feeling good was good enough for me

cab
1826, shortening of cabriolet (1763) "light, horse-drawn carriage," Fr. dim. of cabrioler "leap, caper," from It. capriolare "jump in the air," from L. capreolus "wild goat." The carriages had springy suspensions. Extended to hansoms and other types of carriages; applied to public horse carriages (of automobiles from 1899), then extended to similar parts of locomotives (1859). Cabby is from 1859.


i like cabbies. and cabbies like me. i must conclude i am liked by cabbies to a point swiftly approaching grace. i've had more free or heavily discounted cab rides than seems naturally possible, including a 12 mile one from lakeview to hyde park one time. many a cab driver has also volunteered to let me pay on a sliding scale dependent on the amount of cash i have on my person. i have a bit of a tendency to hail a cab and hop in only to realize i am a good few dollars short of the fare, but i always check right off and say i'm going to need to pop out when we reach $4 or so on the meter. most cab drivers then volunteer to take me the full $6 away. i try to make up for it by tipping two dollars on cab fares under ten dollars as a rule. while i know this isn't very effective in making it up to those particular individuals i short-changed, the cab karma still seems heavily tipped to good.

tonight my cabdriver bought me a cup of coffee. we arrived at the coffee via this route:
cabbie[rolling down window]: are you cold?
me: no, no i am fine.
cabbie: so you do not want me to buy you a cup of hot soup or something?
me [laughing]: oh no, no thank you. it is not cold out tonight, much nicer than last night.
cabbie: yes but you sounded cold.
me: oh i did? not cold, tired i guess.
...silence for three blocks...
me: you know now you've got me thinking that coffee sounds good.
cabbie[holding up cup from cariboo]: i've got coffee, it's the fancy stuff.
me: i prefer the cheap stuff from dunkin donuts myself.
cabbie: where is the nearest dunkin donuts?
me: clark and montrose [i did not decide in this moment to reveal my near encyclopedic knowledge of the location of over 100 dunkin donuts on the north side--which certainly does merit me a free cup of coffee; however, this cup should be paid for by dunkin not by a kind stranger if you ask me].
cabbie: let me take you to get the coffee.
me[laughing]: oh no, that is not necessary it is so late but thank you.
cabbie: no come on, let us go, no worries the cab will go off for this trip.

so he turned the meter off, drove the one block to dunkin donuts, bought me a cup of coffee and insisted on going inside to get it for me, drove back up to where we were, turned the meter back on and dropped me off at home. i did say thank you and tip nicely. i said yes because well i never say no to kindness.