Wow! What a night of cab driving just over. Its 5:44 AM and I should be wrapping this long evening up but it usually takes me an hour or so to finally end up in bed so here goes some highlights.     It was a tough Saturday Night and for a few moments I thought I was going to descend into an awful night where I am about to say never again and curse forever alcohol idiocy the whole 'party' concept of youthful existence .. probably convert to Islam... no just kidding. Though I must say I have concerns for the youth of America.    'Idiot Wind' is a song Bob Dylan wrote 30 years ago seemed to sum it up for awhile.    Forget the story of the good looking blonde who stumbled into my cab in front 19 Broadway after being physically thrown out of the bar. I did not want her in the cab I was looking for Jim going to Novato, a nice $30 minimum fare. Anyways she was a headache 'no I don't have any money I just live two blocks away' she actually was almost incoherent and pretty obnoxious. I said OK to the 19 Broadways employees relief ... just get her out of here.    She told me a street in San Anselmo a bit more than two blocks but what the heck I'll do my good deed of the night and hustle back to the club. We got there there was no such address. Are you sure you want 121 _ _ _ _ Street in San Anselmo.. Yes take me there she says. You're there you dumb __ no I didn't say that. Just you are there sweetheart and your house doesn't exist. Well she resents the fact that I tell her her house doesn't exist. So I tell her she has a choice she can tell me where she lives or I will take her to the police and let them help her. She's getting very upset with me. However after numerous claims that her house is 121 _ _ _ _ Avenue suddenly she says 16. Ahhh... 16 _ _ _ _  I say OK I pull up front the house with the nice tidy white picket fence. #16 Take me home you #@$#@$#@! she is telling me. Listen dear look out the window this is your home.. She goes off %$#@!! My boyfriend is going to ream you a new _.... yeah yeah OK 3 choices you can get out or I'll take you to the Police or to a Hospital. She stumbles out.. my boyfriend!!!! Yeah right God I hope those people at 16 _ _ _ _ don't have a heart attack when she wanders in at 1:30 AM but I have work to do and don't look back.  Anyways what I was going to tell you about was how I healed religious hatred and racial animosity.. something like that. After futzing around Fairfax unlucratively I was back in San Rafael thinking what unlucky roll I am on when instead of helping out the dispatcher I took a flag a stumbling Mexican going home to the Canal, the local barrio here in Marin County the 7th richest County in the Nation or is it the 7th for most alcoholics in the Nation one or the other both ranked pretty high... anyways Good move Guy this dude is a winner. He is going on about F**n Police Man I told that Police go ahead Deport me MotherF* I be back in two days.. Hah hah!! Drunken slob and almost there he starts sneezing. Nasty sneezes that sounds way full of you know, DNA material.. yuk!     What a night! Jeez God I am such a nice guy. Hey Buddy are you using a Kleenex?      F**N you...     Thank You Moron. I say to myself.  I am a block away I just want him peaceably out of my cab. Hopefully I'll get $5 or $6. So I disarm him by pretending to ignore the fact that he is a complete you know __ hole. OK we are here $6 please.  He is ready to give some more F**n You but I pretend like it is a beautiful day and hum some tune from Dr Zhivago Lara's Theme ( I am lying) but still it makes a better movie with Lara's Theme in the background. He is out the door holding it belligerently I have the money you know $6 of all that crumpled up sweaty money that he has been gripping all night long in his pocket. That's what these guys do. they just love to grip that money until it is a sweaty wad and slowly unfold it in front of sad cab drivers who wished they had not dropped out of college back in the 60's and 70's all across America.. that's what they are doing every night, particularly on weekends. So here he was holding that door open ready to give it one good slam on behalf of all the Mexicans of the world who have been or are or will be shafted by Gavachos and I just look at him at this precarious moment of time and being the practiced con artist that you gotta be in the world of Borrachos and Psychos who often make up an important demographic in the life of a night time cabbie I say Adios in a very neutral tone and he takes the door and he just shuts it. Thank God.   So then I was back to that 'blessed' Club across the Highway which was the reason I began writing this little exercise in wasting valuable time at the desk here.... Club 101 its now about exactly 2AM and I am the closest to the club and my dispatcher needs me and it will probably be more Mexicans going back to the Canal and you know this is the Saturday night closing time Rush and it would be real nice to be taking some young rich white ...folks zipping them anywhere a big fare get a nice tip... you're dreaming Guy.   Anyways the escape from my Borracho (drunk) gave me a little burst of... cheerfulness... sort a. So I arrive and I had been forewarned that there were multiple fares there and there was and first these two guys want to climb in but then this guy and his girl friend are rapidly approaching and they all claim to have just called but I got two guys in the back seat so I say where are you going. In the back seat they are going to 79 Woodland and the guy outside wants to go to 55 Woodland and you know even though I didn't complete college I am thinking we can work this out. But the guy and his chica is upset because he called for a cab and doesn't want to share. Some how we got them all in the Chica up front with me and the ride is like 5 blocks and then it was the dispute about do I drop the guys off at 79 Woodland first or make the left turn at Woodland from Dubois for 55 Woodland of course I could have dropped them all of at the corner and each would have walked another 30 yards to go home but I take the folks home to 55 Woodland because the Chica is sweet and her boyfriend is an idiot and he is still peeved at having to share the cab so they have to pay me and the meter says like  $4.70 and I say $3 each couple and he doesn't understand or think that is fair. (In reality it is illegal.. cab drivers can only charge exactly what is on the meter even if you double up) However I think it is reasonable tonight. But since he doesn't understand I try again $5 each couple and now the Guy in the back doesn't understand and I say $10 each but I follow that with No just $3.00 each Buen Ganga! (Good Deal) So I get my $3 from the dude.. and my buddies in the back are going You speak Spanish? No No mucho and my spanish is so bad it always draws a laugh so we swing around in front of 79 Woodland and these guys are grinning at me and they pay me their $3 plus a couple more for a tip. One says yeah hombre laughing we are just a couple of shitty Mexicans and I say yeah buddy and I am a shitty American and we share grins and say goodbye.   And thus World Peace was achieved and they lived happily ever after. Allright it took you five minutes to read this but it is now 7:12 AM about an hour and a half to write this.    But I am not done I want to talk to you about the teenagers wandering around stoned and drunk after midnight. There are some real good kids out there...and some you worry about.. another night    But I'll wrap it up for tonight with this I had driven my 10 hours it was after 4AM I was due back but my dispatcher had one more call for me I was right on top of it. Some dude leaving a very late night party I had picked him up before on some other night. Just a short distance to get home I don't know what we were talking about but in those last seconds he said this ..  " ' Maybe I need to be a teacher again...'    When I started my year's classes I always put a nice chalk spot on the blackboard and said to the kids...    'See this spot, this spot represents the total of all mankind's knowledge, the rest of the chalkboard is everything we don't know. There is no such thing as a stupid question.' "    Thank you Teach you are great and to all my Mexican Amigos you are great too.     Guy Meyer, Jr.                   February 5, 2006         San Anselmo, California               guy@lifesignsphoto.com