to do is warm everything up. I'll pick it up Christmas Eve about 3p and take it to Judy's place. Then on Christmas Day, we'll nuke, bake or whatever, everything and have a nice dinner.

Judy's cat, Bob, has become addicted to turkey. My cat, Bear, has never had turkey and soon we'll find out his opinion. Knowing him, he'll probably just sniff it and look at me with that "Are you trying to poison me?" look. You cat slaves know what I mean.

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THE PICTURE GALLERY

KA'ANAPALI

SHERATON - MAU'I

Black Rock

Interiors

Teppan Restaurant

***

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DA KINE

"CLICK" DA KINE FO' ONE TALK STORY.
OKAY BRAH?

"Tok pidgin?"

"Ey try go grab da kine an bring um ova heah. No not dat kine da udda kine."

Trust me, between trying to translate "tourist speak" (bad pronunciation of Hawai'ian words) and then translating pidgin to usable English, being a cabbie in the islands can be tough at times.

"Where to, friend?"
"Da kine"

*** *** ***

It was a very slow night. There were no day shift holdovers, for once, and one of the night drivers decided to just stay home. That left 4 of us to cover what few runs we could scrounge up. The parking lots around the bars were less than 1/2 full all night.. The vast majority of a person's income, in the hospitality/service industry, is from gratuities. When there isn't anyone to tip you, then you don't have to money to go play. Just a hair over a week until things should turn around.

*** *** ***

On Monday, one of the timeshare condos held their annual board meeting. The man who had been president of the board for over twenty years announced that he was stepping down. Tuesday morning he woke up dead.
Talk about emphasizing your point.

*** *** ***

The cab company I work for is in the process of being sold. I don't have a lot of details. Being bought by some people from the mainland and the current owner will stay on, for awhile, as a supervisor to help the new folks learn the business. Don't expect a lot of change, for me at least. Some drivers are worried though. Rumor is that the new owners want all the drivers to have a clean abstract (driving record). This helps reduce some of the insurance costs. Not all of our drivers will pass muster on this one.

*** *** ***

RoadRunner, our Time Warner high-speed broadband connection to the internet, died just before midnight. I was logged on, writing this post, when it happened. I kept the webpage open on my browser and have been waiting to make today's entry. I called the service center about 3a and was told it should be back on-line in an hour. It wasn't.

I do all my posting from my desktop, so I decided to take my laptop and drive around town to find a wi-fi hotspot. Found lots of them, all with dead connections to the web.

6:00am - Still no service. Very frustrating!

Finally talked to a service rep. I have to reset the modem. Not likely to happen soon. The modem and wireless router are in my landlords house and they don't wake up until about 7a..

!@#$%&+!!

You can check the post time (below) to see when I finally regained access to the cyber world.

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THE PICTURE GALLERY

KA'ANAPALI

Ka'anapli Ali'i
Resort Condominiums

Ka'anapali Beach Hotel

Ka'anapli Golf Course
South Course

The Whaler

The Westin

***

"Let's all be careful out there!"