Oh What A Night

It started out like any typical boring Monday night. The Sens were playing and I got called in because the regular driver was sick and I wish I could be in front of the TV instead of here, but here I am anyways.

The streets were deserted because of the game most of the early evening and I just puttered about watching the game on the computer in the stand and doing the occassional call. I was in the stand at the end of the game when the dispatcher gave me a call to pick up out of town and come back, but midway through that call, I received another to go to another town to a bar and pick up a couple of gentlemen going home.

I arrived there just short of my estimated time and they were just finishing up a couple of beers and were pretty well swacked. Easy run I thought to myself.. little did I know it would turn into a slight adventure.

We headed out of this small town on a tight dirt road (in the wintertime it is all but closed at certain points) and I was carefull for two reasons, ground fog and little critters. Just as we arrived at our destination, they informed me that they forgot something at the other friends place. I politely asked where that was and they told me where it was.

After a quick consultation with the dispatcher I asked for half the fare up front and then we would continue. They both started chuckling and said no probs - we will take care of you. They handed me the money and we continued on our journey.

We arrived at the second gentleman's house and my jaw hit the ground. His house stood on a lot as big as most school grounds. He then opened his garage door to get what we came here for and there was a magnificant Ferrari. He asked me to come take a look, which I did with zest, though I never got within 2 feet of it for fear of my breathing would scratch it.

Well after a bit we continued on our journey back to our original destination. Being in the early morning at that time and both were a bit "tipsy" they proceeded to sing songs from down eastern Canada way. They serenaded me the whole way back. I put the window down a bit, so my hearing would still be intact, but told them it was because I really enjoy fresh air.

We arrived back at our destination and sure to their word, they took care of me. Paid the final half of the trip and a nice tip to boot. I will take these gentlemen anywhere, anytime.

It made up for the fact that the Sens lost and Imissed most of the game.

Oh Deer

It was an uneventful evening, the usual in this business sometimes, when I was looking forward to the end of the night shift. It was a nice spring morning, the wind was calm and all looked like it was going to be a nice day afterwards. Not that I would know; after 12 hours driving the only thing I would be seeing is the inside of my eyelids for the next little while. I received a call from our dispatcher just near the end of the shift to take some people out of town and into a slight rural setting; it was your typical milk run, or so I thought. As I made my way down one of the rural back roads, I noticed a heard of deer in one of the fields. Going by, I lost count after about 40 or so; so I edged along slowly because you never know when they might deceide to cross the road. I passed them without incident, dropped my passengers off and proceeded to head back to the stand to end my day going back the same route. Just as approached the field, one of them took off and then jumped my vehicle. I must admit it scared the living daylights out of me. After the shock wore off, I went directly to the stand, grabbed a flashlight (daylight was not yet upon us) told another driver... "You, outside, check car for hoofprints", which is all I mustered. My collegue had a puzzled look on his face when I said this and the followed me. I was outside with the light, checking over the hood of the car looking for any signs of hoofprints on the hood. I found none! When asked what I was doing, I told all my little encounter with the Bambis (slang for deer) and was startled to see one leap a car. I was informed that this was normal and that they could jump a mini-van with no problems. Of course they asked how close it was to the car and I said that it was so close to the windshield that I could tell you the sex of it, it was that close. Of course they all had a good laugh.. at my expense. Well I cashed out, went home and tried to sleep, but all I could think of was deer jumping around my car. It is funny now to think about it, but at the time I really thought it was going to come into my car.

New

I am new at this blogging, so please bear with me while I do this. A collegue of mine suggested I do as he does, write about his experiences as a cabbie and what it is like.. so here it goes. After many years of being a small town cabbie in the Ottawa Valley, you get to see some quite amazing things and people over the years. There have been frustrations, tears, laughter and some plain ordinary fun going on and that is with other collegues as well as passengers. I guess you could almost compare this to some big city show, but I doubt that there is as much jocularity as there is here. First of all a couple of staff have interesting phobias like spiders and bats. These drive them just up the wall... of course once we found out, the pranks began. Then, with the dispatchers, there is the wildlife that roams town; raccoons, muscrats, cats and especially deer and skunks. One cannot immagine what it is like to sit in the office and be staring out the door at 3:00 am and see a skunk waddling up to your door; needless to say you act quite quickly to shut the door before Pepe gets inside. Of course when other drivers are encouraging the little charmer, it really makes for some fun. Deer are interesting, especially for those who have never seen them up close. I have had numerous encounters with them but only one was unpleasant. I hit one one morning as I was taking two customers to the airport, though I never saw the actually body, I assumed it was dead. I hate killing animals and it was not my first roadkill either. My count is as follows: 2 skunk, 2 squirrels, 1 raccoon, 1 bird, 1 chipmunk, 1 rabbit, 1 fisher and (unfortunately) 1 cat. It leaves me with a heavy heart when it happens and I know they were all accidents, but it does not make me feel any better. Well this is my first blog and if all goes well it will not be my last. I hope you enjoyed this.