blood and oil

After attending the Green Festival and hearing all about bio diesel and conservation, I head out in my 11MPG Ford Crown Victoria to make a few bucks. My first fare took me a while to find because traffic was bad near the approach to the Bay Bridge. A woman with a large bouquet of flowers wants to go to the inner Richmond district. In order to avoid a complete standstill on Howard, I take a left on 5th and then a fast turn down Shipley alley where I hit the curb on the turn and pop my tire…fzzzzzz… the women gets out and walks away and I am left with a dirty flat tire and an incomplete jack stand. I have to wait 15 minutes for another cabbie to drop off a tire iron. I go to work, and in the process pinch a chunk out of my hand. I have got blood mixing with grease and I am having trouble getting the lug nuts off. Twenty minutes later I am finished and after being on the clock for over an hour, I have yet to make a penny. Resolved to make this night work I get a fare at the new St. Regis. This old couple is well dressed and not going far: the Palace hotel. Traffic is hell all night, the 1st onramp is closed and every driver who refuses to deviate from the coarse sits blindly in unmoving gridlock for a ramp that is completely shut down. These same people like to block the intersection so cross traffic can’t proceed. I bust about and all I’m coming up with is 4 block fares. Finally I get two gays guys going from the Mark Hopkins to the airport. An easy $40 and I head downstairs for the cab queue. Soon enough I am headed to San Mateo for a quick drop in the quiet suburbs. I make it back in less then a half hour, giving me a short and putting me in front of the queue. The next fare is a guy back from London going to 21st and Florida and I turn that into a short. Another short to Burlingame, another to S. Airport blvd.; and finally I get 2 woman back from vacation in Mexico going to the Western Addition. Now I am back in the city after a 3-hour hiatus. Everyone is going to the new hot spot, the Supper Club. This drunken guy going to the Marina tells me how he opened the door in another cab and a bus took the door off and then he ran away when the cabbie started yelling at him. Another drunk guy had me take him to his apartment near the pet cemetery in the Presidio. On way back in I got lost and almost busted by park police for a rolling stop near Crissy field. I end my night with a ride from Ruby Skye to Holiday inn with two young woman who are gorgeous.