It seems I have a little bottle of 30 days supply of everything in the pharmacy. For someone that had only Tylenol and Motrin in the cabinet, I can now seemingly go into business for myself. Come on over, see all the flavors… something for everyone. Let’s have a party! Right, I think not.

I did my due diligence when I started taking these meds. I read all the instructions carefully and took note of the warnings. I was fully aware of the side effects when I started dosing. But being aware and having the reactions are two different things.

For one, I am tired all the time. I wake up in the morning and want nothing more than to go back to sleep. I get up anyway; partake in morning ablutions and go to work. Invariably I will get the following reactions: A few hours later I will get horny, this is from the Androgel. Next I will want to vomit all morning long; this is from the Wellbutrin and smoking, but I smoke anyway. A few hours later it comes around and I just get tired, this could be from anything. In any case by the time I get home all I want is a shower, a lot of food, and then to go to sleep. At night I am just tired and as I fall asleep I start sweating like a pig. I toss and turn all night long in the sweat getting up to piss every few hours. Now I know the urinating routine, which is from the diabetes, but here is the rub, my BGL (Blood Glucose Level) is steady and falling into a normal range again. I should not have to urinate all the time. I know my need for water intake has waned, and that too was a reaction to a high BGL. Lastly, my feet get as cold as death and all the blankets in the world don’t seem to help sometimes.

Did you notice something missing there? Yeah, one of my mainstays of life is missing… when do I have time for sex? Truth be know I have no interest in it right now unless someone puts the interest into me. Another side effect and one I hate. So when I want it, that is when I go over to the medicine cabinet and get yet another flavored pill out. This one is a little blue pill that should taste like berries, but I just down it. Give that about an hour to work, some self motivation, a bit of reciprocal interest and I am good to go. To bad I need more meds just to do it… believe me this is not my choice.

The last of the side effects, a lack of motivation to do much of anything. This is insidious. I know there are things I have to do, but for whatever reason I find ways to put them off. I find excuses not to do things. I look to just lie down on the bed and ignore the world. This is possibly the worst of it. Lack of motivation makes the days blend together. It makes you not give a damn about anything or anyone. It makes you an incomplete person.

The thing is, before I went on the meds I was giving myself reasons to do things. I was going out and taking pictures, spending time with people, working on writing and blogging. I was doing things that made a life more rounded and now I have slipped back into a pattern of endless and indistinguishable days. Welcome to what is possible the worst of all living hells.

I tell myself that I just need to try harder and do more and then I just ignore it. I then search out the place under my blankets that seems to be the only solitude remaining. The weirdest thing though is that I am not depressed. I know what depression feels like and this is not it. In fact the Wellbutrin is meant to stop the clinical depression I was feeling and to its’ merit it seems to be doing just that. So maybe it is a psychological depression after all. I can’t take that excuse either because things (mentally) were good before I started the new regimen.

I know that I have come under a lot of stress lately, maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe I am using stress as just another excuse. Maybe I am just lazy at heart and this is my true strip revealed at last. Maybe, maybe, maybe… more excuses.

So, that is the haze of my daze of late. Maybe all I need is more time to get used to the meds. One more excuse…

Where have I been? What have I been doing? What is new with me? Am I still alive? How are the boys? How’s the love-life? How’s the family? How’s the job? Seen any good movies lately? Take in any good shows? Dine anywhere I would want to go? Take any cool photos recently? Read any good books? Ya dead man?

I know I have not been around lately but there is a very good reason for that. For the last few months I have taken the time on my days off to be with a special someone. For whatever reason I felt that being with her was more important than writing. I took the time with full intent to return to the blogging when the two would not conflict.  Now that her schedule is back in session and I am off when she is at work, I can, once again, enlighten the world to my skewed point of view.

As to the list of questions above, here is the quick response:

I’ve been in Las Vegas doing not doing much of anything. New is the list of pills I have to ingest on a daily basis. Well, yes I am… otherwise why would I be taking all those pills? The boys are fine and growing up fast. Excellent, when it is happening. Don’t know, seems the rest of my extended family has forgotten about me. Boring but paying for living. Yeah, I would recommend “The Night Listener” for a good flick with an excellent cast and good performances. The last performance I saw was Phantom of the Opera, the Las Vegas Spectacular and it was excellent, especially if you have not seen a Broadway performance of POTO. Same night as the POTO I ate at Pinot Brassiere and was very happy so I can highly recommend Pinot. Man it has been hot here, so no I have not gotten out since that last long trip in June. Yeah, pick up a copy of “Confessions of a Street Addict” by JJ Cramer, it’s wild. Ja man, ‘m dead…

Oh but there have been time that I have wanted t sit down and write. Some of the topics I wanted to cover are: The Jon Benet Ramsey case, Joe Lieberman, Iraq and Iran, Tipping in Las Vegas, Rude Cabbies, Cultural Disrespect for Property, Parental Responsibility (Is there such thing as too much?), Drug Side Effects, Have We Been Visited?, Horny at the Wrong Time, Getting It all Together, and more. In fact I have started some of these, but I was just not inclined to finish them immediately. Then something would come up and again I was put off from publishing.

For me I need some time to write. I require an environment that will not distract me from the writing with comforts and such. I need to be left alone for a while. I need time to compose my thoughts and usually that can be accomplished outside of the house in either a bar, restaurant, or coffee shop. If the shop has a place to plug in, great, if I can smoke, even better. Best of all worlds is a spot that has free WiFi so that I can get on the net to do research and find pictures if I need. Also, with a hot spot I can post faster and get the post out of the way and move on. Alas, the last good spot I found for my writing is now off limits to me.

Why I hear you cry? Because they fed me a burger with something hard in it and I broke a tooth. When I asked for their insurance information I then became persona non grata, even after they turned down my claim. Since I was not willing to search through my feces for the tooth fragment and the hard shard, I will have to pay for my tooth repair and loose a favored writing venue. Sometimes life sucks.

So here I am in yet another restaurant, having breakfast, writing and not finding a WiFi connection I can hump off, not to mention there are no power sockets for me to plug into conveniently and no smoking. Looks like the Frog will become a hang once again but they do not open until 11am and I like to work in the mornings. I will have to figure out a way of working, move and then continue. What a distraction.

It has been a while, looks like I’m back again.

Does it occur to anyone here that the TA is treating us all like children? The below article is from Tripsheet (see partial below), but there was another in Cabbie Guide that I find quite patronizing. It makes me feel like I am a criminal and that all cabbie are nothing but lawbreaking scum.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I can tell you I follow the laws and regs as best I can. To hold a cabbie hostage to a missing bag (when it clearly states in the cabs and on the cabs that lost items are not the cabbies responsibility) is just ridiculous. To then have the TA set up sting operations against cabbies may well be a violation of our rights. In fact there may be a case to be made for TA harrassing (as a class) cabbies for situations that are not within thier control. Let’s face it, ever try to find a black wallet in a black upholstered van at night? Good luck. But yet we are told that we are responsible for the carelessness of the passengers. If another fare picks up that wallet, how can the cabbie know about it? He can’t but by the rules that are being stated he could go to jail. This is not fair.

And why are they picking on cabbies anyway. Cabbies are not the only people to break the rules of the road, to single us out is yet another reason we may have a class action against the TA. The TA is here to protect us and investigate crimes against cabbies, since when are they our private police force? Doesn’t Metro do a good enough job with that already?

Also, we are now told that there are 96 more medalions on the street. Thanks TA for lowering my fares by 5%. Don’t they get it, they are screwing us and really could not give a damn about the cabbies. I mean it does not make a difference to the companies, they are going to get the same amount of cash income every day anyway, but the cabbies are screwed. Do the math, there are X number of fares, and Y number of cabbies. Divide the two and you get the number of fares for each cabbie (roughly). The cab companies do not care, the average will work out the same for them any way you look at it. Adding 96 more cabs only hurts the cabbies.

Now I do not want to hear that people are standing in line complaining, so are the cabbies, and 96 more medalions are not going to make a difference in the service of fares. The day works in peaks and valleys in terms of fares available. As the peaks of fares run up, there is no way the cabs can keep up with demand. Adding 96 more cabs will not help this. On the other hand, when it is slow and cabbies are sitting in lines waiting to pick up, all those extra cab will lengthen the wait time for the cabbies. Since the most precious commodity a cabbie has is time, the more you delay the rides, the worse off he is and can never make up for the lost time.

Of course the best of all worlds is if we can vary the amount of cabs on the road so that the peaks are met and the lulls are thinned out (one reason why I take a breakfast at 6:30am, during a lull) but that is not possible since most shifts are 10 to 12 hours and the peeks do not last that long.

Speaking of killing an honest cabbie, lets talk about convention plates for a moment. We cabbies hear it endlessly that we do not service the conventions, so lets clear up a few things. 1) Do you know how hard it is to get to the convention centers when they are letting out? If we can not get there, we can not make money and if we cannot make money, why bother to go there. If traffic was set up to allow better access for cabbies in and out of the convention centers you would have a lot more cabbies going there because it would not be a colossal waste of time. In fact it would be advantagous to go there and thus the service would be better. 2) I actually think that the convention medalions are a good idea, but there is a problem, the drivers do not follow the rules that are implied with the plates. These convention drivers go anywhere taking away fares from normal medalion cabs. If the convention cabs are only allowed to pick up at the convention centers, they should be policed and NOT allowed to pick up anywhere else so as not to kill normal plated drivers business. Otherwise why bother with convention plates at all.

In case this may seem too difficult to understand, I will give my three rules for driving. 1) Keep someone in the back seat as much as possible (meter on) 2) Keep the wheels rolling ($22 for waiting is not nearly as good as averaging 40mph and $80 and hour) 3) Between drop off and pick up the shortest time and distance possible. Do these three things and I will have a good day.

The last paragraph of they article in Cabbie Guide was about tipping. The author implied that “tips should not be expected”. Well I got news for TA, since they tax us on the meter and add an addition amount to our gross pay, we are paying tax on the tips even if we are not receiving them. In this case, now that taxes are expected the tip must be expected also. So yeah, I expect a tip from each fare, and if the tip is not enough to cover the tax that is charged for it, i am getting ripped off. It is not hard to see why cabbies expect a good tip, after all, they are adding 22.5% to out gross pay that we are being taxed on.

It just amazes me that the TA is that blind to what is really going on here in Las Vegas in regard to how a taxi driver must look at the business. We are working the streets for a living. If you took away the tips (which was implied in the article) you would have very few drivers left because we do not make an hourly wage. There are some hours we do not even make a minimum wage and the hours where we are making a good wage are now thinned because there are 96 more cabs on the street. It is no wonder that there is a shortage of drivers, it is becoming more are more fiscally unsound to be a driver.

BTW, if you think that this, lower earnings, is not cause for cabbies to get grumpy and not provide great service, then you are living in LA LA Land. Lower earning grate on you day in and day out and some drivers do not deal with it very well. So yeah, you are going to get some rude behavior, and that will only increase as the days continue and the earning get lower and the tips get fewer and further between. So on behalf of the future taxi fares that get insulted and complain, thank you for providing more of the reasons we cabbies get crabby. Hope you at TA like taking even more complaints.

* Partial Copy of Article from; Trip Sheet Magazine.pg.34.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Re: “ CRIME “.. & .. “ ACCIDENTS “ by: Investigator - Rob
Stewart - Public Information Officer & Nevada Taxicab Auth-
ority.( 702-486-6532, Ext.510 ) from: August 2006, Volume
20 , Number 08.( Publisher - Lynn H. Pearson 702-641-9944.)
***********************************************
* CRIME : It would appear that crime in the industry is
on the rise once again.June’s statistics show there were
5 reported Robberies,1 Attempted Robbery and 1 Battery
on a Cabdriver. An arrest was made in one of the
robberies and the suspect in the one Attempted Robbery
was also arrested.During June, 4 taxicabs were stolen.
Two were taken during Robberies and two were taken
from their respective yard.All of the stolen cabs have
since been recovered.The Officers of the taxicab Authority
responded to 1,096 complaints and 490 teaffic accidents
or reports of damage to cabs.As a note of caution,the
LVMPD Tourist - Safety Unit and the Taxicab Authority
conduct periodic checks of drivers to determine if drivers
are turning in “Lost Property” from their cabs.You are
STRONGLY encouraged to follow the rules and laws when
it comes to checking your cab after EVERY ride and turning
in any “Lost Property” you find. Several drivers can already
tell you from first hand experience that you may just
find yourself in the Clark County Detention Center trying
to post bail for a felony charge.

* ACCIDENTS - The Nevada Taxicab Authority responds
to an average of 500 accidents a month involving taxicabs.
The number represents not only accidents but also include
damage to cabs like “door dings” and passengers opening
doors into other cars, ect.Still, the number of taxicabs
involved in accidents is way too high.Traffic accident
statistics compiled by The Nevada Highway Patrol,The Las
Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and The North Las
Vegas & Henderson Police Departments all show the
violations mentioned above are the primary causes for
accidents here in the valley.In responce to this,Taxicab
Authority Administrator Richard Land is implimenting a
“ Zero Tolerance.” policy when it comes to what is termed
as “crash causing violations” effective August 1st.What
this means to you is when TA officers stop a cabdriver
for 1. SPEEDING. 2. RUNNING A RED LIGHT. 3. RUNNING
A STOP SIGN.and 4.SEAT BELT VIOLATIONS,the officer
will be REQUIRED to write a citation.Additionally,the fines
for those violations will NOT be reduced.! So far,about a
dozen Taxicab Authority officers have been trained &
certified in the use of RADAR and have RADAR units
installed in their cars. More RADAR units have been
ordered and are on the way for the rest of the officers.
The bottom line is: SLOW DOWN.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** OTHER TOPICS also covered in the
“ Taxicab Authority News” are:

1. A very respectfull condolence for Mr.Craig
Harris passing. ( As most of you know - our Brother
cab driver - Craig Harris - was the Managing Editor
of Tripsheet Magazine & a Union Steward and
long time ACTIVIST for the cab drivers in Las Vegas.).

2.* LONG HAULING and GEO RESTRICTIONS:

3.NEW MEDALLION ALLOCATIONS:

4.PASSENGER SERVICE.

** IF you would like a COMPLETE COPY of the Article..??
( It’s VERY INFORMATIVE )..!! Contact us here @ the
International Taxi Drivers’ Safety Council and we will
be happy to FAX or snail mail U a copy. OR..perhaps U
would prefer to contact Investigator - Mr. Rob Stewart
@ 702-486-6532,Ext.510 in Las Vegas...OR..Contact :
Trip Sheet Magazine’s Publisher & Advertising
Dir.Lynn H. Pierson @ 702-641-
9944.( Email- _editor@..._
(mailto:editor@...) ).

Most Sincerely & Respectfully Submitted F.Y.Info.
( Please pass it on.).

International Taxi Drivers’ Safety Council.
_www.itdsc.org_ (http://www.itdsc.org/)
304-525-0902 or 509-217-6525

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