Glad to be healthy

My first fare was a harried waitress off to work on a big Friday night. She wasn’t too enthused but I think I convinced her it would be a profitable night. I drove down Market and got a family who needed to retrieve their towed car from Hall of Justice, I told them it happened to me twice and its all part of driving in the city. As I dropped them in front of a very busy 850 Bryant, an ill looking dude with a cane and a precarious sway wants a ride to Transbay terminal. He tells me he was waiting 4 hours on a line and there are no wheelchairs available for patrons like him who could really use some help. He says he’s in extreme pain all the time and moans a bunch even though I don’t need any convincing. He asks me if I think 160$ would be enough to get to Rock Springs, Wyo. I say it might be cheaper to take Amtrak but he insists on Greyhound. When we get there he asks me to help him to the greyhound counter because he doesn’t want to fall on the stairs and he’s already fainted once today. So I leave the cab unattended and proceed to help this poor soul up into the building. He can barely stand and he’s shaking and I am holding him up with my right arm. We take the escalator and he almost fell at the top. I finally get him to the queue and he’s exhausted and he tells me never to get AIDS “it hurts so much” and I really feel bad for this guy but I got to get back to my cab before I get a ticket and he’s closer to being in the kind arms of his sister back home in Wyoming so I leave him to his destiny.
At this point I am downtown at 4 in the afternoon and fares are everywhere. Financial district to Russian hill. Russian Hill to Fishermen’s Wharf. Pier 39 to the Hilton. The Hilton to Scoma’s. Scoma’s to Marriott. Marriott to Fairmont. Fairmont to Pier 39. On and on and on, same old shit.
At 8pm I get an old black lady at Popeye’s on Divisidero. She has to be close to 90 and she has a cane and a bunch of bags and needs help into front seat. She asked me, “They don’t let handicaps in the front seat no more?” She is going to Palou and 3rd to stay at her daughters’ house, who is out of town. She tells me she hopes the 49ers win the World Series. She is very nice and I have to unlock the front door of the house and carry all her bags in while holding her Popeye’s jumbo soda.
From then on it was a blur of drunk people going from restaurant to home to club to bar. North Beach to the Marina to the Mission to the Castro to the Wharf.
At 11pm I picked up this young black dude with dreads and a skateboard and he instructs me to take him to Jones and Hyde. Those don’t connect I tell him. Don’t tell him he tells me. “I got a girl who will suck me and fuck me all night so just go down the hill, I got the money, I got two thousand dollars”. So I drive to the bottom of Hyde and as he tries to get address on his cell phone proceeds to tell me left right up down now right left left right up and we’re going in circles and I tell him we got to figure out where we are going but he gives me a fifty dollar bill and tells me not to worry about it cause I’ll get paid and tipped well since I let him smoke. He finally gat through to what turns out to be a call-girl and we get the address and after 20 minutes of driving in circles he gives me the fare plus 2.30$ in tip. Conclusion: people who say they are going to tip you well: don’t.