uber

I brought my car in for service today – I needed schedule A service and I needed tires.

I go early, before my mechanic arrives, and I leave the car and the key with the gas station attendant in the store part of the place. I block the main garage door, and I leave a note. So when the guys arrive, they get to my car first and it’s done by lunchtime.

I dropped the car off at 7:30 am today!

When my gas station guy called me to discuss the car, I asked him if he was surprised the car was there so early. He said, “No, you always do that.”

My Uber ride home was a Tesla. My second Tesla. I was thinking it was my first, but when it was time to open the door to let myself out, I couldn’t find out how to do it, and it reminded me that on my ride to LaGuardia Airport in NY last month, I was also in a Tesla.

I’ve been in three or four Ubers that were Mercedes and one Ferrari. Yes, a gleaming white Ferrari driving by a beautiful blond girl. It was at Miami Airport, coming home from NY a couple of December’s ago. Maybe it was for Art Basel people, which was at that time, maybe not. I was tempted to ask the girl why she was driving an Uber, but it was none of my business.

A few of the Mercedes were in New York and one in Miami. One Mercedes was an SUV – really nice.

I sometimes think it might be fun to drive an Uber. For maybe a day. But then again, I hate to drive down the block to the supermarket, so that’s out.

We used to have a Freebee service in our village. Many towns in the Miami area have them. They are golf cart type things that you summon on an app and they take you anywhere you want in each particular town. It’s free, hence the name Freebee. You just leave a tip.

So basically in Coral Gables, you are picked up and dropped off in Coral Gables. In Key Biscayne, the same – only service in Key Biscayne, etc.

Miami neighborhoods also have free trolleys. I used to use that often when dropping off my car, but they changed the route so that I would have to take two trolleys, which isn’t bad expect for the wait for the trolley. So a half hour wait, four times – two and from, wastes a lot of time.

So for now, Uber will do – until I pick up my car later today.

Till next time . . .

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I’m glad to be back in Miami. But it seemed like I would never make it home from the airport. The Uber drive from the airport almost took as long as the plane ride from New York, and it should only take about 15 minutes!

My plane ride home was uneventful, the best type of plane ride. It left on time and arrived earlier – can’t get much better than that. Except, then there is Uber.

I summoned an Uber and waited and waited and waited. The app showed she was right near me, but I couldn’t find her. And apparently, she could not find me.

The last time this happened was last December, during Art Basel, where the airport is a madhouse, but this was a quiet Tuesday afternoon in October, so the airport was dead, there weren’t many people in the place, but yet we could not find each other.

I kept looking for a gray car, I can’t remember the type now, but there were no gray cars and the thing with Miami cars is that we don’t have front license plates, so it’s sometimes impossible to find your Uber.

In places like NY, you see the car coming simply by looking at the front license plate.

I sent the driver a message or two or maybe six or seven. And I called her a number of times. Nothing. No response. After half an hour, I canceled the call and they are trying to charge me something for the cancellation, which I’ll fight.

I summoned another car. This one was “green” and the guy was apparently deaf. That’s what his profile said. So I thought what could go wrong. He arrived fast and turns out he wasn’t deaf. So that was good, I was picturing a Seinfeld episode in my head trying to communicate with him, but that wasn’t a problem.

The issue with this guy was that he took me on a long trip through Miami. Basically, on a sightseeing tour. We went through Doral, Little Havana and other areas. I asked him why. He said he was trying to avoid traffic.

Finally, when we got to my neighborhood, I told him to go straight ahead to the main street and not make twists and turns through the neighborhood, as Uber usually does with their maps.

After an hour-and-a-half, I got home. An hour and a half after we landed at the airport! I may start going back to yellow cabs for a while.

COMING UP:
My brush with Urban cops – NY and Hoboken
Friday’s Tomversation toons of the week
What’s behind my Publix self-checkout scrutiny?

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