end shift (mid shift continued)

After that mid shift blog post on Saturday things didn't go as smoothly as I thought. There were positives, it was the middle of the day, or late morning, so not too many people were sleepy anymore, though there was a couple from Germany who flagged me down and went a few blocks in the Lower East Side, they seemed kinda out of it, a bit tipsy like they were coming off booze or other drugs, and that was strange being it was then approaching mid-day; they behaved themselves. Also, it wasn't raining buckets anymore so I didn't have to deal with floods.

Still it just didn't work out financially as well as I'd hoped. I felt that there was a pretty good amount of demand for taxis, but it just wasn't extremely profitable for some odd reason. There were a few hours with nobody though, and that isn't good when you have such a high premium for the lease and the gas. 

The real cap on the day though was when I pulled up across from the Downtown Marriot. There was no line, so I figured I'd wait. I pulled to the side of 12th Avenue, a.k.a. The West Side Highway, when another empty taxi pulled up next to me and stops right there! The nerve, as if he couldn't wait behind me! And he was unnecessarily blocking a somewhat functional lane! Infuriating! 

If I had a cooler head I would have brought it to his attention that I too was waiting for a fare, I assumed he knew this already. I mean why the hell would I be there? I dunno, maybe I was waiting for the bus, in my taxicab, yeah.

I didn't want any confrontation and my shift had only 45 minutes left, so I pulled out in front of him over the curb and out to head back to the garage and call it a day. Only my tire didn't withstand my rage, I never saw a tire so flat before, damn I killed it!! So I had to wait for my friendly attendant at the garage to drive over and bail me out again with a tire change, how agonizing, and embarrassing.

And that's how my shift ended. I believe I was driving the same cab 3 weeks ago when I tackled a big glass bottle with that same tire. The bottle shattered into a thousand chunks, exploding so loudly it echoed through the whole block. The chunks of glass flew up and then came down upon the car like a biblical plague. It was astonishing that 3 weeks ago the tire didn't deflate, but this time the damaged tire couldn't take anymore punishment. When I got my 1st flat about a year ago I documented a little more: here.

Like so many weekends this summer, the Sunday felt like a cake walk in comparison.

BTW, the West Indian parade I told you about on Saturday was actually on Monday, sorry for that misinformation.