A Day Driving

When people ask me about what it’s like to drive a taxi, I have to say the fares all blur together and offer some generalities. So yesterday, using voice-activated emails, I sent myself notes after each fare. Little did I know that it would be such an eventful day!

1.      Young Latina woman going to work in accounting at Yellow Cab.  Has worked there three weeks. Likes it's okay so far.

2.      Young woman, head scientist for stem cell bank. Loves her job. Important work. Going to a conference at Moscone Center. Good conversation about the Presidential campaigns. We were very much on the same wavelength.

3.      Young woman event planner. Less than enthusiastic about going to work. Not very talkative.

4.      Young Latina going to get her passport renewed. Headed to Guadalajara for vacation and in one week. Not very talkative

5.      Young woman having a scattered day. Lost her sunglasses. After hearing NPR report on the Democratic occupation of the House floor, I asked, “Did you hear that?” “No.” As I told her, I choked up with tears, overcome with emotion. She was also excited about it and told me  about a great New Yorker article on gun control, “Making a Killing.”

6.      An ex-convict who was displaced from his apartment by a fire. Does not like the homeless shelter. After living in a cell for decades he doesn't like crowds. Expects to get his apartment back 2 years after the renovation. Complained vociferously about Department of Corrections not doing rehabilitation but just warehousing people.

7.      Elderly Latina with walker and a caregiver going from Senior Center to her house.

8.      Young black woman bookkeeper for the LGBT community center. Give me a report on what she heard on TV about the sit-in. Likes her job.

Passing by the Asian Art Museum, I stopped to take this photo of a sculpture out front, “Dragon Fortune.”

9.      Middle-aged man going to Medical Center for a colonoscopy. We discussed MRIs. I told him that during mine, I kept telling myself, “John Cage would love this.”

10.   Young black woman with cane. Short trip to get a haircut

11.   60 year old advertising woman. I mentioned the sit-in and she said, “Yahoo.” We discussed gun control politics along the way.

12.   Visiting software engineer. I asked him, “Is Trump actually going to get the nomination?” H replied, “Good question.”

13.   Elderly Chinese women and family from Chinatown to the Richmond.

14.   Young visiting Russian woman and her parents.

15.   Two men from Sageway to the Tenderloin. Not very talkative.

16.   Two Germans from one Holiday Inn to another.

17.   Two Brits to Palace of Fine Arts.

18.   Young woman going to Starbucks so she could have an hour long online conversation.

Driving through Fisherman’s Wharf, I took this photo of Benny Bufano’s St. Francis of Assisi sculpture with Coit Tower and the Pyramid in the background.

19.   Middle-aged couple from Maui from North Beach to Fisherman's Wharf

20.  Two young Italians from Fisherman's Wharf to Japanese Tea Garden. I asked what Italians think about their Pope. “We love him. It was hard to like a German Pope.” I replied, “Especially when he was a stereotypical German.” As they left the cab, I said, “Thank you for the Pope.”