&games

Played Thurn and Taxis for the first time a couple days ago. I do have some thoughts on the game and I should have something posted in a few days.

In the meantime I gotta spread the news about the Sausage, Egg and Cheese Croissant from the Holiday chain of convience stores. These sandwiches may be as good as the Burger King Croissanwich was 15 years ago. And believe me, I know of which I speak.

That may sound like smack talk to you fast food purists out there, but I ain't kidding. In my estimation, the Burger King Croissanwich has been on a par with crap for the last 10 - 15 years. If you weren't lucky enough to get in on the first wave you completely missed the boat.

If you missed out, you have the rare opportunity to re-live the old days. The Sausage, Egg and Cheese Croissant from Holiday kicks ass.

It has the perfect combination of fat and nitrates. In fact, it may be better than the original Croissanwich.

Check it out.

No game content whatsoever, and this story isn't even that funny. It won't hurt my feelings one bit if you skip this and go straight to Yehuda's blog, or John's blog.

To set the scene:

The bars are closing and I am parked outside one of the downtown bars in my taxi. There are a half dozen people standing outside of this particular bar.

One old guy comes around to my window and asks, "How much to take me to (such and such an address)?"

"Seven or eight dollars."

He counts out eight single bills and hands them to me. "Can you get me home?"

"Sure. Get in."

He gets in the cab. The car is in reverse, I am backing out. A woman opens the back door and asks, "Can you take us to (another downtown bar)?"

"No. I'm taking this guy home."

"Come on we'll pay for his ride too."

I looked at the old guy, he said, "No. Take me home."

"Sorry lady, he's already paid me. I'm taking him home."

"Come on. Take us." She sat in the back seat and yelled at her friends, "Come on let's go to (the other bar)."

Three other people got into the back seat. I told them three or four times to get out, that we weren't going to the other bar.

"Come on just take us."

I looked at the old guy again, he looked at me and said, "You want to take me home or should I catch another cab?"

"I'll take you home. Come on folks, get out! I need to take him home."

"F*** you. Let's go."

So we went.

After three or four blocks they realized we were going in a direction they did not want to go. "Hey, we said (the other bar)!"

I stopped. "Oh. Do I have your attention now? I am taking this gentleman home. You will need to catch a different cab to the other bar."

"You said you would take us to (the other bar)!"

"No. I specifically said I would not take you to (the other bar)."

They continued to argue. I invited them to get out. They gave me directions to the bar.

No one got out, so I continued down the street.

Once again, "You're going the wrong way!"

I stopped again, and explained the situation again. They refused to get out.

Ten blocks and four stops later the smartest guy in the group said, (and I quote word for word), "Let me out. We could walk there faster than this."

Three of them got out at that point. The fourth insisted that I either take him to the bar he wanted to go to or return him to the bar where I picked him up.

I continued taking the old guy home. The guy in the back accused me of kidnapping him. I stopped again and invited him to get out. He refused. He asked me where I was taking the old man. "That is none of your business. That is between me and him. Would you get out, please?"

"Will you take me back? I will pay you."

He could not have timed it any better. At that very moment we saw a vacant cab parked along the street. I stopped next to it. "There's another taxi. Why don't you take it."

The guy opened the door to get out and started lecturing me. He lectured for well over a minute. I told him I was leaving, please get in the other cab. He lectured me for another thirty seconds. I warned him repeatedly that I was going to leave. He continued to lecture me. The old guy said, "Let's go."

We went. I left with him still sitting in my cab, his car door open, and still lecturing me about courtesy.

By this time I was calling him "Idiot".

"Would you like to get out now, Idiot?"

He ranted about me kidnapping him.

"How far are we going?"

"You don't have to go any further. Would you like to get out now, Idiot?"

"If you would come to a complete stop I would get out."

I slammed on the brakes. "Like this?"

He still refused to get out. He lectured me on how dangerous it was to get out of a moving car, and he would have gotten out a long time ago if I had only come to a complete stop. The old guy was laughing. That pissed off the idiot even more.

I dropped the old guy off. I gave him his money back and apologized for the drama. The old guy just laughed and refused to take it, "No take it, I had fun. Just do me a favor and take this idiot somewhere else before you kick him out."

The police are pretty good about removing belligerent drunks from taxis, but I had absolutely no intention of waiting for a cop to arrive. The one time I had to have the police remove a passenger I just drove to the police station, but the police station is only a few block from where the idiot wanted to go. As it was we were about 3 miles away from where we started. I was loathe to take him closer to his desired destination.

So I called it quits for the night. I went home four hours early just because it would take the idiot further from his intended destination.

I pulled into a gas station on the way back to the shop. The idiot asked me what I was doing.

I got out to pump gas, "Getting gas," I replied. (As a side note, this guy had me so pissed off that I pulled the car up to the wrong side of the pump. He thought that was hilarious. It probably was. To an idiot.)

He laughed riotously. "You don't need gas."

I didn't know what to say. So I called him an idiot. And for good measure I called him several more names.

"You have half a tank. You don't need more gas." He was still laughing.

"I need to fill it up for the next driver. That is just common courtesy, but you wouldn't know anything about that would you, Idiot?"

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. I hit a nerve. This individual who seemed so passive up to that point got out of the cab and was in my face with clenched fists. He told me I didn't know anything about him. I thought he was going to hit me. I walked away, the situation calmed down.

I paid for my gas, walked back out to the car and the idiot asked if I would take him back downtown for free.

I jumped back in, called him an idiot several more times and left before he could get back in.

I was still too pissed off to continue working. I came home.

And, before I forget, there is a kicker.




And the kicker.....






is...........





Wait for it...........





Wait................





I'm pretty sure the guy was sober. Although he was standing outside the bar, he was not part of the other group. When he first got into the cab the other group told him to get out, that it was "their" cab. He didn't get out, and the other people started insisting that we go, so we left with him still in the cab.

I shudder to think how stupid he would be if he were to drink.

And don't tell me I should have removed him. I had the distinct feeling that this clown wanted me to touch him so that he could claim some sort of assault.