This story starts with a ping to go pick up ‘Steve’, he has his profile picture set and his address is only a few minutes away from my current location. (FYI people; if you use Uber or Lyft please set your profile picture, it really helps us out.)
I see from his profile he is an older gentleman with this sly little smile on him, cool lets roll! I arrive at his address, very up scale gated community. He come out and he is dressed to kill; black three piece suite, purple stripped tie and a black shirt. I first thought he might be heading to a funeral but I was wrong, just a benefit dinner for blah blah and blah.
Right off the bat if found out he is a talker. I get a read on people as they get in my car: Talkers, Mutes, Workaholics, Drunks, or the ‘Dear God I Hope This Ride is Over Soon’. I have one other one: ‘Invisible Driver’. This one needed a little more explanation. These are the riders that act like I am not even there and talk to each other about some of the most interesting things. Like the time I got these three Bros that were making plans to buy steroids to get jacked for their Halloween party in Vegas and step by step plans on how there were going to get the cocaine……Hey, dudes….you might not want to put that type of info on blast. Just saying….
So, Steve goes on to tell me that he is 86 and just had his drivers licenses taken form him. He said he has a nice BMW that he needs to sell, he said it is not that big of deal. He does not really go out much and its never very far when he does, but he said and I quote:
‘The said that my fainting spells behind the wheel was the main factor to why I should not be driving. But that is what makes life so interesting and exciting.’
He said this with a straight face, then the smile came out and he laughed it off. This was going to be one of those fun rides! He went on to tell me that he was a teacher back in the 60’s but was not making the money he needed to raise his family. It seems teachers salaries have always been on the fuzzy end of the lollipop!
He opened up a swim school, which he said was his money maker. The swimming business did very well for him and he even handed the business over to his son, who to this day is still running it. He then leans over and says this:
‘Want to hear something funny? I don’t know how to swim! I can teach someone how but throw my ass in a lake and I am done for! Swimming in a pool that you can stop and stand up in is one thing, but being in an environment where you cannot do that…..count me out.’
I just about spit laughing when he told me this, but then I thought about the person who taught me how to swim. It was when I worked at Bally’s Gym as the juice bar guy. The swim instructor would come and I would give her the hook up on the protein, and she hooked me up with some lessons. And come to think of it, I never once saw her in the pool! She did all the water aerobic classes, adult swim classes and so on, but not once did she get wet! I bet she was the same way! The pool was only about four feet deep so if she had to jump in to save someone, swimming would not really been necessary haha!
As our trip continued our conversation went on about all the usual things, and came to an end when I dropped him off at this high-end members only type of golf course. My car was the only one there that was not in the $100,000 range…..well excuse my KIA!
I dropped off Steve and went on my way, these are the type of rides I hope for. I hope the best for Steve and pray that he is never surprised by a deep body of water anytime soon.
I will end this post a little different, I love sharing pictures so I will end this post with one from about 18 years ago. I always end my post with the words: Journal often, journal more and take pictures of everything. I say this because time moves way too fast and I love the fact I have my journals and pictures to look back on. 18 years ago I married my best friend and by no means does it feel like 18 years!
