...a strange, but fruitful day.
For the first time since I started driving for Houston Yellow, I was actually in danger of not making my lease. Part of this had to do with the fact that I let myself run out of my prescription arthritis medication. The other part was after Thursday came and went, I forced myself to work Friday in the Bay Area exclusively and I paid the price for being a little too arrogant about that. Namely, that I thought the work was going to show up. So, for those two days, I barely eked out 140 bucks. Spending about 20 bucks each of those days for gas made it an even hundred. Not that good. I tried to make up for it by running hard on Saturday.
As I mentioned before, the story about the couple who almost got hauled off to jail finishing my night with the miracle landing at the La Quinta, Saturday wasn't that profitable. 24 hours to make 280, minus the cost of gas... and, oh by the way, feeding myself... the margin just wasn't happening. Needless to say, after the 24 hour Saturday, Sunday was a write-off.
Monday got off to what was going to be a promising start. I got a call to run into Katy to take someone to Bush - a 77 dollar flat-rate trip. However, as I zoomed down Barker-Cypress. I think I already blogged about this, so it's sufficient to say that I had to get towed back to Yellow to get my alternator replaced. Cab no runny when it has no power. Hilarious... it didn't even have enough juice to get off the wrecker and into the shop.
Anyway, so I tried to make another one of those legendary Monday night shifts that I had a couple weeks ago. It didn't happen. 70 bucks, and I had to stick 20 back in the tank. Good news is that I helped some Metro Life people who weren't going to get a cab otherwise, so I at least considered it a good night in terms of karma. However, I spent probably the most profitable part of Tuesday crashed out because I thought I was going to potentially profit from this city's tendency to part its ass off on Monday nights... forgetting, perhaps, that we're a little partied out from 4 weeks of the Rodeo. And finally, I rolled out on Tuesday afternoon after an audition (what, an audition? Yeah, really!) and saw the night die off quickly and I said to myself...
"Self, you're working against all the good advice and experience you've been getting. Shut it the fuck down for the night and hit it fresh in the morning."
So, I did.
Today, I started 180 dollars away from making my lease. Normally, after bills and what not, I'd be maybe 40 or 50... this was the largest gap ever. So, I simply asked Providence for a little help. I crashed out and asked, as humbly as I could...
Folks, I need my head clear and receptive for tomorrow so we can make this work. Let's go make this money, get shit paid and move forward and get a full week's work in.
And, we did.
I started with a 60 dollar trip from Katy to the Medical Center (sound familiar?). And, from there, there was no let up. I had to have done 10 MSP trips, plus little bits of cash here and there. I needed 180, and I made 210 in 7 hours. When I let the karma flow freely, good things like that happen. When I force it, I make pocket change.
This was a good thing, because - lost in my requests for clarity from the Universe at large - I kind of forgot to take my arthritis medication this morning. This meant that as the day progressed, I got worse and worse and I was staggering worse than some of my MSP patients. I kept promising myself that I was going to go home and take some damn pills, but I was never quite comfortable with what I had on me until about 2 in the afternoon. At that point, I knew the shop was going to start code-5ing people who hadn't made their lease money by 3, and I hauled ass back to the shop.
And, as predicted, I got it all in - with 5 minutes, and 30 bucks to spare. I limped, literally, across the finish line. I drove through the Wendy's at the Pilot truck stop, scored a big chicken sandwich, came home, swallowed my pills and I'm waiting for them to work as we speak. It's been about 2 hours and I can already feel my left knee starting to loosen up. It's no surprise, given the migratory nature of my arthritis, that it's been settling in my left leg more and more because it's the one I don't use when I drive. The solution, which I hope to implement as early as tomorrow, is to give myself about an hour to just walk around every day like I did when I was doing security a couple of months back.
Looking back, there seems to be no particular day in which I can have a contiguous 12 hour adventure and make the right money - unless it happens to be a total miracle flip the script day like today where I actually made my money in less than 8 hours. The best times to work seem to be what was indicated by the folks at Yellow - morning commute with a midday break followed by evening commute. The midday break needs to be where I get my exercise, do my writing, and so on. That seems to be the formula.
Also, today is proof that I can do better at the money-generating part if I let certain things just FLOW. No pushing, no forcing things, just letting the cab tell me where to go and going there.
Interestingly, there were some other things that didn't go as planned - and I can laugh about them now that I have my traction under me again, so to speak.
Monday night, I got scooped bad for the first time. I got dispatched to another one of these jobs in Katy. Another cab, obviously a guy more familiar with the area and who knows of the customers, swoops in front of me, drives like a jackass and gets to the house before I do. The customer, not knowing any better (and who's probably familiar with the driver) gets in his cab and they go. I reported him and his cab number to the folks at customer service today. The only thing that could possibly save him is if he was double-dispatched to the same call, and either way, the company should reimburse me the full fare for what he took.
I like to think I have a more "zen" approach to this - the fact that I was able to tune out the BS and go make my money today is proof - but there is no excuse for scooping someone else's dispatch call. I drove all the way from Westheimer and the Beltway to get that call and I came up empty-handed.
Fuck you. scumbag, I hope your contract get cancelled. Go drive for a company that lets the scavengers in this business work. There... that's zen in action for you.
Also, on the list of people who need to be reported to their bosses is the guy who delivered the new cel phone for my business line today. I find the UPS slip on the door and he has the following boxes checked:
BACK DOOR
PORCH
PATIO
I have no patio or back door, and there's nothing on the porch. I hobble my busted leg over to the office and see if the driver delivered my package there. No dice. And suddenly, it dawns on me... I do have a second floor balcony on my split level loft. Sure enough, 10 feet up from the ground, there's my box from UPS with my LG Envision cel phone.
The dumb son of a bitch threw my cel phone TEN FEET IN THE FUCKING AIR and hoped it would have a soft landing on my balcony.
Good news is, I've charged it. It works. However, to say I'm pissed off about this is putting it mildly. What kind of ignorant ass just does that to a piece of electronic equipment like that? I know, I know... a UPS driver. Still, they're going to get an earful this morning as I press on. It'll be another 5am to whenever affair.
Needless to say, the good far outstripped the bad today, but I had to vent about the bad a little.
Hasta la pasta...
G
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