Until it gets a little cooler outside, I’m taking a break from rideshare driving.
I’ll probably not drive until the month of September. It’s just too hot to drive strangers around in my personal vehicle. When waiting for trips, I’ve had to park with the car running so I can use the air conditioning. With the outside temperature in the 90s and even 100s, it’s not a convenience, it’s life-support. Lowering the windows doesn’t do any good when it’s hotter than Satan’s armpit and just as humid. I don’t mind running the engine while parked so I can use the air conditioning. Surprisingly, it doesn’t use that much gas. I forgot my car displays how much gas I’m using at any given moment. While parked, the amount of gas used it quite minuscule.
The passengers are the problem
I decided to take a break after driving a disgusting passenger to a bike shop. I picked him up in Williamsport, Maryland. It’s a nice little town off the Potomac River and the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. People around here refer to it as the C&O Canal. I lived here years before I even knew what the letters “C” and “O” referred to. It stretches over 185 miles. People like to walk and bike along the old towpath. Some only go a mile or two. Some go the entire length from one end to the other.
I’ve picked up a few people traveling down the towpath. They lock their bikes somewhere and then have me drive them to a hotel or a restaurant. I’ve never done it when it’s excessively hot outside because you’d have to be insane to ride a bike along the old towpath when it’s 100 degrees outside.
About two weeks ago, Lyft sent me a request to Williamsport. It wasn’t to the C&O Canal, but about a mile from it. It was a guy standing along the road holding a front bike tire. He got in and I immediately noticed he smelled foul. He told me he couldn’t believe there wasn’t a bike shop in Williamsport. I confirmed there wasn’t one. That told me he wasn’t a local. He was traveling the C&O Canal on his bike. He smelled bad because he probably hadn’t showered in days.
I got him to his destination and after he got out of the car, I noticed he left disgusting sweat stains where his back was making contact on the backseat. His dark gray t-shirt was probably a heather gray t-shirt that was completely drenched in sweat.
I had to call it a day. I went home and shampooed the backseat. I couldn’t believe some asshole thought it was perfectly okay to climb into my personal vehicle and with wet clothing. He should have realized I would not be able to drive other passengers until I cleaned up after him. If he did realize it, he just did not care.
In conclusion
Now that I will not be driving for a month, perhaps I should start a YouTube channel dedicated to rideshare driving. Most of the prominent rideshare YouTubers don’t drive. A lot were drivers, but for some reason, couldn’t hack it and quit. Instead of driving, they make videos telling people how to do the thing they themselves couldn’t do. My problem is that I will be driving again in September. That would put me at a disadvantage compared to many of the YouTubers making Uber and Lyft content.
Instead of adding a crappy YouTube channel to the overflowing cesspool of crappy YouTube channels, I’m going to tackle some remodeling projects we’ve wanted to do since buying our home eight years ago. My goal is to finish remodeling things and still have all ten fingers.
