Cab Drivers
Since I live in downtown Chicago and don’t own a car, I take cabs pretty frequently.
What is it about cab drivers and their need to be talking on their cell phones at all times? Every time I get in a cab, the driver is always talking on a head set the entire time, usually in a language that I can’t identify.
I used to think they were asking me a question, but after a few occasions of realizing he was chatting away to someone else, I now ignore any dialogue coming from the driver.
Then, there are the times that he really was asking me something concerning my destination, but I assumed he was having a personal conversation like all the other times and didn’t pay any attention.
It’s a wonder I haven’t ended up in Milwaukee.
The other day, it was bitterly cold and windy (duh! It’s January in Chicago) so I took a cab nine blocks to choir rehearsal. The cab driver was speaking a language so incredibly strange – he was emphatically telling someone to "wawawawawa–pglrqaqaqa dlrrrrrr-dlrrrrr-dlrrrr-QaQuqaquqaqu dlgpqrok-wawawawawa!"
Wow. For nine blocks, he was making verbalizations that didn’t even sound human. I just had to know what language that was. As I was paying him, I kindly asked what language he was speaking. (It was Senegalese.)
That got me to thinking. What other profession enables a worker to make continual personal phone calls during every working hour? I certainly can’t do that. Can you?
Can you imagine an OB-GYN conducting a pelvic exam while uttering "wawawawawa–pglrqaqaqa dlrrrrrr-dlrrrrr-dlrrrr-QaQuqaquqaqu dlgpqrok-wawawawawa!" on a head set the entire time?
Unless you're in Senegal, I don’t think that would be acceptable.
I can imagine that being a cab driver might not be the most exciting profession in the world and they may want to do something to quell the boredom. But still, they’re being entrusted to transport a human person safely from one place to their destination of choice. I should think they’d be required to concentrate on the task at hand as much as possible.
At least the OB-GYN isn’t in danger of smashing the patient into a tree.
posted by Br. Jonathan @ 1/11/2010
2 Comments
2 Comments:
LOL! :) Yes, but I think OB-GYN'S could potentially do much more painful damage if they weren't paying attention to the task at hand! *grin*
Maybe the cab driver is working a second job -- maybe he's a bookie. Or maybe even an operator for a customer service Call Center. We just think we are calling a foreign land when Technical Service answers on the other end of a 1-800-HELP line. Based on the the help I've received on these calls before, it's more likely I was talking to a cab driver in Chicago (or New York) as they were negotiating traffic. Did you hear anything that could have been "disconnect you power cord and wait 30 seconds . . ."?
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