Debby does Tampa

Tropical storm Debby has been pounding the Tampa bay area hard for the last few days. She is a stationary storm with Tampa 200 miles east of the center of circulation. That is the ideal spot to be if you need rain, and lots of it.

Many of the roads in the area are underwater, and impassable by car. I am seeing trees down and debris flying around with strong wind gust. The worst part of it was Sunday, with most people going to work Monday morning like usual.

As a taxi driver you have to be extra careful. If you flood an engine, you just bought it. Remember, turn around, dont drown.

The Floridian Hotel Tampa

I hear they want the old Floridian hotel reopened by the RNC in August. They were working on remodeling it in 2008 before the economy collapsed. Then, it sat idle.

Its claims to fame are that it once was the tallest building in Florida and that Elvis stayed there in the 1950's.

Cheap gas

By using my Sunoco awards card every time I buy coffee or soda, I rack up savings. For example, you can earn 2-5 cents with every purchase. Today, I had over 50 cents and and bought gas for that much less per gallon. How do you beat that?
Since today was the first day of the summer blind kids program, the savings came in handy.
I now go nowhere but Sunoco - the cab drivers friend.

The price of gas when Obama because president

This image was taken before sunrise in 2009 the day Barack Obama was inaugurated. The price sign to the left shows gas in Tampa was $1.87 a gallon.

I know, you can't blame Obama for that. He's just the president of The United States. I have just as much power right. And everyone knows George Bush messed everything up.

Tampa Taxi Hack blog is launched

I got my account back at typepad, with their superior blogging technology. I lost the other account for reasons beyond my control. Believe me, this is a good thing.  The blog is WWW.tampataxihack.com check it out.

$5 Million in red light fines for Tampa

They said was for our safety and to reduce accidents. Sure, we all feel safer with the big brother cameras watching us.
The amount of revenue is staggering. Thats just millions less people will to spend in this poor economy because the local government has involved law enforcement in revenue generation.
What if everyone just told them to pack sand? What could they do? Suspend drivers licensees by the scores of thousands? This is just another way to screw with people and they are doing it hard.
How do they think people have this kind of money. A third of the people have not paid and I know why. They are struggling in this poor economy and can barely cover their basic expenses, much less this crap.
People who drive for a living are more vulnerable then others ..

Incident at the ATM

I had a pickup at Rocky Creek Mobile Home Park Sunday. This very nice old man wanted to go to the bank, then, to the Sweet Bay supermarket. It was the third of the month and his check was direct deposited into his account.  Cool. No problem. Not so fast.
He went to the ATM and seemed to be having trouble working the machine. I decided to wait, and give him a little more time to get his money out. Then a real fear set in. What if the deposit never made it in? What if he could not get his money? What do I do?
Do I leave an old man at the bank with no money knowing he could not walk back home? What if he got killed crossing the street? That would not be good. I decided to help him out. I got out of the taxi and went to his aid.
He simply just could not understand the touch screen. Face it, he grew up in a world were this stuff did not exist. It was just beyond his ability to comprehend. He got his money and we were on our way.
In case you were wondering, I would have taken him back home for free.

The big rains are here in Tampa

The Republican National Convention is scheduled to be in Tampa the last week of August. That may not work out so good. This part of Florida is at the peak of hurricane season.

We may not get a major storm but we do get torrents of rain in the afternoon. The drainage is not good here because we are at sea level and not a lot of places for the water to go.

Like yesterday, it could be impossible to get anywhere in this area. I really hope all the delegates make it to the convention on time.

You can call for cab 481 and I will come get you or email me. See you in August.