Hi everyone, sorry I have been inactive the last few days I have been under the weather.

I would like to thank my good buddy Larry, first for fixing my screw up I tried to let more posts per page and ended up knocking off the comments link. I would also like to thank Larry for keeping up the blog while I was AWOL.

Tom UC 123

comments

Hi again, as you can see I started pushing a bunch of buttons and prayed a little and low and be hold the comment link is back in. Now I have another problem. I just invested in a digital camera, I followed the direction for downloading the software to post the picture, howsomever it went for at least a hour or more and can't get past the intalling box. Any help will be appreciated.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

This has nothing to do with driving a cab or the 2008 finals but it was sent to me and as the title says food for thought.

Paul Harvey Writes: We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I'd like better. I'd really like for them to know about hand me down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meat loaf sandwiches. I really would.I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated. I hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car. And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen.It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep.I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in.I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother/sister. And it's all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room,but when he wants to crawl under the covers with you because he's scared, I hope you let him.On rainy days when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don't ask your driver to drop you two blocks away so you won't be seen riding with someone as uncool as your Mom.If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one. I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books.When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head.I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a boygirl, and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what ivory soap tastes like.May you skin your knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on a stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole.

I don't care if you try a beer once, but I hope you don't like it.. And if a friend offers you dope or a joint, I hope you realize he is not your friend.I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandma/Grandpa and go fishing with your Uncle.May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays.I hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbor's window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Hannukah/Christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand.These things I wish for you - tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness. To me, it's the only way to appreciate life.Written with a pen. Sealed with a kiss. I'm here for you. And if I die before you do, I'll go to heaven and wait for you.

THE CAB OFFICE/LUCKY FARES

This is what the desk of the main dispatcher looks like. The monitor at the right shows all of the locations of the people who are wanting a cab in the county. The dispatcher assigns cabs to those locations. Not a easy job. He will give the driver two cross-streets, when the driver get there he calls channel 2, this person will give the driver the actual address and any information that he may need. Sometimes where they are going but not always. You can see why it is important to give all of the proper information when you call and ask for a cab. I took this when I went to visit "shoe" who is perhaps one of best dispatchers who has ever worked for United Cab. They are all pretty good. Each has his or her own way of doing things.

I usually tired to take two weeks off a year. I would go for a week and visit my aunt and uncle who live in Kentucky. Five years ago I came got back to Tampa, turned my rental car in and went to pick up my cab (157). I stop at save-a-lot to get something for dinner. I cook my own meals. As I was getting out of my cab I noticed 4 cuban type people, 3 men and a girl looking at me and the cab. I went in the store and when I came out they were still there. One guy came up to me and in very, very broken English conveyed to me that they needed to go to Miami. Ha, yeah right. But he plulled out a pocket full of money, I saw two one hundred dollar bills for sure, I told them to get in. On the way I asked him why not take the bus? All he said was no, no. Then I knew illegal's. Hell I didn't care if they came from the moon. They actual went to a address on Sistrunk St. in Ft. Liquerdale, err, Lauderdale. That street is not a very nice place to be and it was getting rather dark. I knew the area as I used to work there in 1984. But the fare was worth it 490, which is all they had. Those lucky ones come now and then but I can count them all on one hand.

Questions about the price of gas

The more I read on this topic the more I want to kill myself, just kidding folks.

The major oil company's are making record profits and all they talk about is all there small investor's, but nothing about the fat cats.

I also here its the speculators in the commodities market that are causing the price to go up.

Others including Forbes Magazine say its gas subsidies, in developing country's.

I would not know who is sticking it to us, but the wholesale price has at long last started to dip. The big question is how long will it take for the price at the pump to go down.

This is nothing new, whenever the retail price go's up the next day the retail price go's up despite its been it was bought at a lower price some time before.

On the news yesterday there was a story about the SUV's the dealers can't sell despite nearly giving them away. Another story was what they cost to run, there was a guy who uses his for work and has to fill up 3 times a week at 150.00 per.

Its a sign of the times but many people are leaving there car at home and taking mass transit. Hang in there guys, hopefully things will get better. I would like to hear what your customer s have to say about the Fuel Surcharge.

1968 THE YEAR THAT ROCKED OUR WORLD

This was the year that most us that are capable of remembering will never forget. It started with Benjamin Spock,M.D. and four others are indicted for aiding and abetting draft dodgers. Who can forget the picture of the South Vietnamese chief of police executing a vietcong prisoner.

Figure skater Peggy Fleming wins the on US gold medal at the winter olympics. A police station in Haleyville, Alabama is the first to officially use 911, the nations universal emergency umber.

The Reverend Martin Luther Kingm, Jr. is murdered in Memphis, TN. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces that he will not seek reelection.

The first modern cash-dispensing machine--the ATM--is invented in Dallas.The first regular season basketball game ever televised, University of Houston vs UCLA. Elvin Hayes (the big E) vs Lew Alcendor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), it drew 52,000, dubbed the Gaame of the Century. The rest is history.

"Exercise after 40? Build bone and muscle after 40. What re you trying to do kill people?" This was the reaction of to Dr. Kenneth Cooper's book on Aerobics" These are just a few of the happening in 1968.

I could also take take a cab from the "why not pub to the Hub" for 6.00.

The cost of gas and taxi rates

It look's like Tampa is not the only city giving an increase in taxi meters.

This week Philadelphia added a $1 fuel surcharge to there regular metered rate and the airport flat rate also went up, to $28.50 from $26.25.

In Boston drivers are asking for the first increase in the per-mile fare in six years, if approved would increase the per-mile rate by 50 percent and the starting fare from $2.25 to $2.75. That would boost the cost of a 4-mile ride from $11.55 to $16.70.

New York, Chicago and LA have all had raise's in the last few months along with smaller city's like Ann Arbor MI and Austin TX.
Tom UC 123

THE 2008 NBA FINALS

Valuable Experience

Bringing home the NBA title when you've just been named MVP can be a daunting task. However, several NBA notables delivered the goods. Here's how several league MVPs fared in the Finals (since 1988).
Player
Team
Result
'08 Kobe Bryant
Lakers
?
'03 Tim Duncan
Spurs
Won
'01 Allen Iverson
76ers
Lost
'00 Shaquille O'Neal
Lakers
Won
'98 Michael Jordan
Bulls
Won
9
Takeover Time I got this information from ESPN. It goes without saying that there is going to be a lot of "I told you so" Yo Tom do you remember when I threw the little wisp broom in your cab. But that was a lot of years ago. What few of you that are out there it is not too late to get on the Laker band wagon, I will understand. Hee, Hee

CAB BUSINESS IN TAMPA

That should tell it all. I took this with a picture phone on the stand known as 21. If you have read Tim's blog you have known his feelings on this stand. Stand is a cabby term for where cab will sit waiting on a call. I stopped at the cab office this morning and talk to shoe. His nickname. Since midnight there have been only 500 plus calls. Not good. I remember about 5 or 6 years ago it was on a Sunday morning and Bob the dispatcher at time sent me to the Publix store on Dale Mabry just south of Cypress. Now this is not unsual in itself, but it was 5 am. Now that is unusual. This guy was deaf so it was tough to figure out where he wanted to go, after the struggle I got his wallet. It said North Port. Oh Boy, now the next problem was money, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a bunch of money. Ha not a problem, I took him home by his pointing out the directions all the way. He never could tell me how he ended up at the Pubix at 5 in morning. Stranger things have happened but that is for a later post.

Taxi's in Beijing

Yesterday I watched a show on PBS called Beijing are you ready? What they where asking if Beijing is ready for the 2008 Olympics.

This show is a series, yesterday's show had to do with transportation, taxi's included.

The picture on the left show 3 taxi's each with a different color combination, and the one on the right is a cab stand at rush hour, are you jealous .

This show was shot a few years ago, it talked about roads that would be done in 2006 and 2007.

Something that amazed me was all the street and subway signs are in Chinese and English, it also showed cab drivers taking mandatory English lessons.

The traffic in Beijing is beyond bad, I am from New York and know traffic and have been to LA and its equally bad. If you think the traffic on 275 in downtown is bad now with the construction, wow the traffic in Beijing is from another planet.