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Drive a taxi. It's fun. Really.
July 06, 2004
blog get fonkay.
Blogspot has been acting quite strange for the past two days. I have no idea whether this post will make it up or when.
Anyway, here's most of the reason why I hate working Saturdays.
Blogspot has been acting quite strange for the past two days. I have no idea whether this post will make it up or when.
Anyway, here's most of the reason why I hate working Saturdays.
July 05, 2004
My stomach woke me up again. I think I hate everything. I'd hate you too if you were standing in front of me. Such is the glory of the web; I love everybody theoretically.
I've been ordered off my roommate's taxi for the remainder of his stay in the United States. He wishes to sell the taxi back to the broker for a tidy sum of cash once it is paid off. The tidy sum in question only applies if he fits the taxi under a 120,000 mile limit. So he will drive alone, make some money and jet. He recently realized that this job is futureless. His daughter is now 13 years old, he's seen her once in the past 3 years...
I'd wager that idea was driven deeper into him yesterday. He was following a small pickup truck southbound down Park Avenue. At 34th Street the pickup truck made a left, a turn which is illegal at all times, and is also a blind turn (you cannot see northbound traffic approaching). There was a taxi waiting for him, heading northbound. Taxi front left versus is what I'm guessing was the right front tire/suspension/axle assembly of the truck. The dynamics of the crash fell on the spectacular side of the spectrum; the truck did a pirouette back-flip onto its roof. Unbelievable at first hearing. And there was my roommate...who barely avoided getting crushed by it. The taxi driver got the worst of it. He was not conscious when the ambulance took him away. As for the occupants of the taxi, a 60-ish couple, they got lucky. This was a privately owned taxi. There was no partition in it. However, one of the two somehow sliced his head, probably on the license/rate card holder. The truck's occupants were somewhat okay, amazingly.
Traffic accidents are the number one way it ends for a lot of guys. I don't worry about the trigger-man. That's like some 1970s-80s shit people trip on. From Gabriel's description the taxi driver in this accident was a veteran owner-operator. He could not have avoided this accident; I know the intersection. It's best not to even travel through there if you can avoid it. But. There are three decent semi-standard reasons why the driver would be there. Grand Central drop, the 36th street Queens-Midtown Tunnel approach, or a drop somewhere between 34th and 42nd Street.
Some things, they just happen. You don't know why. You come back in one piece after a shift, you did good.
I will drive for Ann Service. Mother Ann will take me back. I'm going to run this in a non-standard way initially. I will start my shifts at about 8:30 pm (assuming there's a taxi available) and gradually float the start time backward into more standard territory. This is simply to avoid traffic; I am still quite unwell, but need money. I held myself off work for too long; I'll take whatever right now. I've even fashioned a schedule of sorts, running from July 5 to August 1, after which I'll reassess the situation.
I've been ordered off my roommate's taxi for the remainder of his stay in the United States. He wishes to sell the taxi back to the broker for a tidy sum of cash once it is paid off. The tidy sum in question only applies if he fits the taxi under a 120,000 mile limit. So he will drive alone, make some money and jet. He recently realized that this job is futureless. His daughter is now 13 years old, he's seen her once in the past 3 years...
I'd wager that idea was driven deeper into him yesterday. He was following a small pickup truck southbound down Park Avenue. At 34th Street the pickup truck made a left, a turn which is illegal at all times, and is also a blind turn (you cannot see northbound traffic approaching). There was a taxi waiting for him, heading northbound. Taxi front left versus is what I'm guessing was the right front tire/suspension/axle assembly of the truck. The dynamics of the crash fell on the spectacular side of the spectrum; the truck did a pirouette back-flip onto its roof. Unbelievable at first hearing. And there was my roommate...who barely avoided getting crushed by it. The taxi driver got the worst of it. He was not conscious when the ambulance took him away. As for the occupants of the taxi, a 60-ish couple, they got lucky. This was a privately owned taxi. There was no partition in it. However, one of the two somehow sliced his head, probably on the license/rate card holder. The truck's occupants were somewhat okay, amazingly.
Traffic accidents are the number one way it ends for a lot of guys. I don't worry about the trigger-man. That's like some 1970s-80s shit people trip on. From Gabriel's description the taxi driver in this accident was a veteran owner-operator. He could not have avoided this accident; I know the intersection. It's best not to even travel through there if you can avoid it. But. There are three decent semi-standard reasons why the driver would be there. Grand Central drop, the 36th street Queens-Midtown Tunnel approach, or a drop somewhere between 34th and 42nd Street.
Some things, they just happen. You don't know why. You come back in one piece after a shift, you did good.
I will drive for Ann Service. Mother Ann will take me back. I'm going to run this in a non-standard way initially. I will start my shifts at about 8:30 pm (assuming there's a taxi available) and gradually float the start time backward into more standard territory. This is simply to avoid traffic; I am still quite unwell, but need money. I held myself off work for too long; I'll take whatever right now. I've even fashioned a schedule of sorts, running from July 5 to August 1, after which I'll reassess the situation.
