July 4, 2008 – The 4th of July in Cortez

        I have mixed feelings about working on the 4^th of July.  The money is good, but it’s oh so frustrating.  Traffic everywhere, no parking, drunks everywhere, you name it.  Especially here in Cortez.  I hear that 500,000 people come here alone to watch the fireworks.  You get a good view from the bay.  Actually a great view – if you’re lucky enough to get to the front and get a seat.  Sure beats watching them from National City.  Or you may know National City by something else – “Nasty City, “National Tragedy”, “National Shitty”, “Nasty Shitty” and so on, you get the point.  If you’ve been there you know what I’m talking about.  Consequently we get a lot of rif-raf from there, Chula Vista “Chulajuana” too for that matter.  Don’t send me the hate mail, they were nicknamed that long before I moved here.

            It takes a good 30 minutes to get from one side of town to the other (which is only about 2 miles).  It’s a mess.  I had to take a break after a bit today.  For an hour I took a break and shot some photos.  There was absolutely no street parking.  I just parked in an alley.  It was hard to get a good spot but I made due.  Had time to shoot a few photos, not my favorites, but they were fun to shoot.

            After that I was back to work.  Traffic had subsided a bit, but was still a disaster.  When it was all said and done at 2:45 a.m. I had made $370 in fares in about 10 hours.  No one had tried to fight me.  No one had thrown up in my cab.  Everyone had paid the fare, except this super drunk guy who tried to pay with a credit card for a $6 fare.  That one was on me, it’s just not worth the time to mess around with a credit card when it’s that busy, it’s actually better just to pick up another fare believe it or not.