Smellin' like a rose...

So, this week was the first week (thanks to bills and what not) I actually didn't make my Wednesday deadline to have my cab lease fully paid... it was an interesting predicament, but one I found expressed best by this old saying from George Carlin.

"The whole revolution is about values: what you'll do for 10 dollars, what you'll do with 10 dollars and so on..."

So, my primary worry was how much the late fees were going to be. I remembered my days as a day lease driver (I know, it's kind of strange to be nostalgic about something as "far back" as 6 weeks ago) and the fact that late fees were assessed at a rate of 5 dollars per HOUR had me genuinely thinking "holy craparoley! I'm going to get hammered if I don't do something about making up the difference."

Thanks to the folks at AT&T, I had to spend about 140 bucks to get a pre-paid cel phone from Verizon. BTW - my review of the Blitz is actually pretty solid. It's a strong phone with some very interesting capabilities.

To that end, I rolled out for a night shift Wednesday night... and met some very interesting people.

1.) I took some drunk asshole to a cabaret where he was spending the entire trip talking sex crap on his cel phone to his supposed "date."

2.) Met my first call girl and took her to her client. And, get this, she asks ME if I need "company sometime." That kind of company, sister, I don't need. Ever. And, get this... she only paid the fare. You'd think if you were charging lonely dicks a hundred bucks an hour to fuck you, you'd break a little off for the guy who's taking you to work.

3.) Finally, as things progressed into the "taking folks to work" part of the day, I had a nice gentleman call me to take him on a 27 dollar ride to work... which he paid for entirely in QUARTERS. =) Now that was hilarious.

As the morning progressed, I needed to make somewhere in the neighborhood of 220 dollars to settle things up. I had 160 when the call came over the terminal.

Code 5, See Licensee.

Time to march in and face the music.

I shrugged, and hauled my butt in. It was all well and good. In reality, between 11 that night and 9 in the morning, I'd only made 125 bucks and had to put 20 of it back in the tank. It seems that nights in Houston, while potentially profitable, have this certain element of putting up with the kind of people who, for want of a better word, are irritating because they have a demonstrable level of insecurity and/or being unable to handle their own business.

Notable passenger #1, for example, wouldn't shut the fuck up about wanting a "discount" because he supposedly waited a long time and was helping me navigate to his destination. When I told him that I wasn't charging him the one dollar night time surcharge, that pretty much put the damper on that conversation.

In any case, I rolled into the yard and asked what the damages were.

"How much are you paying?"

"$160, what do I do to get you the rest?"

"The late charges are $5 a day until you're caught up."

Oh?

A day... wow. And here I thought I was going to get blasted. Seriously.

So, after my nice long day, I rolled into the rack and zonked out until 5. Since then, I've decided a few things.

1.) I don't plan on working much past 9pm on most nights, especially not on weekdays. The kind of people who are out after that time on a weekday just turn my crank the wrong way.

2.) I realize that trying to break the day up into "profitable zones" and "unprofitable zones" is my own damned vanity, and there's always work somewhere in this town if I'm willing to go find it.

3.) Since that's really the case, the best scenario is for me to roll out at about 4 in the morning every day and work until I meet a specified income goal or until I've been out till 8 at night and shut it down so I can get about 6 hours crash time every night. The goal here is to reclaim my weekends.

There's nothing that says I can't get 1200 bucks a week and still have Saturday and Sunday off. It's just a matter of maximizing what I do. One of the reasons why I'm letting myself get discombobulated (to put it nicely) is the fact that I'm trying to do things other than my job during the weekdays. I can work in things like auditions and my Taping For the Blind recording time. Hell, I'm talking about putting 12 hours worth of work into an 18 hour day, right? Bottom line is if I can do the 12o0 a week from M-F, then having the weekend to decompress and do my other things, like using Sundays to just WRITE, would be a boon.

There will probably be another blog entry sometime detailing how that goes.

G


***********************************

Running out my ass
Batshit crazy
Am I ambitious
Or just plain lazy?

People filing their taxes
Got my 1099s
Do I run with the masses
Or just lose my mind?

BANANA WAGON MAN
What is yer goddamn plan?
BANANA WAGON MAN
Are you gonna take a stand?

It's plain to see
It's just my luck
Today was meant
To clearly suck

Pull the horse in the barn
And put my feet up
And pour an ice cold coke
In my coffee cup

BANANA WAGON MAN
What is yer goddamn plan?
BANANA WAGON MAN
Are you gonna take a stand?

The day's too long
For not enough cash
But it's only one day
And sleep comes fast

Hit that street
Rock that road
Grab some more people
And take another load

BANANA WAGON MAN
What is yer goddamn plan?
BANANA WAGON MAN
Are you gonna take a stand?