This is why Ack Stress O Ride is late (update)

No more excess ride vans

I have a reason to think my ack stress a ride travel will become a little smoother. Last week I changed my subscription and told them I don't require a lift for my wheelchair anymore. So now I don't always get picked up in the giant clunky diesel vans that are converted into buses. Yesterday my round-trip was in vehicles that could have been Uber Cabs. On the way to therapy I sat in the backseat of a brand-new Toyota Camry. It was a sweet ride and we even got to go over the Brooklyn Bridge.

The ride home started out as pleasant.. A brand-new Toyota Sienna showed up 15 minutes early and I got to sit up front. But when I started to offer the driver the fastest route home he told me I wasn't the next stop. And in fact he had three stops before he was bringing me home. Oh shit.

The first pick up was across the street from the Chrysler Building. It took us almost as long to get from 38th and 2nd to 42nd and Lexington as it would have to take me all the way to Park Slope. Fortunately for me when we got there the passenger canceled. So I figured we might have to drop that person off before taking me home. But that turned out not to be true she would've only gone five more blocks.

The next pick up was on 58th St. off of Park Avenue. It took us an hour to get there. On the way there the driver got a call from excess ride asking him his ETA of the next pick up. He screamed back into the phone five minutes. In my old life it would've taken us five minutes to walk there but we got there a half hour later. But the problem is there's no way the driver could've gotten to that pick up in five minutes and he knew that. He should've been honest. When my excess ride right is late I call the dispatcher and ask where the vehicle is. Not when it will arrive. If I'm standing out in the heat or cold I just need an honest answer.

Then the fun really started. We pulled up to the address and the driver waved to some guy and he got in. From my seat it was unclear what they said to each other. I thought the driver just said are you waiting for excess ride and then he got in but my friend in the car thought that the driver asked him if he was Brown, and he answered in the affirmative. A minute after we started driving away the driver got another call from excess ride asking him his ETA to the destination we had just been to. It instantly became clear to everyone in the minivan that he picked up the wrong person. It took us another 45 minutes to drive around the block and let him out and pick up the right person. Then we had a pick up two more people in Gramercy Park who needed to be dropped off in Brooklyn Heights.

So I got picked up at a 2:45 and got home at 5:15. The old me could've walked home faster.  I just made a very messy map of our route and it was under 14 miles. It took us 2 1/2 hours to drive 14 miles. I have run hip-hop marathons in less than an hour and 45 minutes. And the straightest line for my rehab hospital to my home is 7 miles I could've done that in an hour.

And I probably will again, because in that physical therapy session I was given the green light to start using a cane. That four-wheel walker has been slowing me down. Yeah, technically it's called a forearm crutch. I will only need one just like Dr. House.  Dr. House by the way is the only TV doctor to diagnose anyone with GBS. In that episode he later corrected himself but he did think someone had GBS.  To the best of my knowledge it's the only time GBS was ever mentioned in it fictional TV show.




I stand corrected