Blog Posts

New Blog Post: (Middle of the woods) has been published on ProbablyRetep http://bit.ly/2N1oVQD #ProbablyRetep

New Post has been published on https://www.probablyretep.com/2018/07/09/middle-of-the-woods/

Middle of the woods

So today’s story is straight from the horror books.   I’m not sure I’ve felt as much terror in quite some time as I did last night.  I thought I was going to end up in an episode of American Horror Story Cult or something.  Let me tell you a story about how I ended up in the middle of the woods at 5am in the morning.

So I get a request about 10 to 20 minutes after 4am for a pickup out in Middleville.  I thought about not taking it because of how far away it was, but i figured heck with it and accepted.  So I begin my trek out to Middleville, a place I’d never been to before.  It was a nice little jaunt out there with little to no traffic on the roads due to the time of day.  I approach the road that my “pax” as the lingo refers to passengers and that’s when the strange things start to happen.  The road I was on was a 45 so I was cruising along at 50 with my brights on of course.  As I’m cruising along I roll past a random guy stumbling down the road.  He didn’t appear to be in any trouble and there was houses all up and down this road along with corn fields pretty much right up to the road, so I continued on.  As I’m driving on, I come upon several more random people walking down the side of the road and starting to move into the road.  I start slowing down because at this point I’m bewildered as to why I’m coming across so many people at this time (around 5am).  I’m starting to worry as to what’s going on, and when I thought it couldn’t get any stranger, people start walking out of the corn fields.  Now, I’m full on weirded out and wondering exactly what’s going on.  I’m thinking Children of the Corn type stuff or American Horror story cult.  I finally reach my destination and pull into the driveway of this place.

As you can see in the above video I’m clueless as to what’s going on.  The person I’m supposed to be picking up is not readily visible, but there are random people milling about.  Many of them either stop and stare at me and then continue on without acknowledging me or saying anything.  Most of them just wandered around without even looking at me or acknowledging my presence at all.  All this going on and I’ve been waiting about 10 minutes for “Tyler” as we will call him.  Finally a random dude comes up to me and asks me who I’m waiting for.  I told him that I was waiting for a person named “Tyler”.  He informed me that he would go and try to find this person.  So he walks away to find “Tyler”, and I continue to sit in driveway of this house / something else and just when I didn’t think I could be anymore scared it got worse.  I started hearing singing from somewhere in the forest.

So lets go over the checklist.  Random people milling about the road?  Check.  Randoms walking out the corn fields?  Check.  Random lights and and an “Enter” sign?  Check.  Me about to crap myself?  Check.  Finally dude comes back and tells me that he can’t find “Tyler”.  However, he informs me that he’s found a group of 4 people that have been trying to find a ride back to Grand Rapids, for a couple of hours.  They come over and ask if then can get a ride back.  So I cancel “Tylers” ride and they request a pickup and sure enough it comes to me since I’m right next to them.  They all pile into the Jeep and we back out of the driveway.  I turn and look at the guy sitting in the passenger front seat and I’m like Ok dude.  Now that we’re outta there, what in the balls is going on in middleville in the middle of the woods at 5am in the morning?!?

They all have a hearty laugh as I explain to them what I’ve been through trying to get to this place.  Come to find out, after they explained it to me, it is a music festival.  Apparently some dude likes Electric Forest so much that he puts on this show every year after EF is all done.  This year apparently it’s got so big he actually got permits and did it up bigger than ever.  I tried to google this EDM music event but I couldn’t find anything in my initial search.  I might spend some more time later trying to find this festival but I’m sure I’ll get bored of it and not.

That’s my story about how I thought I was going to be dead in the middle of nowhere.

New Blog Post: (Sandy Bottom(s)) has been published on ProbablyRetep http://bit.ly/2MYlyKi #ProbablyRetep

New Post has been published on https://www.probablyretep.com/2018/07/07/sandy-bottoms/

Sandy Bottom(s)

Today’s story involves a couple of guys that I picked up at the start of my day.  But first, let me go back a few steps and explain how I begin most of my shifts.

When I head out, if it’s before 8pm then I always go get a car wash and vacuum everything out.  Front, back, and trunk.  I wipe down the seats with lemon cleaner wipes and make sure everything’s nice and clean.  If I think that I’m not going to make it out before 8pm (that’s when the car wash closes), then I will do it at the end of my shift so either way, at the beginning the Jeep is nice and cleaned.

Continue reading “New Blog Post: (Sandy Bottom(s)) has been published on ProbablyRetep http://bit.ly/2MYlyKi #ProbablyRetep”

New Blog Post: (Sandy Bottom(s)) has been published on ProbablyRetep http://bit.ly/2MYlyKi #ProbablyRetep

New Post has been published on https://www.probablyretep.com/2018/07/07/sandy-bottoms/

Sandy Bottom(s)

Today’s story involves a couple of guys that I picked up at the start of my day.  But first, let me go back a few steps and explain how I begin most of my shifts.

When I head out, if it’s before 8pm then I always go get a car wash and vacuum everything out.  Front, back, and trunk.  I wipe down the seats with lemon cleaner wipes and make sure everything’s nice and clean.  If I think that I’m not going to make it out before 8pm (that’s when the car wash closes), then I will do it at the end of my shift so either way, at the beginning the Jeep is nice and cleaned.

Continue reading “New Blog Post: (Sandy Bottom(s)) has been published on ProbablyRetep http://bit.ly/2MYlyKi #ProbablyRetep”

New Blog Post: (It was the air freshener (srsly)) has been published on ProbablyRetep http://bit.ly/2MyDRFM #ProbablyRetep

New Post has been published on https://www.probablyretep.com/2018/06/30/it-was-the-air-freshener-srsly/

It was the air freshener (srsly)

Today I had another interesting pickup.

I had a pickup over in the Eastown area tonight so I headed over to the pickup on Ethel street.  I pulled up to the house and there was several people outside on the porch steps drinking and smoking pot (from the smell of it.)  The girl sauntered outside with the swagger of a 100 shots of liquor and up to my Jeep.  She struggled to open the door to the point that I almost got out to open the door for her.  She gets in, and immediately she asks about my car freshener and tells me if she throws up it’s because of that and not because she’s drunk, while she’s frantically rolling the window down as quickly as possible.  Like, she literally said that.  So i told her what kind it was as I pulled it out of the vent grill and set it aside on the odd chance it was really true.  She then informs me that yes, she’s definitely allergic to that brand and she’s definitely going to puke because of it.  I started off towards her house because it wasn’t very far away, only about 5 minutes.  She spent the entire time assuring me that she wasn’t drunk and that it was the air fresher, even after I assured her I had removed it.

Sure, Girl.

Thankfully we arrived puke free and my puke free streak holds.

New Blog Post: (It was the air freshener (srsly)) has been published on ProbablyRetep http://bit.ly/2MyDRFM #ProbablyRetep

New Post has been published on https://www.probablyretep.com/2018/06/30/it-was-the-air-freshener-srsly/

It was the air freshener (srsly)

Today I had another interesting pickup.

I had a pickup over in the Eastown area tonight so I headed over to the pickup on Ethel street.  I pulled up to the house and there was several people outside on the porch steps drinking and smoking pot (from the smell of it.)  The girl sauntered outside with the swagger of a 100 shots of liquor and up to my Jeep.  She struggled to open the door to the point that I almost got out to open the door for her.  She gets in, and immediately she asks about my car freshener and tells me if she throws up it’s because of that and not because she’s drunk, while she’s frantically rolling the window down as quickly as possible.  Like, she literally said that.  So i told her what kind it was as I pulled it out of the vent grill and set it aside on the odd chance it was really true.  She then informs me that yes, she’s definitely allergic to that brand and she’s definitely going to puke because of it.  I started off towards her house because it wasn’t very far away, only about 5 minutes.  She spent the entire time assuring me that she wasn’t drunk and that it was the air fresher, even after I assured her I had removed it.

Sure, Girl.

Thankfully we arrived puke free and my puke free streak holds.

New Blog Post: (She got out of the car, and you won’t believe what happened next!) has been published on ProbablyRetep http://bit.ly/2MzYph7 #ProbablyRetep

New Post has been published on https://www.probablyretep.com/2018/06/29/she-got-out-of-the-car-and-you-wont-believe-what-happened-next/

She got out of the car, and you won’t believe what happened next!

Somebody mentioned that it was “just like me” to post clickbait so I just had to use that title lol.

So, as promised, I have a story from last night’s driving that is a doosey.  I picked up this lady today from out in the 68th and Division area.  I was already a bit nervous about the pickup because I drove about 15 minutes from across town and it seems many times when I do those pickups where I drive 15-20 minutes to pick somebody up it’s always a very short drop off.  So I pull up in front of her house and wait about 4 minutes and she finally saunters out.  Immediately the red flags start going off because she comes out side and sits down in her lawn chair and starts having a cigarette.  She then after she smokes for 2-3 minutes she finally starts stumbling towards the Jeep.  At this point i’m not really sure if she’s drunk or it’s because she’s an older woman, although I’m definitely leaning towards her being drunk because of how long she’s been taking.  So she climbs in which ends up being a several minute process in of itself because she can’t get her little chihuahua to jump up into the Jeep.  She gets in and almost immediately things start going downhill.

It starts out with my usual pleasantries, asking how are you, how was your day, etc etc.  She pretty much ignores what I’m saying and tells me I need to do a U Turn in the driveway across the street.  I inform her that I usually go around the block because the lights on my Jeep are pretty bright and I don’t like pulling into driveways at night because I don’t want to wake anybody up.  She then informs me that I need to do a U Turn in the driveway again, so I do and we start our journey towards the motel.  Now, because I get into the rest of the story I need to establish one thing.  She’s going on a 16 minute drive.  8 minutes there, 8 minutes back.  Probably way less because this is at like midnight or so, and the roads are empty.  So I pull on to Division towards 44th Street and “Rita” as I will call her decides to tell me what’s going on.  She’s picking up her grand kids from her daughter in law and her son because there’s some sort of family drama doing on (again).  She’s telling me about how terrible her son is and she’s sick and tired of always being the one to have to take care of her grand kids.  Now up until this point, she’s been fairly calm.  She’s very clearly inebriated, because she’s slurring her words, talking in broken sentences.  She apologizes and tells me that she’s drunk because she wasn’t expecting to get the phone call about the kids so she was at home relaxing.  At this point I’m pretty much hook line and sinker feeling terrible for this lady’s situation.  Boy was I in for a surprise.

At this point she starts like freaking out.  Like yelling and cursing.  She’s basically repeating the same information over and over except she’s yelling it and mixed in with expletives.  Currently I’m giving her a pass because I understand what she’s going through being upset about her grand kids.  I can understand the frustration.  She barks some more orders about putting some music on.  I turn on some beach boys as requested because there just happens to be a dedicated Beach Boys station currently on my SiriusXM radio.  It’s a slower song so she’s not happy about it and asks me to put some 70’s music on.  And by asks, I do of course, mean she yells as me and orders me.  At this point we’re about 7 minutes into our ride and I’m starting to get a bit annoyed, but I keep telling myself that she’s in a bad spot and she can’t help it.  We pull in to the “Motel”.  I use the quotation marks because the sign says Motel, but it’s even worse than the stigma that would normally be perceived when you think of a Motel vs a Hotel.  This place is the kind of spot where it’s several different buildings.  Each little bungalo type building appears to have 4 rooms in it.  Which is remarkable because each little building is so small it appears to be the size of maybe my living room and the next room put together.  VERY small.

I pull in and she informs me that she’s not sure what room they’re actually in.  But she thinks it’s room 108.  So I start driving around this place and all I’m seeing is up to 40.  Nothing higher.  She orders me to drive around more.  I do, and we circle around the place several more times. and I come to the same conclusion.  So I drive back up to the front and she starts calling her son and and screaming at the voice mail.  I’m going to shorten down this middle part because this whole process was just repeated over and for the next 50 minutes or so.  Screaming, cursing, her getting out and walking around with her dog, getting back in, slamming my door over and over and over and over.  Finally, she decides that she’s had enough and we start heading back to her house.  We get about 6 minutes out of 8 into our trip back to her house and she gets a phone call back from her kids.  They start yelling at each other on the phone and the lady tells me to turn back around and meet them in the McDonalds parking lot right next door.  At this point I’m furious because I’ve spend a sneeze away from an hour for this one ride, and while I feel for what this lady is going through, I’ve got bills to pay, and I can’t do that spending an hour for one ride I’m not getting paid for.  So I pull into the McDonalds where the lady assures me her grand kids are there and waiting for us, and low and behold they’re not there.  She calls them again and then she asks me to wait a few more minutes.  At this point I’ve had enough.

I politely inform her that I’m going to need her to call another Lyft because I’ve spent an hour already driving around and not getting paid.  Surprisingly enough, she apologizes and tells me she understands.  She of course took about 5 minutes to get out and by this time her grand daughter has walked up to the Jeep.  She introduces me and then finally gets out of the Jeep.  Her grand daughter asks her what’s going on and “Rita” tells her that she’s been kicked out.  At this point the grand daughter starts screaming at me and tries to kick my Jeep.  So I politely peel away and listening to her grand daughter scream obscenities at me over a situation she literally has no idea about.

I had to go pull into a gas station and sit for about 15 minutes to calm down after the whole ordeal.  I felt bad because I know she was in a bad situation, and the kids as well.  But I have a strong suspicion that the night would not have ended any time soon if I continued to “drive” “Rita” around.

Anyways, there’s my story.

New Blog Post: (She got out of the car, and you won’t believe what happened next!) has been published on ProbablyRetep http://bit.ly/2MzYph7 #ProbablyRetep

New Post has been published on https://www.probablyretep.com/2018/06/29/she-got-out-of-the-car-and-you-wont-believe-what-happened-next/

She got out of the car, and you won’t believe what happened next!

Somebody mentioned that it was “just like me” to post clickbait so I just had to use that title lol.

So, as promised, I have a story from last night’s driving that is a doosey.  I picked up this lady today from out in the 68th and Division area.  I was already a bit nervous about the pickup because I drove about 15 minutes from across town and it seems many times when I do those pickups where I drive 15-20 minutes to pick somebody up it’s always a very short drop off.  So I pull up in front of her house and wait about 4 minutes and she finally saunters out.  Immediately the red flags start going off because she comes out side and sits down in her lawn chair and starts having a cigarette.  She then after she smokes for 2-3 minutes she finally starts stumbling towards the Jeep.  At this point i’m not really sure if she’s drunk or it’s because she’s an older woman, although I’m definitely leaning towards her being drunk because of how long she’s been taking.  So she climbs in which ends up being a several minute process in of itself because she can’t get her little chihuahua to jump up into the Jeep.  She gets in and almost immediately things start going downhill.

It starts out with my usual pleasantries, asking how are you, how was your day, etc etc.  She pretty much ignores what I’m saying and tells me I need to do a U Turn in the driveway across the street.  I inform her that I usually go around the block because the lights on my Jeep are pretty bright and I don’t like pulling into driveways at night because I don’t want to wake anybody up.  She then informs me that I need to do a U Turn in the driveway again, so I do and we start our journey towards the motel.  Now, because I get into the rest of the story I need to establish one thing.  She’s going on a 16 minute drive.  8 minutes there, 8 minutes back.  Probably way less because this is at like midnight or so, and the roads are empty.  So I pull on to Division towards 44th Street and “Rita” as I will call her decides to tell me what’s going on.  She’s picking up her grand kids from her daughter in law and her son because there’s some sort of family drama doing on (again).  She’s telling me about how terrible her son is and she’s sick and tired of always being the one to have to take care of her grand kids.  Now up until this point, she’s been fairly calm.  She’s very clearly inebriated, because she’s slurring her words, talking in broken sentences.  She apologizes and tells me that she’s drunk because she wasn’t expecting to get the phone call about the kids so she was at home relaxing.  At this point I’m pretty much hook line and sinker feeling terrible for this lady’s situation.  Boy was I in for a surprise.

At this point she starts like freaking out.  Like yelling and cursing.  She’s basically repeating the same information over and over except she’s yelling it and mixed in with expletives.  Currently I’m giving her a pass because I understand what she’s going through being upset about her grand kids.  I can understand the frustration.  She barks some more orders about putting some music on.  I turn on some beach boys as requested because there just happens to be a dedicated Beach Boys station currently on my SiriusXM radio.  It’s a slower song so she’s not happy about it and asks me to put some 70’s music on.  And by asks, I do of course, mean she yells as me and orders me.  At this point we’re about 7 minutes into our ride and I’m starting to get a bit annoyed, but I keep telling myself that she’s in a bad spot and she can’t help it.  We pull in to the “Motel”.  I use the quotation marks because the sign says Motel, but it’s even worse than the stigma that would normally be perceived when you think of a Motel vs a Hotel.  This place is the kind of spot where it’s several different buildings.  Each little bungalo type building appears to have 4 rooms in it.  Which is remarkable because each little building is so small it appears to be the size of maybe my living room and the next room put together.  VERY small.

I pull in and she informs me that she’s not sure what room they’re actually in.  But she thinks it’s room 108.  So I start driving around this place and all I’m seeing is up to 40.  Nothing higher.  She orders me to drive around more.  I do, and we circle around the place several more times. and I come to the same conclusion.  So I drive back up to the front and she starts calling her son and and screaming at the voice mail.  I’m going to shorten down this middle part because this whole process was just repeated over and for the next 50 minutes or so.  Screaming, cursing, her getting out and walking around with her dog, getting back in, slamming my door over and over and over and over.  Finally, she decides that she’s had enough and we start heading back to her house.  We get about 6 minutes out of 8 into our trip back to her house and she gets a phone call back from her kids.  They start yelling at each other on the phone and the lady tells me to turn back around and meet them in the McDonalds parking lot right next door.  At this point I’m furious because I’ve spend a sneeze away from an hour for this one ride, and while I feel for what this lady is going through, I’ve got bills to pay, and I can’t do that spending an hour for one ride I’m not getting paid for.  So I pull into the McDonalds where the lady assures me her grand kids are there and waiting for us, and low and behold they’re not there.  She calls them again and then she asks me to wait a few more minutes.  At this point I’ve had enough.

I politely inform her that I’m going to need her to call another Lyft because I’ve spent an hour already driving around and not getting paid.  Surprisingly enough, she apologizes and tells me she understands.  She of course took about 5 minutes to get out and by this time her grand daughter has walked up to the Jeep.  She introduces me and then finally gets out of the Jeep.  Her grand daughter asks her what’s going on and “Rita” tells her that she’s been kicked out.  At this point the grand daughter starts screaming at me and tries to kick my Jeep.  So I politely peel away and listening to her grand daughter scream obscenities at me over a situation she literally has no idea about.

I had to go pull into a gas station and sit for about 15 minutes to calm down after the whole ordeal.  I felt bad because I know she was in a bad situation, and the kids as well.  But I have a strong suspicion that the night would not have ended any time soon if I continued to “drive” “Rita” around.

Anyways, there’s my story.

New Blog Post: (Going up…. On a Tuesday!) has been published on ProbablyRetep http://bit.ly/2MpYX96 #ProbablyRetep

New Post has been published on https://www.probablyretep.com/2018/06/26/going-up-on-a-tuesday/

Going up…. On a Tuesday!

It’s Tuesday aka laundry day. We got here a little late today than I would have liked but thankfully it’s not too busy.  I don’t mind it being busy but the noise is what gets to me.  Too much screaming I and such gets on my nerves.  We would have been gone by now but somebody, we won’t say any names (me) forgot to actually turn one of the machines on so we ended up having to stay longer.   I like coming to this laundromat because the prices are decent and it’s usually pretty quiet.   Usually. Continue reading “New Blog Post: (Going up…. On a Tuesday!) has been published on ProbablyRetep http://bit.ly/2MpYX96 #ProbablyRetep”

New Blog Post: (Going up…. On a Tuesday!) has been published on ProbablyRetep http://bit.ly/2MpYX96 #ProbablyRetep

New Post has been published on https://www.probablyretep.com/2018/06/26/going-up-on-a-tuesday/

Going up…. On a Tuesday!

It’s Tuesday aka laundry day. We got here a little late today than I would have liked but thankfully it’s not too busy.  I don’t mind it being busy but the noise is what gets to me.  Too much screaming I and such gets on my nerves.  We would have been gone by now but somebody, we won’t say any names (me) forgot to actually turn one of the machines on so we ended up having to stay longer.   I like coming to this laundromat because the prices are decent and it’s usually pretty quiet.   Usually. Continue reading “New Blog Post: (Going up…. On a Tuesday!) has been published on ProbablyRetep http://bit.ly/2MpYX96 #ProbablyRetep”

New Blog Post: (He went to get out of the car, and you won’t believe what happened next!) has been published on ProbablyRetep http://bit.ly/2xeffPY #ProbablyRetep

New Post has been published on http://www.probablyretep.com/2018/05/24/he-went-to-get-out-of-the-car-and-you-wont-believe-what-happened-next/

He went to get out of the car, and you won’t believe what happened next!

Do you like my “clickbait” article title?  I think it’s pretty amazing lol.

Things have been pretty quiet on the Uber / Lyft end lately.  I had those first few stories, and then I’ve had some pretty nice people since then.  Well mostly.  The thing I notice the most is how crappy a bunch of people can be when they drink (too much).  It amazes me.  It amazes me how badly people treat each other after they’ve become drunk.  The number of mean people that I’ve picked up is quite surprising to be honest.  I picked up a Continue reading “New Blog Post: (He went to get out of the car, and you won’t believe what happened next!) has been published on ProbablyRetep http://bit.ly/2xeffPY #ProbablyRetep”