Wild Weekend

Generally I just work 11-3 monday through saturday and thats very scetchy until thursday. But this week, I've been slamming. I took both Monday and Wednesday almost completely off, and I'm glad I did, because I made up for it last night and friday.

My cabbie wife (Jerry) and I have this tradition of seeing who can be first to "call it" as in a good night. He and I work very different angles on the cab business so it is not unusual for our experiences to diverge on any given night. My customer base is party animals. His is hotel guests. We overlap in our college clients and we both take hosre industry overflow from the industry leader, Davey.

On any given night, I prefer my calls to flow into one another. This means I go from point A to point B and get a call from B' very close to B. B' to C then I get a call from C' and so on. This happened friday night by 8:30 so I called it. It also happend saturday evening by 6:30 and I called it again. Jerry, not actually my wife, he's totally straight, I also refer to him as my hetersexual life partner, ala Silent Bob and Jay. But we actually resemble one another and both Silent Bob at that. The irony of this will not be lost on anyone that knows "jerry's" real name.

The serendipity of rides came to a beautiful apex friday night. It was abotu over, I was very tired. I got a call from a strip club I "work" and headed over there. I work it because it is very convenient to my house, and on slow nights I can hang at my house, watch TV or stuff, and get there within 5 minutes. But this time I was 20 minutes away. I told her I'd head that way, and if they were still there I'd take them otherwise I'd just go home. When I showed up another 2 cabs were already there. I called the front desk and confirmed the people should have already been outside. Guessing they were in one of the 2 cabs, I kept driving and went to the nearby super america store. As I was loading up on snacks, they called back and said they had a party of 5 for me. Since I drive a mini van, I can handle parties larger than the normal max 4. I got there, and there were many people needing cabs.

The club had just exited the building, and the people that did not plan ahead were in up-the-creek-land. As I was approached I explained I was reserved for a large party. They were kind of unhappy, as you can imagine. I also know that starting about 30 minutes prior, the waitresses start asking their drunker patrons if they need a cab. "no no, we're alright" is often the answer.

So my party loads, and its "lottery call". So described because it is well above the normal fare. Standard out of that place is about 9-12 bucks. This was a 3 party three stop. In one general direction but a few detours on the way. At the first stop the gentleman asked about what I thought the rest of the ride would be, and I told him about $25 or so. He gave me $40. I continued make the rest of the stops. During this Jerry called me and said he was driving a customers car home for her, and he would need a ride back to his cab downtown. This is a little known service we do for special customers. Essentially for the price of a round trip and a good tip, we'll get your car home.

The clincher of this whole deal is he was going to point D and my final destination on my lottery call was D'. And we were en route simultaneously. When I cleared, I called and told him I was running low on gas, and if he was waiting for me, I could get him right away, but I needed gas. He was still enroute, giving me time to stop at the gas station that was between D and D'.

That is what we call cabby Kharma. Earlier that night I had been doing the A-B, B'-C, C'-E thing to great success. I was hungry so I detoured to the border for a spicy chicken cruntch wrap supreme and a big tea. On my way back I heard a call on the raidio. It was on the other side of downtown, so I agreed to take it. When I was on the street, the call canceled. Its a well known experience of mine that in the rain, people call multiple cabs, and (hopefully) cancel the others after the first one gets there. Knowing my personal customer base was out in full force, I clicked my radio off. I did not need the distraction.

Other drivers that live and die by the dispatch must watch me in action in wonder. I worked 7 hours friday night taking only one call off the radio and picking up one at the cab stand. I had a brief break to get food and gas, but not very long.

But it doesn't always work out like this. Toward the end of last night, I was dropping someone off near down town, and I get a call from Jerry. One of his favorites needed a ride and the Doomsday Cafe, and could I go get her. I agreed, called her and was there in 5 minutes. I show up and its a party of 4 one of which was splain on the ground puking. This is right as the bars close. When a lot of drivers, including me, make 75% of our income for the night. I could not afford to have someone puke in my cab. We charge $100 clean up fee, but its not enough to handle the bother for me. I had some of my own calling me at the same time. I have some regulars I call "the Power Lesbians". Sex in the city had some new yokers in this role, and they were all glamorous and that. Thats what these girls are. I had trouble explaing to the drunk kids how I did not have time to deal with Pukey McBarfbag. I called Jerry and ordered him to come clean up his won mess. During this melee, the PL called and I barked into the phone, I had to call them back. Before it was over they called again, and I screamed "Kerry What?!?" I vagueley heard some yelling back, I cleared up my drunk people, and told the PL I was on my way to them.

When I got them in the cab, I told Kerry I may have yelled, and she said forget about it, she needed to blow off some steam, and it was fine. I continued to explain what was going on, and she was truly uninterested nor upset by it. I got them home, turned around and finished my night with my bar employees, like I do most every night.

I later found out Jerry had no idea the guy was puking, just that it was "urgent" and "he's really drunk".