It's a Small World, After All
As the sun rose, I got a request for an Uber ride to the airport. I picked up a couple in their 50's, cordial and polite but knew it was early for them and they weren't up for the gift of gab. I respected that, gave them cold bottled water and an Ipad for the husband to watch Fox News live on Direct TV. The woman was more chatty and after being charming, she said: "you'd be a perfect guy for my sister!" I remarked: "I know. I'm already married to her." So much for taking my brother-in-law and sister-in-law to fly to New York. I made them sit in the back, listen to my jokes and got them out of my car as quickly as possible.After all, I'll see them when they return. I DO hope their tip is bigger next time.
Exiting the airport at 7 am is not a big money maker. Virtually no flights come in that early so you hope when you depart the perimeter, something will pop up. And it did. A KPMG exec was just going down the street from hotel to office but it was pleasant. No stress. Just how I like it.
I headed home as traffic was a bitch on the 101 and ran some errands. A man's work is never done.
I moseyed (notice no one 'moseys' anymore? Why is that) over to Starbucks to try my new tactic of not driving around but planting myself somewhere. No sooner had I hit 'pay' on my app, did a request come in from The Boulders Resort, 1 mile down the road but the directions were off because it routed me through the back which has a BIG sign: Uber Drivers Must Enter at the Main Gate! Yes. WITH that exclamation point.
Rick is from Kansas, fly-over country and I admitted I had never been to the state. An exec for a medical services company, ALL he wanted to do was talk. How long had I been driving? Where was I from? Did I like living here? Did I hook up with the sister from the first ride? (wanted to see if you were paying attention!)
You know me. Always happy to chat. Really interesting guy.wanted to know political leanings, just as conversation. I told him I was liberal in NY but was more of a moderate Dem, but STILL a D. he asked me what moved me to the center. Great question, for which I had no great answer. I really had to think. I believe age has something to do with it. Maybe one of the things about getting older is while you obsess less about the trappings of money and focus on happiness, you worry more about whether you'll have enough. That's when you start to look at the economy, government spending, government waste. I also think as I got older, I got a stronger respect for our military, which if you knew me in 1971, there wasn't an anti-war rally I didn't go to. The real reason is there were girls there with names like Fawn who wore pleasant blouses.
I finally opined that to me, being more moderate had to do with meeting people out here I had never met. New York and Long Island, for the most part was D and liberal. I worked in the media industry which we all know, is run by my people (small joke there). I didn't have friends who were firefighters, veterans, Midwesterners, Northwesterners, Mexican, or people who had never lived in a big city or been to NY for that matter.
Here, my exposure broadened and I concluded my moderate stance was nurtured by experience. My basic values had not changed, but as I am fond of saying: "I never learned anything from someone I agreed with" and here in AZ, it really is a melting pot.
In NY, everyone is Puerto Rican on Puerto Rican Day, Irish on St. Patrick's Day etc. Here, people bring their culture with them and you learn. Some you accept, others you avoid, but you can't escape the diversity of thought.
I dropped Rick off and told him to take his wife on that 10th anniversary trip to Costa Rica we discussed. Hope and I have considered moving there in a few years for one very important reason: they have 4 Costcos and 5 synagogues!
2:20:42 of total drive time. 87 miles driven. $92 in fares and tips. I don't know how that breaks out in terms of making some money or losing money, but then again, I wouldn't be learning as much as I am.
Exiting the airport at 7 am is not a big money maker. Virtually no flights come in that early so you hope when you depart the perimeter, something will pop up. And it did. A KPMG exec was just going down the street from hotel to office but it was pleasant. No stress. Just how I like it.
I headed home as traffic was a bitch on the 101 and ran some errands. A man's work is never done.
I moseyed (notice no one 'moseys' anymore? Why is that) over to Starbucks to try my new tactic of not driving around but planting myself somewhere. No sooner had I hit 'pay' on my app, did a request come in from The Boulders Resort, 1 mile down the road but the directions were off because it routed me through the back which has a BIG sign: Uber Drivers Must Enter at the Main Gate! Yes. WITH that exclamation point.
Rick is from Kansas, fly-over country and I admitted I had never been to the state. An exec for a medical services company, ALL he wanted to do was talk. How long had I been driving? Where was I from? Did I like living here? Did I hook up with the sister from the first ride? (wanted to see if you were paying attention!)
You know me. Always happy to chat. Really interesting guy.wanted to know political leanings, just as conversation. I told him I was liberal in NY but was more of a moderate Dem, but STILL a D. he asked me what moved me to the center. Great question, for which I had no great answer. I really had to think. I believe age has something to do with it. Maybe one of the things about getting older is while you obsess less about the trappings of money and focus on happiness, you worry more about whether you'll have enough. That's when you start to look at the economy, government spending, government waste. I also think as I got older, I got a stronger respect for our military, which if you knew me in 1971, there wasn't an anti-war rally I didn't go to. The real reason is there were girls there with names like Fawn who wore pleasant blouses.
I finally opined that to me, being more moderate had to do with meeting people out here I had never met. New York and Long Island, for the most part was D and liberal. I worked in the media industry which we all know, is run by my people (small joke there). I didn't have friends who were firefighters, veterans, Midwesterners, Northwesterners, Mexican, or people who had never lived in a big city or been to NY for that matter.
Here, my exposure broadened and I concluded my moderate stance was nurtured by experience. My basic values had not changed, but as I am fond of saying: "I never learned anything from someone I agreed with" and here in AZ, it really is a melting pot.
In NY, everyone is Puerto Rican on Puerto Rican Day, Irish on St. Patrick's Day etc. Here, people bring their culture with them and you learn. Some you accept, others you avoid, but you can't escape the diversity of thought.
I dropped Rick off and told him to take his wife on that 10th anniversary trip to Costa Rica we discussed. Hope and I have considered moving there in a few years for one very important reason: they have 4 Costcos and 5 synagogues!
2:20:42 of total drive time. 87 miles driven. $92 in fares and tips. I don't know how that breaks out in terms of making some money or losing money, but then again, I wouldn't be learning as much as I am.
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