December 2022

Today the Uber app says I helped 3 people take 3 trips. Those are quality trips to Tampa International Airport. Because I do not care at all and never have about “Uber Pro” there is nothing left to worry about but the actual amount of money I am getting for a trip. Since I like to go to Tampa Airport and Downtown St. Petersburg the most, I decline pretty much everything except for those trips. With upfront pricing and trip radar I can actually see where the pickup and destination are and make that decision in that moment. Since Uber started that upfront pricing and trip radar stuff my cancellation rate has gone way down! Since I know this is like a $20.00 call, I notice all drinks but I let them go, I used to just cancel every time I saw a drink.

One of the cool things about working for yourself is that you can not go to work if you don’t want to. The negative side effect is that if you don’t go to work, usually you don’t earn anything either. I planned to shoot the St. Petersburg pier tomorrow A.M. but I lost my drone again In the Manatee River. I say again because in May I lost another drone in the that River the same way. The drone I lost before was a DJI Mavic mini that I got on Black Friday 2021 for $234.00 shipped from EBay. The drone that I just lost was a DJI mini 2 that I got used from Amazon for like $350.00. I would rather not lose anything but drone photography has a pretty large learning curve. Losing a drone sucks, but those plastic propellers will break skin no problem. I would rather lose a drone in the water without hurting anyone or anything than to lose a drone AND hurt or potentially kill someone. No one ever thinks about the damage a drone flown by an amateur can do. Drones no matter which one can be a very bad thing. Anyone can get a license to fly a drone, anyone can purchase one and they are usually purchased by amateur, they seem pretty cool. The problem mostly happens when something goes wrong usually the pilot freaks out and forgets which control does what. If that pilot is very lucky, they will get their drone back in one piece. I like to practice flying over an unoccupied golf course but since I do not have access to a golf course close by where I live, I practice flying over the Manatee River instead.

I completed 3 trips today and earned a little over $73.00. Usually Sundays are over $200.00 the money earned from Uber driving is horrible and will continue to get worse.

Today the Uber app says I completed 4 trips and I made a little over 100.00 USD. Which is like nothing, but it is a lot to me right now anyway. Last year, I spent a long time giving rides but not this year. It was hard to leave with rides on the table but I need to do exactly that in order to learn how to do other things.

It is now 2:30 PM ET. I still have not completed a single trip. I have gotten several requests, I have been declining them because the dollar amount is too little (like less that $10.00).

The other night, when I went to Orlando, I was using Waze. Waze got me to Orlando airport perfectly, there was 7 minutes left in the trip and I was following the directions from Waze and it took me to the absolute wrong location. The rider was catching a plane to Dubai at 805PM it was 7pm when I actually got him to the correct destination. I calculated that Waze misdirecting me actually only took 26 minutes longer and he was on time for his flight. But he was still freaking out about missing his flight? He had over an hour and we were at the airport. The only thing I could think is that he was lying to me about when his plane was actually departing. Anyway, he left me no tip but my rating stayed the same. Which is cool with me.

Today I helped a couple get to Tampa international airport and then around the corner from there I picked up a male that I then help him get to Orlando international Airport so he could fly 16 hours to Dubai. He was very nice. So was the couple that I picked up earlier on St. Pete Beach earlier today.