The Jungle Prada

Panfilo De Narvaez landed in Florida on April 15, 1528. From the site of this ancient indian village was launched the first exploration by the white man of the North American continen

The cold front moved into Tampa

Yes Larry, I am headed west! When you get morning rains in central Florida this time of year, it means a cold front is moving through. Good. Today is nice and coil and the high won't even get out of the sixties.  I would go on a hike and enjoy the outdoors if I was not so far behind with my finances. Its March and I'm broke. That is no fun and I can only wonder what the summer will bring.

Me in holding at airport

This was me earlier today in holding. I just got in from a 16 hour day and will do it again Tomorrow. I am way behind and we have business right now. March is a very busy month.

A cheap motel, a white tee shirt, and a twenty dollar bill

What a cab driver will do to make a living is beyond what most people can handle or comprehend. One thing we do is go into very bad areas of town and pretend it is normal. At least I still think it is normal. Like the Pakistani store owner who sells smokes, beer, lotto tickets and blunts to the people who walk in his door while all the time hoping he doesn't get shot, you begin to think this is normal. I got this call about 4 in the morning today. Things got a little weird. Not to bad, but not what I was expecting.

It was the Downtowner Motel, one of Tampa's swankier joints. Its the kind of place that has "weekly rentals" and calls them apartments; imaine what kind of crowd that will draw. The dude was on the balcony and very anxious to get going, a clear sign that someone wants to buy drugs. I guess his buzz has worn off and he needs to get more. He and some chic with sunken cheeks and a glazed stare get in the backseat. They seem to have a bunch of nervous energy.

After we bound around from one hotel to a back street this black dude on a bike with a white tee shirt does a "fly-by" of the cab; he is trying to determine if he has a customer. My fare tells me the black dude is a friend of his that he owes money. People will tell us anything, it is their boss, their cousin, whatever, he wasn't even being original. I tell him fine, but "get out and do whatever you need to do outside my cab." I tell him. He complies and after about one minute, he returns looking happy. I end taking them back, no big deal.

What bothers me about these people is they think they are slick. They are not fooling anyone; we know what is up. Eventually, they cab drivers will stop responding to the call. However, in today's climate and the need to make money, many drivers will take the call. It is amazing how desperate you can get for a twenty dollar bill.

Incident with a skater chick

I was pulling out of a motel parking lot about four this morning. I look to the left and wait for car to pass. I look to the left...I then start to pull out. There are no cars coming. This is one of the few times on Kennedy blvd that there are not tons of cars and you wait twenty minutes to just make a right. I take my foot off the brake and begin to press the gas. I am now turning my head to the right and there are no cars coming in any direction. All of a sudden my headlights catch the image of a girl on skates streaking in a diagonal directly in front of me...impact is in seconds! No way out of this. I am going to ground this chick into hamburger! I yank the wheel to the left almost flipping the van. I was not going fast. I had just got started but enough to fuck this girls day all to hell.

She just Misses the van and flips me the bird as she goes by. WTF! She is on skates in the middle of the night and crossing like a man person against night traffic and she flips me the bird. She's lucky they did not have to get out the scraper to peal her off the road. THAT would have fucked my day up and perhaps my life. I don't need that, today, or any day. Damn. My heart was racing.

She was gone. I stoppedthe van. Looked around and she was gone. Just like that it was quit and I was wondering if it really happened. I mean, I did not have my morning coffee yet. Perhaps it was a mirage. Yes, that's what it was. I thought I saw something.

I am not out here to kill people. In all the years I have been doing this, I have never even been in a fender bender. OK, one little one years ago a bump-bump in a parking lot. But man I was scared today. The bird? She gave me the bird. Man.

OUT OF GAS!

I ran out of gas at Hilsborough and the Veterans. With the high cost of gas, you don't get much mileage for the ten bucks I'm used to spending at the pump. My cab buddy Tom is coming to help. He has a gas can wirh him. Sorry, I just don't have the $80 it would take to fill up.

Las Vegas taxi strike impact

I worked for Bill Shranko twenty years ago when he managed Whittlesea Blue Hendeson cab of Las Vegas. He was a drivers manager and often held seminars on how to make money driving cab in Las Vegas. He encouraged drivers to success. I liked the guy and thought he was fair. His concern is limited, however.

Yellow cab of Vegas is benefiting from a commission that has over licensed in a bad economy. Bill, if you need a new driver I know Vegas like the back if my hand. I know you remember me...Tim Fasano

This is from the local paper.

"The chief operating officer of Las Vegas' second-largest taxicab company acknowledges striking drivers are affecting his operations.

Bill Shranko says Yellow-Checker-Star Transportation was only able to fill two-thirds of its 600 cabs the first shift after the strike took effect early Sunday.

Nevada Taxicab Authority spokeswoman Teri Williams didn't immediately respond to messages seeking comment on the strike's overall effect on Las Vegas.

The chief negotiator for the union representing drivers says the main sticking points are over pay and working conditions.

Paul Bohelski says about 1,400 of the company's 1,700 drivers are union members and over 1,000 of them are participating in the strike.

Last month, the company unilaterally implemented a contract rejected by 70 percent of members of Industrial Technical Professional Employees Union Local 4873.

Signs of economic recovery in Tampa

I am begining to see construction jobs like this throughout Tampa. That's a sure sing of an emerging economy. When I tell you in the last five years there have been none, I mean none.

I drive all over The Tampa Bay area and has not been so much as a porch remodeling job. Construction means jobs in the buildilng trades. The only way to stimulate the economy is to put men back to work. It creates a better dynamic then simply unemployment insurance. let's hope we can build momentum.

This project by the way are condominiums near downtown. You can see downtown shrouded in the fog. Fog is normal in February here.

Job Security?

I went to post up this morning at 5:09 AM and was blocked. The message said "see Rob and Paul." That is a scarry message to get. Rob is the general manager of the company and all I can do now is wait for daylight and management to show up.

This could all be an oversight or error. I don't want to jump to a hasty conclusion when U don't know anything.

I do owe the company money because of poor economic conditions. I have been making inroads and have paid on that ($200 Monday). I just have no idea at this point. I hope I am not fired after 18 years of service.

Late night and Jack Shacks

One of the things you can count on if you work late night is guys wanting a sure thing. It is getting late and they have not hooked up, so they are ready to be taken. In short, they get very, very stupid.
I had a call at a Tavern about 2 AM and this guy from out of town wanted to get laid in the worse way. At this point, he was ready to pay for it. If you want to pay for sex in Tampa, you have come to the right town. This area is loaded with everything from strip clubs modeled after petting zoos, old fashion bordellos, all the way to cheap peep shows. What ever you want.
 He was counting on me to show him where the action was at. That is one thing taxi drivers are good for, finding where all the vice is at for the clients we are hoping will actually give us a tip for accommodating their illegal activities. We can be a live version of NightMoves magazine published in the Tampa Bay area that detail where all those kind of places are at.
I have had fares not really want to go to a whore house. I have had them want me to troll up and down a dark street to see if a working girl is out. I have done that in the past but I will not do that again. There are sting operations going on and a night in jail and loosing my job is not in the plan.
I took this guy to one of our famous Japanese spas where he could always count on a hand job for 150 bucks. He went inside to ask about the prices, I guess. He came out and decided to go back to his motel room. Good choice.
You can tell when fares have money to spend. It is just a sense you develop over time. This guy was a low roller aspiring to move up the chain. Big deal, right? Those girls will take your money no matter where you are at on the pecking order.
He paid me fifteen bucks for a foreteen dollar fare. He needs to work on that high roller thing.