How about two? No charge for the extra one.

First – Saturday afternoon, after I got my cab, I headed for my usual stakeout spot, the Village Inn at I-17 and Northern. It is located at the confluence of four “zones” and away from where most of the cabbies hang out at Metro Center, so while I am in a hot zone, I have faster access to not only three nearby zones but about eight other zones up and down the freeway. My first call, after sitting no more than five minutes, was to pickup a passenger at the Residence Inn, just north of where I was on the frontage road. With 27th Avenue right next door, I used that to backtrack up the southbound frontage road and picked up the fare. It turned out to be two young ladies who were in town from Chicago visiting one of the girls’ family. Nice family, too – she had her own house, and that’s where they were headed. The house is at Warner and Higley in Gilbert – which, as it turns out, is a $78 meter. Not bad for a first run. On the way out there, the girls were chatting back and forth about the things that young Chicago girls chat back and forth about, and then one of them broke out a digital camera. They started critiquing the pictures they had taken of each other the previous evening. I thought maybe they were comparing shopping pictures, but it turned out they had taken pictures of each other wearing their new tans – and smiles. They thrust the camera into my face at one point, asking for my opinion, but I told them I was married, didn’t need to see them naked, and sure didn’t need that kind of distraction for the next twelve hours of my shift…

A few runs later, and I was dispatched to a house in Tempe. When I pulled up, the fare was working his way towards the curb with his walker. I jumped out and opened the door for him, took his walker and stowed it in the trunk, and jumped back into the driver’s seat. “Where to, sir?”

He gave me an address about five blocks away, and mentioned he was going to his son’s house for the evening. I asked him, politely, why his son hadn’t come to get him, and I was told in no uncertain terms that he was quite capable of getting around on his own, thank you very much.

Recognizing the attitude, I asked him which branch he had served in. He looked at me, and asked, “Marine?” I said yes sir, 80-84.

His eyes drifted out to about a thousand yards, and said “Third Marines, Second World War.”

“Iwo Jima?” I asked.

“Eventually,” he said.

When we pulled up at the address, I turned off the meter, retrieved his walker, and waited as he climbed out.

“How much do I owe you, son?”

“Nothing,” I said. “Any time a member of the Greatest Generation rides with me, the fare was already paid long before I was born.”

“Thank you, son. God bless you.”

“Thank YOU, sir.”

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

As I mentioned in a reply to a comment to the previous post, mine was acceptable.

A little background – about three weeks ago, a little piece of plastic and circuit board under the dash of the QX4 (my primary and paid for non-green transportation) decided that it would take the summer off. That little piece of electrical engineering wonder (let’s call it 27761N) is known as the Fan Speed Control Module Assembly. In a QX4 it’s job is to automatically control the speed of the fan to keep the interior of the vehicle at the pre-set temperature. Most new vehicles have either this or a similar system in it attached to the air conditioning and the heater. It also sends the signal from the manual fan control to the fan motor. Well, with 27761N on vacation, there is no way to make the fan blow. That means that there is no AC in my primary means of transportation. That means that I won’t go anywhere with MEG since I will not subject her to a 110 degree breeze from the windows.

Last Tuesday, TMBWitW’s work told her she would have a laptop to use from home, since the VPN had been shut off and our home computer would not support the new SSL. “Great,” I thought – “Now I can remove the VPN from our home computer and no longer have that annoying conflict that keeps me from printing and surfing at the same time.”

Boy, was I wrong. The VPN removal stalled out AND permanently conflicted the Internet connection – unless I boot up in safe mode. TMBWitW’s laptop works just fine on the same cable modem.

Friday evening the start/run capacitor on the house AC unit decided to join 27761N on vacation. I was driving cab, TMBWitW was spending time with MEG and our church family at the home of the Pastor, so didn’t know anything was wrong until she got home at 2130 and found the temp climbing. When I finished my 12 hour overnight shift, I fell into bed at about 0515 Saturday morning. MEG woke up at 0730, and TMBWitW got up to take care of her. She woke me up right after that to tell me the AC was STILL blowing hot air. $150 and five hours later, the issue was resolved. But, now I had to go to the cage on two hours of sleep and get in line to get in line for a cab for Saturday night. Friday had not been lucrative at all, and I was hoping I could make up for a little bit of that on Saturday. While I was waiting to get a cab, TMBWitW and MEG were with friends and church family at a BBQ and swim party. Saturday night was better for me, but still not as much as it has been in the past. Also, for the last week, the humidity levels have been bouncing everywhere and we had a little bit of rain Friday evening. I’m sure you all remember how that affects my body, plus, as a bonus, I have a sinus infection. Again. I did, however, get to spend about 45 minutes watching the fireworks show over Tempe Town Lake – I was in the East Valley most of the evening and spent a little time during the show (when no one was moving) playing spectator; once the show was over the streets were so jammed that it took me about an hour to get to a dispatched call that was only 3/4 of a mile from where I had sat for 45 minutes.

Sunday morning I got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep – which was an hour more than I needed if I wanted to get to church on time. I made it to church – but my body was hurting, my voice was not with me, and I must have looked like death warmed over, since everyone had a shocked look on their face when they saw me. TMBWitW and MEG overslept, too – I think we were all so exhausted that we slept through both alarms.

This morning I did some clean-up work at the church. My body was still not ready for hard labor, but it was stuff that needed to get done and I got it done. Now I can relax a bit and let my body recover and my sinuses unwind.

I hope your Fourth was patriotic and it reminded you why you are proud to be an American.

(quick note – the TEA party for my area was held on Friday at 1630, not the best time to get coverage since all the government offices were closed for the weekend and only mad dogs, englishmen and cab drivers were outside at that time…)

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Prayers to you all for a safe and joyous Fourth of July celebration.

A big THANK YOU to all my blog buddies who have served or are currently serving in order to make this celebration possible.

Drive safely – the life you save may be your friendly cab driver’s!

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Just a quick post while I do have connectivity that something on my computer is causing all kinds of havoc in the internet division right now. Can’t boot up in anything but SAFE mode if I want to use the internet, and in SAFE mode on the internet you aren’t. Great.

If I miss your comment, or don’t reply to an e-mail, that is why.

I could have told you this was going to happen – I just contracted with a guy to post his life-long collection of models and toys on eBay, for a nice contingency fee, so naturally the computer craps out and starts acting up on me.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

MEG and I took a little adventure this morning. We drove over to Christown Mall and hopped aboard the light rail for a trip downtown. When we got there, we walked over to TMBWitW’s office and took her out to lunch (Café Roma) and then rode the light rail back to Christown and drove home.

MEG was not impressed with the light rail (I call it a street car, for that is, in fact, what it is) and after the second stop she said “I’m done.”

On the way home, I managed to get a shot of this genius:

…just before Phoenix PD pulled him over. Gee, I wonder why he caught the cops attention? And, I sure hope he had a temporary license plate in plain view somewhere on that vehicle…

My friend Johnny T. Helms has written a piece (actually, he wrote it last Friday, the 26th) regarding the “Ugliest Freedom” that I think you need to read.

You also need to check out this video unless, of course, you lean to the left and have no concept of duty, honor, or courage.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!