Well, hello my dear reader and welcome to another issue of Jason’s Jive. As I sit and start this Jive, we are getting ready for a massive snowstorm (February 19). I have mixed feeling as always, not knowing what to expect…. with all the technology, there is nothing we can do to prevent the snow storm.
Moving on, in this issue, I want to share a few interesting situations I have had while driving on the road. I have been an Uber Driver for the last three years and have had some interesting situations. Many times, I pick up a rider, there is silence till the rider asks where I am from or some other ice breaker and then the conversation starts. I have had some very interesting riders.
Here let me share one or two interesting stories. Riders typically want me to share my crazy experiences. I once had a couple break up in the back seat of my car. It was in my first year of driving, and their issue had started before I picked them up. Somewhere on 14th Street in NW Washington DC, the male rider asked me to stop, he got out the car and walked away. The lady passenger broke down and started crying, and for 12 minutes or so, I had to endure her tears till she composed herself enough to give me a new address.
It gets crazier! I picked up a couple in NW Washington DC and the destination provided was Washington Dulles Airport. We proceed, and as we approached Dulles, one of the riders said to me that the airport looked strange…. long and short of it, they provided the wrong airport name. They did not realize Ronald Reagan Airport (DCA), was different from Dulles (IAD). I had to drive real fast at 4 am to try and get them back to DCA. We got there with 45 minutes to spare…I hope they made the flight.
I have driven a few famous people. I picked up a lady in Montgomery County who apparently used to be a backup singer for Jamaican reggae artiste, Shabba Ranks. And then a year ago I picked up Grammy nominated artiste, Raheem Devaughn (an alumnus of High Point High School here in Beltsville). Was an uneventful ride from DC to Rockville, till our conversation went in the direction of music and he told me his name. I had to turn my head, look at him, and he had a smirk on his face — real nice dude.
I got to start to wrap up The Jive, as I promised my editor, I would make it shorter. So, I will end up with the most bizarre experience I have had, to date. (well apart, from the drunk rider I had in January who threatened to kill me – totally unprovoked. I ignored his drunken threats but had to involve Baltimore County Police, at the rider’s insistence, as he refused to get out my car at his home, his destination. That is a conversation for another day).
In conclusion, 2 am on a Tuesday morning; I picked up a rider in Olney. He came out in a house robe and no shoes on. As he gets in, the first statement he makes,” my wife must not know about this.” Bewildered, I nodded. His destination was a 2-mile distance, still within Olney. As we get on his street, he orders me to turn off the car lights, stop three houses from his destination and he exits the car. It is a cul-de-sac, so I turn around with my lights still off and see my rider now in front of his driveway, wheeling the garbage bin back to the house. My smart rider had apparently slipped out the house, had a rendezvous somewhere, and he now dressed the part as if he had stepped out the house to get the garbage. Poor unsuspecting partner in the house would have had no idea, where he really was coming from. Wonder if he ever got caught? I wonder as well. I end the Jive with an African Proverb, “Every day is for the thief. One day is for the owner of the house.” See you next month!