Sunday, November 26, 2006

Nothing to do with cabs - but

Daniel Craig is one great big hunk of sexy Bond! Casino Royale was great. Back to more of a Sean Connery Bond (how is that man still sexy as hell at his age is another question for another time) and not so much the dopey Roger Moore Bond (what WERE you people thinking in the 70s?).

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Happy Thanksgiving to All

Spending time with families, friends or doing it on your own, I hope all of you have a good Thanksgiving Day.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Am I Under Arrest?

Mad Cabbie has noted that I haven't been a good blogger lately, but that's only because I haven't had too many cab rides, or interesting ones at that - ok, except for the hostile woman this morning.

So I'll tell you about a cab ride from several years ago. I was going to Union Station (that's what made me think of it). So got in cab, regular nice cab, nothing unusual about it. We got all the way into Union Station when a police car started flashing its lights and sounding its siren at us. So the driver parked. Since I didn't have any outstanding warrants against me, I paid the driver and opened the door to get out of the cab and onto my train.

Policeman rushes up, SLAMS the door back, almost taking off a finger and barking "Stay inside" to me. Driver hasn't said a thing so far. Being the slightly curious type, and wondering if I'm going to be murdered by a psycho killer before the cop will let me out of the cab, I ask the driver if he knows what's going on.

Not a clue, he says. Minutes go by. And more minutes. My train departure time is getting closer and closer. Finally I roll down the window to stick my head out and mention that I don't want to miss my train. My head is less than 1" out the window when I hear, "Stay inside" yelled back at me. So I roll up the window and stay inside.

In the meantime, two other cop cars have joined our guy. Obviously this is a terrorist of great importance who is only pretending to be a cabbie before he can get his hands on an airplane. "Are you SURE you don't know what this is about?" I ask again. Nope, he says. No idea.

Finally, 20 minutes (YES, 20 MINUTES) later, the policeman comes up to talk to the cabbie (they wouldn't let him out of the car either) and tells him that his license plate matches the plate of someone they're looking for, but that they have figured out that his plate is real and he's ok.

Apparently so am I, because they decide to let me go too - and I sprint like made for my train, which is, of course, 30 minutes late LOL.

At least I got on the train.

And a Good Morning to You, Bitch

Geesh! -- Was in a cab this morning going from home to Union Station for a quick trip to Willmington. Got in cab, all is well. He's one of those drivers who liked to stop for 2nd fares, no problem, I wasn't running horribly late. Stopped for one guy, but he was going to Georgetown. Stopped for a woman down the road. Driver opened window and asked where she was going. "National Airport" she said. "Sorry, going to Union Station already," the driver responded.

What did the woman say then? "ok, thanks anyhow?" or "darn" or "curse my luck?" Nope, she said, quite loudly, "Fuck You."

Nice.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

So THAT'S where all the cabs are!

Another cab insight from Susan (she has a bad knee and takes cabs pretty regularly - I keep telling her she should get her own blog going).

She called for a cab the other morning to get to work. Waited and waited. She tried to get one on the street after a bit, but no cabs were going by. When the cab showed up, there were 2 guys in it already. All had called for a cab and the company was putting everybody in one cab because they didn't have very many. Ok, fine, everybody is finally in the cab and going. They pass people trying to hail a cab all the way down the street.

The stop for passenger #1 - a large hotel. When the cab pulls up to let the guy out, she notices a line of over a dozen cabs sitting and waiting at the hotel. So instead of getting out and actually getting paying passengers that are waiting, these guys are sitting on their butts hoping that somebody wants to leave the hotel at 8am. Who leaves the hotel then? If you're in town for a conference or meeting, you stay at the hotel of the conference. They're all sitting around waiting for that one magical Dulles right? They need to read mad cabbies rules & tips.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

You Can't Take Me Anywhere

Our company has been working with a NYC group on a project and we've had to go up there a couple of times in the last few weeks. Today we were all meeting with a 3rd group in Connecticut. So, instead of just getting a cab at the airport in NYC, we were told that we'd be met by a driver & limo.

A limo! I'd never been in a limo before. Or had a guy standing at the exit with our name on a board. It was right out of the movies.

So we went outside with the driver, and he was moving between a couple of cars, leading us to our limo. He turned towards this nice long (not Hollywood long, but long) limo and I figured, "that's ours," and opened the door and got in. Well I was sitting there waiting and there was a driver already in the car, so I said where we were going, and he looked very confused.

I looked around and noticed that our driver and my boss weren't getting in the limo.

Yup, I had gotten in the wrong car! Our "limo" was a regular car on the other side of the limo.

I was sooooooooo embarassed!

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Shut Up 311!

Too much fun on a cab this morning, I had to share. I took a cab to the airport today (up to NYC for a meeting, back now). And made notes on it so I wouldn't forget to write it up when I got back into DC.

Diamond cab (surely not our Mad Cabbie, though) #311 was apparently driving the dispatcher nuts. Since all we got was the dispatcher's side of things, that's all I can share, but was amusing.

Dispatcher:
"What's that 311?"
--
"What do you WANT 311?"
--
"SHUT UP 311!!!!!" (dispatcher just shouting now)
--
[A minute or two of directions and chat with other drivers]
--
"311, all I can hear from you is 'airport, need soon.' What are you doing in Virginia? You're supposed to be in Georgetown?"
--
"311 I can't hear a thing you're saying"
--
"SHUT UP 311!"
--
[A few more discussions with other drivers]
--
"311 will you get off the air!"