2441 replies to this topic

[In the Corner]

NearWildHeather said:

Other than that, last night went okay. :rolleyes:

Today, on the other hand, I am sick. :mad:

Oh no!!!! You can't get sick!!!   :eek:

[biddy hencock]

I hope it's nothing serious. Any chance you'll be leaving work earlier today?

Eat some chicken soup, and get well soon.:)

[NearWildHeather]

Nope, I worked my whole shift. They were trying to take it easy on me, give me as much down time as possible, but it was just too damn busy last night. My temperature was about 101°. It's back to normal now; I just have the cough and fucked-up nose and extra back/neck pain now. Yay. :rolleyes:


It was raining last night like you wouldn't believe, especially between here and OKC. So of course, I had to make no less than four runs to OKC. I was going 40 mph on the interstate at several points, because I couldn't see more'n ten feet in front of me.


I finally found the Goldsby casino, only to be stood up there. I was also stood up twice on flooded streets (thankfully not too deep, although it looked pretty bad).


I took a guy from Nigeria to the hospital to retrieve a car his wife had left there. He told me he had never been driven anywhere by a woman before. I think it made him nervous, because he had me drop him off at the nearest parking lot and walked a really long way to the car. (And no, it wasn't my driving! :p )


One of the trips to OKC was to get a large party we had dropped off there earlier. I had to follow another cab, as there were about 10 people to pick up. The people in my cab were four chicks and a guy, all piss-drunk, and one of the girls could not seem to help herself from shouting everything she said, including her desperate need to go to the bathroom. So we stopped at a Denny's en route. The girls were going on and on about Chi Omegas; I presume they were in that house. I almost told them about how I was one briefly, then decided it was bad enough listening to them without being included in the conversation.


I picked up two guys and a chick and dropped off one of the guys before heading to OKC with the other two. The guy I dropped off made a joke:

'It's like a sore dick--you can't beat it.'

Har-har. Then he started talking about what would happen if you were to beat a sore dick, talking about pus and sores and such. The girl was totally grossed out and squealing for him to shut up, and I told him that if he made her vomit in my cab, I would charge him an additional fee. He said she wouldn't vomit, merely foam at the mouth. And then he coined the term
'dick rabies'.


Oh, and I had baked potato soup. Yum. :)

[In the Corner]

NearWildHeather said:

Nope, I worked my whole shift. They were trying to take it easy on me, give me as much down time as possible, but it was just too damn busy last night. My temperature was about 101°. It's back to normal now; I just have the cough and fucked-up nose and extra back/neck pain now. Yay. :rolleyes:


The girls were going on and on about Chi Omegas; I presume they were in that house. I almost told them about how I was one briefly, then decided it was bad enough listening to them without being included in the conversation.

You were?  That is sooo hard to imagine.

nearwildheather said:

'It's like a sore dick--you can't beat it.'

'dick rabies'.


Oh, and I had baked potato soup. Yum. :)

Oh dear.

[biddy hencock]

Well, good food for a change :) , gurreat conversation and wicked (Har-har, indeed!) entertainment. All in all, sounds like a pleasant evening, alright. Just keep your eyes on the road.

NearWildHeather said:

It's back to normal now; I just have the cough and fucked-up nose and extra back/neck pain now. Yay.

Glad to hear you're on the mend now. Well, are you? :rolleyes:

[NearWildHeather]

Actually, I know precisely who got me sick, and it wasn't a passenger. It was a friend of mine whose ass I shall kick soon. I think I'm getting better, but then I heard last night from one of his coworkers that he's still sick. And if he's still sick, and I got sick days after he did...*worry*


Today's episode has a title: Fright Night

I had just dropped off some folks at a sports bar north of the mall. I then headed south. As I was approaching the traffic light at Main St., right next to the mall, I started depressing the brake pedal. You have to slow down gradually in these big honkin' Lincolns, ya know.

Only nothing happened. And then I started to speed up, despite the fact that my foot was on the brake. I called it in, then pushed that brake pedal as hard as I could. That got it down to about 20 mph, so I turned into the mall parking lot. I then began going 'round in circles whilst trying to figure out how to stop the damn thing. I tried the emergency brake--nothing. Then I put it in neutral--at which point the engine revved up hard and began to smoke a bit--and turned the key to Off. Finally, I was stopped. They sent someone out with a different cab--the one I usually like to use, actually--and I continued the shift with that one.

As I stood outside the car waiting for him and bawling and shaking uncontrollably, mall security pulled up alongside me and told me that he had received a call about someone 'hot-rodding' in the parking lot. I said, 'Well, sir, that would be me, but I swear,
it was not intentional!'


Later on, I met a coworker on Campus Corner, and he said to me, 'You scared the shit out of us earlier.'
'YOU were scared?!?' was, of course, my reply. ;)


Then, after hours of down time, I had to take someone to the OKC airport at 5.30. I got turned around leaving the airport and ended up getting back to the office around 7.00. I did all my end-of-shift crap, and as I left, I commented that I was never again setting foot in the cab that tried to kill me. Some guy sitting there gave me the same lecture I got on my first day, when I called in concerned about some lights on my dash: these cars are driven a lot, blahblahblah. He said that if I got 'that attitude' I wouldn't have a job, because none of the cars were perfect. I told him that I understood that and that if the car had broken down, died, pretty much anything else, I would gladly drive it again. But it tried to fucking kill me; I don't think I'm being unreasonable! Come to find out, the guy used to own the company and is now just hanging around without any kind of authority whatsoever. Not only that, but he was the one who did the brakes on the killer car! Cocksucker... :mad:

[s2c]

Damn!  I hope you get a safer car next time, Heather.

[In the Corner]

NearWildHeather said:

Today's episode has a title: Fright Night

Oh, Heather, that is a very very scary story!!!!  They must provide you with a safe vehicle! Are they not aware that you will sue their asses off if a defective taxi harms you?

I had brakes go out once, while driving a rental car on Hawaii.  Scared the crud out of me, but at least the emergency brake worked so I was able to stop, on the side of a winding, cliffside road.

[bizaleth]

In the Corner said:

I had brakes go out once, while driving a rental car on Hawaii.  Scared the crud out of me, but at least the emergency brake worked so I was able to stop, on the side of a winding, cliffside road.

I had the brakes go out on my own car. In traffic. I had it towed to my mechanic, he fixed it on the spot, and I went to a local bar for happy hour and had a stiff drink.

[NearWildHeather]

bizaleth said:

I had the brakes go out on my own car. In traffic. I had it towed to my mechanic, he fixed it on the spot, and I went to a local bar for happy hour and had a stiff drink.

Okay, but what happened between your brakes going out and the towing? In other words, how did you stop?

If it had just been the brakes going out (talking about me again, I'm such a megalomaniac), then why was the car speeding up? Shouldn't it have been just...not slowing down? :confused:

[In the Corner]

NearWildHeather said:

the cab that tried to kill me

Isn't that the name of a Minus Five song?   :confused:

:p

[bizaleth]

NearWildHeather said:

Okay, but what happened between your brakes going out and the towing? In other words, how did you stop?

Well, it happened very slowly and I don't think I was going over 30 mph. I got lucky that I hit all green lights and was able to turn left to get to my parking lot. There is a slight hill (very small decline, really) when you turn to go to my place. I went down that and then coasted around the corner into my parking lot. By the time I got to my building I had slowed down enough that I stopped. It didn't phase me at all until after I left the mechanic's. Then I realized I need a drink. A big one.

[NearWildHeather]

On to happier things...

There are these British guys that stay in the Residence Inn where the boy works and go to a sports bar called Champions every night. The hotel runs a shuttle van until 9.00, so the boy has driven them several times, but after 9.00, it's all us (cabs). It was them, in fact, that I had just dropped off when the 'incident' happened last night. I received a call at nearly 3.00 to go get them from Champions. Oddly enough, they were still inside; I guess that's why they only go to Champions--it's the only place that won't kick them out promptly at 2.00.

Anyhoo...I dropped them off and had no calls waiting, so I was just sitting outside their room for a minute when one of them came out and saw me. I apprised him my situation, and he invited me in. Bear in mind, this is not a normal hotel room with just a bed and a toilet; these are places for people to stay for extended periods and include a living area, stove, fridge, etc. So I hung out with him and his Scottish friend for about an hour and a half until I got the airport call.

His Scottish friend had something interesting to say: his father is Iraqi, so his surname is Arabic-sounding. So of course, he gets stopped for extra security checks everytime he travels. He looks just as Scottish as he sounds, but because of his surname...I asked if he'd ever considered adopting his mother's maiden name to avoid the hassle, and he said no-fucking-way, that's letting the bastards win. Not sure which bastards he's referring to...

He also told me a story about the other night at the bar: he and his friends--two English and one Welsh--were at the bar, and someone made the expected mistake of asking them if they were all English. The Welshman, who almost never says a word, said (whilst pointing appropriately):

'English, English, Scottish, Welsh, and FUCK OFF!'

I laughed myself off the couch and into a coughing fit. :D



BTW, I broke down and started using the Discman, but I'll still appreciate and use the tapes, Luce. :o

And BTW Biz, you meant 'faze', not 'phase'. *ducks* [smooch]

[Lois]

In the Rain said:

Scary. I had this happen to me once in the old 1965 Jaguar S-type that we ran for 12 years as our family barge. I'd been charging down a long straight road near our house at around 90-100mph in the dark, but when I lifted off for the corner at the end it kept going... It is interesting how slowly it dawns on you that something is not right! I switched off the ignition, and it slowed up, then there was a huge bang from unburnt fuel in the exhausts! The accelerator pedal had got hooked behind a loose trim panel, so it was easily fixed - but definitely time for clean underwear! I had the reverse effect happen in a Triumph TR4 once when the throttle linkage broke while overtaking and SHUT the throttle...

Maybe I should stop running "classic" cars (i.e. old knackered ones).

Simon

I gave up on old cars when the garage took me for £400 to get it through the MOT , which was a sta(they saw a skirt and everything was wrong, even down to the number plate and that was a standard one!) 4 months later, I got in the car to go to work and the starter motor had snapped off at the bolts - that was £700 that day ( bought a new battery, had to upgrade my roadside assistance to get help outside my house and hire a car for a week.  A week later I took possession (thanks to a loan) of my very first brand new car -(still smoke in it though!)  the brakes are very good on the new one - so good, I still nearly break my neck sometimes, because they are so sensitive (7 months on)

[In the Corner]

NearWildHeather said:

BTW, I broke down and started using the Discman, but I'll still appreciate and use the tapes, Luce. :o

They are in the mail, Heather.  Hope they suit your fancy.  Some odds and ends, probably more odd than end.  :p

[NearWildHeather]

In the Corner said:

They are in the mail, Heather.  Hope they suit your fancy.  Some odds and ends, probably more odd than end.  :p

Brilliant! Then they'll remind me of you! ;) Seriously, you're too kind. Thanks again.

Corpie, I see you lurking there... :p

[In the Corner]

NearWildHeather said:

Brilliant! Then they'll remind me of you! ;) Seriously, you're too kind. Thanks again.

Corpie, I see you lurking there... :p

A lurking Corpy?  He's been awfully quiet today.