Saturday Night )07/13/08

REALITY CHECK

There are times in a persons life that makes him take stock of how things are in this world. Things happen every once in a while that leaves the person feeling totally helpless, inept and wondering what the hell just happened. Things that are out of his control, and no matter how bad he wishes he could undo what happened, he can't. It's times like this that fate just grabs him by the balls and squeezes until the tears well up. Sometimes the thing that happens is a good thing...finding your soul mate, watching your children being born, seeing your grandchild for the first time, "special" times like that.

Sometimes the thing that happens is a bad thing...losing your soul mate, burying a child. These are the things that grab you by the balls and squeeze until the tears come. These are the things that make you sit up and take notice of what's going on. These are the things that force you to take stock in what you're doing and how you're doing it. It gives you what is called a "reality check".

I have had my share of "reality checks" in my life, and tonight I was dealt another. It was something that I had no control over. It was something that happened in the blink of an eye. It was something that no matter how much I would like to wish it didn't happen, did.

As I was coming on to the Westmorland Street Bridge tonight some guy ran across my lane and into my path. I hit him with my van as I was starting to accelerate into the flow of traffic. There was nothing I could do. I looked up and there he was. I didn't see him, my passenger didn't see him, and I'm guessing that he didn't see me. He shouldn't have been there because he came from the side of the bridge that has no sidewalk. The police officer said that there was nothing I could've done.

There was an R.C.M.P. officer that was on the scene just seconds after it happened, and he thought that the guy had fallen out of my cab, because there was no way he should have been where he was.

The guy was banged up a bit and had some scratches and abrasions from hitting the pavement, but he was standing up talking to the paramedics before they took him to the hospital to be checked over.

Thursday Night 07/04/08

Things Aren't What They Seem

If I have learned anything over the last few years of driving cab, it's that things are very seldom what they appear to be.

It was this time of year about three years ago when I was sent to an address on the Northside. After sitting in the driveway for about two and a half minutes, the front door opens and she steps out of the house and into my mind.

She was drop dead gorgeous, a vision of loveliness, a compilation of every mans wet dream. Her long blond hair seemed to glisten as if it was made from rays of the sun, even though it was almost midnight. Her make up was impeccable, just as if she had stepped out of a high class Parisian salon.Her tight figure lent itself to an aerobic instructor and her long shapely legs seemed to go on up and never stop. At that moment she could've asked for a free trip to Ontario and I would've been powerless to say no.

She seemed to float on air as she moved towards the cab, I never noticed her taking a step or even looking down to see where she was going for that matter. She just seemed to levitate across the yard and into my cab.

My palms got sweaty, my heart rate jumped to double of what it should be, and beads of sweat formed on my brow. I could almost feel myself at the start of a panic attack. What would I say to this Goddess? How could I possibly get through this fare without embarrassing myself into oblivion? Whatever did I do to deserve such an honor? Should I ask her to pull my finger??? "No" I thought to myself, that would be too presumptuous on my part...too uncouth. But then again I did it at the high falootin new years eve ball I went to two years ago, and it worked out fine!

I was about 3 seconds away from pledging my entire life to her servitude when she slammed the door to the cab and in a shrill voice that almost shattered every window in the van announced that she in her words "just had the raunchiest no holds barred sexathon with the most well endowed man she had ever seen in her life and he kicked me out on my ass!!!"

I couldn't imagine why? I thought to myself...She had a voice that would send shivers up my spine...and then she laughed...it was a loud whiny, part horse whinny and part pig grunt with a few raspy snorts thrown in for good measure.

I changed the subject by asking her where she was heading, she answered in that fingernails on a chalkboard voice of hers and said that she "wasn't quite satisfied sexually so I have to go downtown to find another man"

My heart rate returned to normal and the beads of sweat that were forming on my brow were gone, whatever image I had in my mind of this "lady" was quickly fading like the sunlight on the shortest day of the year. Whatever pedestal I had this "lady" on was quickly crumbling like the ruins of the coliseum in Rome.

All I could think about was getting this obnoxious "lady" out of my cab and getting back to work. As we drove downtown, she took it upon herself to tell me every minute detail of her no holds barred sexathon and how the most well endowed man she ever saw just somehow didn't measure up.

For someone who was so beautiful and so sexy, it was shame for her to lose all that just by opening her mouth. To look at her you would think she was royalty, a princess with the finest upbring and training...until she opened her mouth.

Happy Canada Day 07/01/08

I had a busy weekend, just like most people taking part in the festivities of the Canada Day weekend. I had friends and relatives come for a visit this weekend, I attended a family BBQ at my sisters house, and then went to the fireworks in Oromocto to close the night.

I bumped into a guy when I was at digital world this week and he had mentioned that he has this blog set up with his rss feed. He said he looks forward to reading my posts which made me feel good and then he said that I'm not posting as much as I used to.

My posting to this blog has been rather sparse lately, and I apologize for that, but we are still in the middle of getting our house back to normal from the flood this spring and it has been rather "hectic" around here.

I still have a lot of stories and tales to tell, but I just haven't been able to find the time. But once things settle down here at home, I will be posting like a motherf>":<).

I did however add a video of the fireworks in Oromocto that we took our grandson to.

Sunday 06/22/08

The following is a collection of some photos that were taken during the POW WOW that was held at St.Marys First Nation over the weekend.

Photos were taken by my father William H. Gillen

Saturday Night 06/21/08

The week is over,
My job is done,
Now its my turn

To have fun!

Not that my job isn't fun, but like any other job Ive had, this one job can be challenging at times. Challenging to the point of pulling out what hair I do have left. Trying to make sense of of a mumbling, pizza eating, word slurring person should be considered a trade in itself.

Ive actually gotten quite good at translating the language of alcohol induced mumbleese into the English language...
Norfffiide...northside
paashide...parkside
campbarrie...canterbury
campush...campus
forshills...forrest hills
pulloverihavetopuke...pull over I have to puke!
shtopthecabihaveto...pull over I have to puke!
didguseethetatasonthat?... did you see the ta tas on that?

Friday Night 06/20/08

Friday Night...one of the nights I look forward to all week. It was a disappointing night as far as passengers in good moods go. It seemed like I was a magnet for morons and idiots!

I talked to half a dozen other drivers from other companies, and we all seemed to have the same thing in common...we all noticed that there was an over abundance of people who were DRUNK and STOOOPID!!!

I had picked up a group of people heading to one part of the city, and one other guy got in right behind them and insisted I take him to another part of the city which happened to be in the opposite direction. Not only that, he insisted that he be taken first. When I told him it was not going to happen, he became belligerent, loud, abusive to me and the other passengers. He even refused to get out of the cab and sat in the back with his arms folded across his chest.

I turned around and looked at him and calmly told him that if he didn't get out I would pull up to where the 3 city police men were standing and I would have them remove him. He continued to make faces at the other passengers and be abusive to me.

My two year old grandson has been known to behave in a more mature manner than this moron was behaving, and I didn't hesitate to tell this asshat. Still, he sat there with his arms folded across his chest, making faces at the other passengers. I put the van in gear and pulled ahead to where the police men were standing. This seemed to change the attitude a bit, but he still wasn't moving towards the door.

I put the side window down as we approached the police, and leaning over towards the door as I slowed to a crawl, I started to get the attention of the police when all of a sudden he blurted out that he didn't want to travel with a bunch of "ugly people" anyways! And that we were all a bunch of spoiled babies and and that we needed to get a life!

After he got out, he slammed the side door so hard the three policemen that were standing there turned to look at him, and motioned for him to come to them. We all waved at this moron as we drove off.

Thursday Night 06/19/08

We had a little bit of excitement in the wee hours of the morning last night. One of our drivers had picked up two males and was doing some running around with them. When the dispatcher had asked what was going on, all the driver said was "I'm in a scary situation here"

He asked him again..."Where are you?"...silence..."Are you alright?"...once again, silence over the air. This is one of the scariest scenarios for a driver or dispatcher, not being able to get in touch with someone when something goes wrong. I know because I've been in that type of situation before, and it's not a nice feeling.

The dispatcher sent 3 of the 4 cabs that were still out up to the last address of the driver. We all arrived within 5 seconds of each other, roughly 3 minutes of him sending us up.

I was pumped! I was ready for whatever was waiting for us up there! my heart was pounding, the adrenalin was pumping! I had visions of blood guts and gore...veins in my teeth!!!

As I pulled in, I saw the other 2 cabs in the driveway and the cab that was not heard from sitting there. The driver had a guy in the back seat who was just sitting there. I walked up to the cab and opened the passenger door and asked if he was alright. "Yes I'm fine, but I think these guys have come to the end of their trip with me"

Just then a second guy appeared from the house and asked what was going on. I looked at him and asked him the same question. Just then he noticed three extra cabs with three extra drivers standing there staring at him..."I didn't wanna cause a problem man, I told him I have money to pay for the fare on the north side! He will get paid at the end of the trip" I looked at him again and told him his trip had just ended, and opened the back door so the other guy could get out. I told them to gather up the shit they were carrying with them and be on their way, which they did.

I don't know exactly what transpired between them and the driver, all I know is that one of our drivers felt threatened by his passengers, and thats all that I need to know to go to his aid. Hopefully if I am in a similar situation, I will be able to rely on some other driver to do the same.

On the lighter side of things that happened to me tonight, I was stopped by two beautiful ladies who asked for directions tonight.Whitney and Joanne

After I got them on the right track, they offered me a free can of Red Bull energy drink, which I gladly accepted. Ive seen these two cruising around in the red bull mini for a while now and always was intrigued by their car...Ive always wanted to ask them where I can buy a big can of red bull like the one they carry around???