#i sent him a picture of the flight map showing the loops we had to take and he texted back that it was a 'beautiful holding pattern'

[astriiformes]

We picked an interesting day to travel for our eclipse trip. The earthquake on the East Coast closed down our connecting airport and left us in a holding pattern for a solid 45 minutes, and delayed our next flight by several hours.

That said, I do love the immediate bonding that happens on a plane full of people who were just told that an earthquake of all things left us stuck in the air (can truthfully say that when the pilot announced we were clear to land, everyone clapped). It's also been very entertaining texting with my dad since -- he has a classic case of Airplane Autism and is the whole reason I know as much as I do about planes, and has been fascinated by the whole affair.

[people-of-uber]

Sun 3/11 to Mon 3/12, 2017

HEREIN I REVEAL A BIG SECRET THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW IF YOU USE UBER OR LYFT.

I took my car in on Sunday to get cleaned from last night’s mess. I sent in the photos that I took right after I dropped the couple off, and even though the pictures didn’t show a huge mess, my description was detailed enough and there was still enough residue from the wipes (and from the girl) that they gave me a $150 credit for cleaning fee, charged to the rider’s card. Took the day off, because that was already my highest-grossing day of the week.

12:36pm. Guy at a hotel near Hobby Airport needed a ride to the airport, since he didn’t realize he had to make a reservation for the hotel shuttle. He’s an Australian who now lives in Columbus, Ohio, down visiting his girlfriend in Houston. They scheduled the visit around a Rockets/Cavaliers basketball game, since he’s a fan of the team from when he used to live here and he wanted to be able to cheer for his team as a home team, not as a lone fan in Cleveland’s arena.

9:32pm. Picked up a woman at the airport​, who got in while talking on the phone and stayed on the phone for the entire ride. Thus, I only caught her half of the conversation. Her flight had gotten delayed due to the east coast blizzard, and she seemed to think the airlines could have done a better job at relocating their planes so that a flight from wherever she had come from that was nowhere near the blizzard to Houston shouldn’t have been impacted. She couldn’t believe that she was coming back to Houston so soon after the Super Bowl. You know those Houston women, they’re all just looking for husbands. Her biggest concern was how the testing window for some CPA classes she was taking had changed, so instead of having two chances to take a test in that time (mid June and mid August), now you only had one (mid August). And the date changed so that now she wouldn’t get the grades until after the date of her evaluation for her bonus in early August. Apparently there are a number of first and second years who are affected by this, but nobody brought it to their bosses attention. So the firm is going to have to make some adjustments on the whole bonus thing. (She mentioned KPMG, so I’m assuming it’s an accounting firm, but I didn’t know that accountants have “first and second year” students as employees, I had only heard that in relation to law students working at firms.)

10:18pm. Positioned myself for a pickup at the rodeo, a few blocks away. I saw the surge coming in as the concert let out: 1.5x, 2.0x, 2.7x. I sat there offline, waiting until I thought the surge was going to peak, then finally went online when it hit 3.0. I got a request at 3.4x, but a minute later they cancelled (I guess it was too much). Got another request at 3.0 from someone else, they cancelled too. The rider is allowed to cancel within a couple minutes of making a request with no penalty, but not more than 5 minutes or else you’ll get hit with a cancel fee.

10:26pm. Finally got a keeper at 2.6x. (Staying offline and not taking every ride, and then going online when you’re in the surge, is a way to maximize income while minimizing driving at lower 1.0x rates). ​The shortest distance route to their destination, going up Main from the stadium into Midtown, was 10 minutes longer due to traffic, so I showed them that Google Maps recommended taking the 610 Loop to 59 into midtown as the shorter duration but longer distance. Having given them that choice, they opted for the longer distance but shorter duration as I hoped they would. PAY ATTENTION HERE, I’M GIVING OUT A DRIVER SECRET: for those riding Uber or Lyft, ALWAYS take the shorter distance vs the shorter time unless you’re in a hurry, as the payment per mile is many times the payment per minute. You’ve got a map app on your phone, see what’s the shorter distance route and insist the driver go that way instead of the shorter time route. In Houston, the fare is 87 cents per mile plus 11 cents per minute, and it’s different in every city (usually more). The short distance route of 5.0 miles and 43 minutes would have cost this couple ($1 + 5.0x$0.87 + 43x$0.11 = $10.08) for the base fare, vs the shorter duration route of 11.34 miles and 33 minutes which cost them ($1 + 11.34x$0.87 + 33x$0.11 = $14.50), and when the 2.5x surge is factored in, they paid $36.24 instead of $25.20. The driver will get privately pissed at you for depriving him of that difference – Uber takes 28%, so I’d get $26.09 vs $18.14 on this route – but the passenger has the right to determine the route. Of course, I didn’t tell them any of this financial stuff, I just let them think they made the right decision by choosing the quicker route.

11:17pm. ​A retired-age looking couple requested me from a hotel near the stadium, they had walked to get out of the traffic jam. They were in a suite at the rodeo, and had no idea who was playing as they don’t know anything about all those new country artists. They’d much rather have Willie Nelson or George Strait play. She thought the music was OK even though she had never heard any of the songs before, but the teenage girls in their suite knew all the words to the songs and sang along with all of them. Somehow they got to discussing how a friend of hers had been thrown from a golf cart when it took a turn too fast and had gotten hurt, something rodeo related, and got a million-dollar settlement but that wasn’t enough to cover her medical bills. Dropped her off at a luxury apartment complex near Greenway Plaza, then took him to his townhouse a couple miles away. (I thought for sure that they were married.)

12:11am. On the way home from dropping off that last couple, I passed near Hobby Airport and saw that there was 1 car in the queue for passengers wanting a ride, so I ​figured I could get a trip with no waiting. As soon as I got close to the airport, I was put into the queue and instantly got a request. A mom and son were coming home from a ski trip in Colorado, and I got super lucky in that their destination was the next subdivision over from where I live, so it was a paid ride home for me. They had been in Vail, so we got to compare various Colorado resorts (I’ve only been to Steamboat, Vail, and Copper Mountain, and I liked Steamboat the best because it had the most runs at my skill level of advanced Blue) and skiing vs snowboarding.

Get a free (up to $20) ride if you’re a first-time Uber rider, or use this promo code if you want to drive: https://get.uber.com/invite/michaelg1733