I have been driving a lot more with Lyft lately. I seem to be doing better on it these days. Today was no exception. I get off work at 12:30 pm and today I had to come home first and fill out an online application and take a grammar assessment for a company I am interviewing with. I wasn’t really looking but I got a call from a recruiter who saw my resume online and thought I might be interested. It sounded worth a look. I am just hoping my third grade grammar is up to snuff.

The grammar assessment was stupid simple, pretty much aced it. You, did I know the difference between their, they’re and there etc. Elementary stuff. After that I got my water and headed out. I live in Mesa/Gilbert so I drove down to Gilbert city center and parked under a tree in a curbside spot neat the intersection of Page and Gilbert Road. I was looking at emails on my phone and in about 5 minutes I had a request. It was an Arab guy going home from a doctor’s office. He lived in Scottsdale at McDowell and Scottsdale Rd. Not a bad first ride, I was optimistic for the day.

After that I headed in to Old Town and parked in the shade on 1st ave and Scottsdale Rd. I wasn’t there 5 minutes and got a request from around the block on Main Street. Easy pickup. It was four young men heading to Chase Field for the ballgame. they had already had a few beers and were very jolly. The guy who sat in front asked if he could borrow my AUX cable to listed to his music. Now, I usually say no, I am the DJ of my car and I knew they were going to play contemporary vulgar music. I was right. But they seemed good natured enough and I was sucking up for good ratings.

So we heading downtown and the new DJ was all over the place with the music. They settled on Tom Petty in honor of. This I liked. I told them Petty was from Gainesville, Florida where I went to University. I also told them that my psych professor was Petty’s drummer’s father. They thought that was way cool. Then the new DL found a quite famous Greek song that I remembered from middle school and I told them that between classes instead of ringing bells they would play music and  that song was one they played. You have probably heard it it is instrumental then gets progressively faster. “Zorba the Greek” it’s called. It’s a long song and part of the way through one of the guys in the back seat blurts, turn it to something else, I’m thinking my Big Fat Greek Uber Driver.

Well he immediately backpeddled saying he meant to say Uber ride! We all busted up laughing, I almost peed. For one thing, I am not Greek. Another thing, I was driving Lyft, not Uber. Third, I am only a little fat.

I dropped them at their destination and could only imagine the poor Lyft driver who picks them up from the stadium when the game is over.

I was close enough to the airport at that point and took a look at the wait queue and it was fairly small. I got to the lot and kicked back, I was 22nd in line for Lyft. Mind you there’s usually 60+ cars there. I was there about 10 minutes and boom, a request. It was early and only had the two rides so I was doing okay. Picked up a young woman from Terminal 4 South and she was going to…..Gilbert! I was going full circle. Not just Gilbert, but way east off Power road. For my readers not familiar with The Valley of the Sun, that is a very long drive and it put me close to home. I always have a dollar amount in mind when I drive and as soon as I hit that I’m clearing down. That ride put me over so I was homeward bound.

The last rider was a recruiter for a staffing firm and said their grammar assessments are based on what a third grader should know and that I would be surprised how badly people do on them.

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Over an out for now,

Your Big Fat Greek Uber Driver

The Scuba Jedi was once employed in a job where I got to talk to all kinds of people from all over the world in all walks of life.  Once, I had a caller who worked for the  Daughters of the American Revolution in Alabama. I helped her with her technical issue then we got to talking about family histories.

Many years ago, a cousin of The Scuba Jedi did a partial family history. This was on my father’s side of the family and my cousin Newt, that is, my father’s sister son did a little research. Turns out my great-great grandfather was a Lieutenant in the Confederate Army and  my way great grandfather and uncle were both soldiers in the Colonial Militia and fought in the American Revolution. Also, an uncle on my mom’s side did a family trace and found out that their peeps emigrated in the late 16oo’s to New Brunswick, Canada. So I am really, really American. A Daughter of the American Revolution and a Daughter of the Confederacy.

I don’t really know that much about the distant ancestors, but I was made aware of a series of letters that a distant cousin found and posted on a web site. The letters are from Lt. Andrew Aston of Alabama to his wife Minerva from the battlefield. His last letter was written on January 18, 1862. He was unfortunately killed at the Battle of Mill Springs on January 19, 1862. It was his first battle, and he was buried in a mass grave at the site.  He was 35.