I know you rider, gonna miss me when I'm gone ...


Posted On: Wednesday - August 26th 2020 7:55PM MST
In Topics: 
  Lefty MegaStupidity  Music  The Dead  Peak Stupidity Roadshow

... that is not quite the case today, for our Uber ride to the beach. The Uber drivers must be drilled like hell from their corporate Uber-menschen ("but, but, wait, we are mere contractors") on the Kung Flu hysteria. Two different drivers were wearing masks - I wish I could have seen them drive up, but it was the usual "well the GPS says you are supposed to be here...".

Riders are not allowed in the front seats, so we had to squish in pretty tight, without masks, cause, like, whaddya' gonna do, kick us out? Your stupid ass drove 10 miles to get us, brought us 12 miles, then had to go 10 miles home. With that traffic it was probably about an hour, so that 16 bucks, minus Uber's 25%(?) cut, you are spinning your wheels to begin with.*. On the other hand, I suppose you could tell Uber we weren't masked up, and they'd have to take the driver's side - zero tolerance RULES!

I guess I think "stupid ass" of this lady just from her politics. Oh, yeah, someone "went there", and not me either. It escalated fairly quickly, as, badmouthing Trump is one thing (we all have our beefs with him). However, when I mentioned that, "well, Joe Biden is gonna die soon, and that Camel Toe hates all White people", the lady noted "well, I hate all White people!" Did I mention she was White? OK, this was getting nasty in a hurry.

Let me go back, way back, ~ 30 years, to when I was hitchhiking around parts of Ireland. I had to, because the trains would only go certain places, and we didn't have the money for driving back then (restaurants were out of the question, so my diet for over a week was, baguettes of bread, cheddar cheese, Guinness, and Cadbury bars) I was with a Swedish girl, but not "with her" so to speak, but just travel companions for a few days. (No, she wasn't that hot, if this is what you have in your head.)

At this one place we couldn't get a ride for 4 hours. We hung out in the light rain, and finally a Saab pulled up with, well a yuppie guy, as you'd figure. As we conversed, the talk turned to politics somehow. The Swedish woman, as you'd also figure, was a flaming leftist. I doubted this guy giving us a ride for 50 miles (excuse me, 80 kilometers, excuse me, kilometres) was any kind of lefty. Well it got to apartheid in S. Africa, and luckily the talk just stopped cold. I wasn't like that back then, but now I would have said out loud "hey, the guy's giving us a free ride - don't piss him off!" Maybe I did have thoughts about getting into her pants, hence the silence out of me.

You just don't piss off the driver, or you end up needing another ride. Regarding our Uber ride, well we were paying for this ride, but were things the opposite, the result would be my telling the riders to "just get the hell out right here." Now, I thought this lady a complete idiot after her statement and wished she somehow wouldn't have the right to vote again - maybe she'll commit a felony (not on our ride, hopefully!) - but, from my experience, it was time to stop this. "You don't talk politics when getting a ride", I simply said, and everyone agreed.

The lady turned out to be pretty nice. Who knew? However, when I think back on the political stupidity of people who are voting here, I lose hope. No, I won't miss her now that I'm gone.

If you are a Dead Head, you know that I Know You Rider is always preceded by China Cat Sunflower, but for newer listeners, this version from the Europe '72 2-record live album is a great first version to listen to.



I know you, rider, gonna miss me when I'm gone.
I know you, rider, gonna miss me when I'm gone.
Gonna miss your baby, from rolling in your arms.

Laid down last night, Lord, I could not take my rest.
Laid down last night, Lord, I could not take my rest.
My mind was wandering like the wild geese in the west.

The sun will shine in my back door someday.
The sun will shine in my back door someday.
March winds will blow all my troubles away.

I wish I was a headlight, on a north bound train.
I wish I was a headlight, on a north bound train.
I'd shine my light through cool Colorado rain.


This song was not written by The Dead or anyone associated. It's another one they played that was a traditional number, going back at least a century.


* Yeah, I need to do an economics post about this Uber/Lyft thing.

Comments:
ganders
Thursday - August 27th 2020 11:30AM MST
PS it's Duvemåla'. I think I misspelled it 3X!

Moberg's books were made into two movies, in English they were called "The Emigrants" and "The New Land". Both movies starred Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullman.

We had a cabin when I was a nipper, not too far from Chisago Lake, where the novels are set.. The family depicted in the books and movies, the Nilssons, were in the first wave of immigrants to the upper Midwest. All of my Swedish forbearers came after the War Between the States.
ganders
Thursday - August 27th 2020 11:14AM MST
PS There was an 'ö' on the end of Duvelmåla.
Moderator
Thursday - August 27th 2020 10:22AM MST
PS: Mr. G. Your last paragraph is the kind of anecdote I want to read more of, from everyone. (I don't mean just because I really like your attitude, but also just to know what other people have been experiencing.

I just got back from the grocery store. I wore a mask on my wrist, got a few funny looks from people - everyone else in the store had masks on - but no words were exchanged. The cashier guy said something, and I told him that between his mask and the plexiglas, I didn't know what the heck he just said (probably "did you find everything you needed?") It was all pretty friendly, as usual.

My friend at the coffee shop covered his face with a paper towel to go inside and order. It looked like an old snot rag more than anything. They offered to give him a mask, but he told them that no, he'd heard that the Chinese might be putting poison in them to kill us all. Haha! Great angle there!

I'll write more about that...
Moderator
Thursday - August 27th 2020 10:18AM MST
PS: I don't know when I'll get to site improvement, Mr. Ganderson. I kind of look forward to the project, but I'll just keep writing for right now, and just based on time, it seems like it's got to be one or the other.

BTW, I don't know why you needed an editor on this one. Kristina's last name reads the same both times, as far as I can tell, from gibberish to gibberish . ;-}
Ganderson
Thursday - August 27th 2020 8:00AM MST
PS.

Kristina från Duvalmåla- Mr. Moderator, you need an edit feature!
ganderson
Thursday - August 27th 2020 7:57AM MST
PS Mr. Moderator: Some random responses to your post:

I love China-Rider check this one out- 1974-06-16, Iowa State Fairgrounds, Des Moines. This was a show with the "Wall of Sound", a fabulous sound system which nearly bankrupted the band, so expensive was it to lug around. Sadly I was not in attendance at this show, as I had to work. I'd seen them the previous year at the same venue with a proto-version of the WOS- pretty cool.

The version from Europe '72 is quite good- in the pre-tape era I wore out 3 copies of that album.

Not all Swedish girls look like the ABBA chicks, or Elin Nordegren, but most are fit and well put together, in my experience. All the truly ugly Swedes emigrated to Minnesota.

Fun Fact- Anna-Frid is not actually Swedish- she was the illegitimate daughter of a Norwegian woman and a German soldier. She grew up in Sweden to escape that stigma.

Benny and Björn wrote a wonderful opera called Kristina från Duvemålaö based on the novels by Vilhelm Moberg, which chronicle the journey of a Swedish family from Småland Province to Chisago County, MN, about 40 miles NE of St. Paul.

My town has just set up a hotline to dime out one's neighbors for mask/ distancing violators. I wasted no time in putting it to use; I sent this to the Covid hotline and to my town councilman this morning:

I walked through downtown today without a mask. I will walk though downtown tomorrow without a mask. i will walk through downtown on Saturday without a mask. Etc, etc, I will wear a mask when asked to by merchants I do business with so that they don’t get jammed up, but I refuse to wear one outside. And by the way, this virus is apparently so smart that it will attack me while Im strolling through town, but not while I’m sitting in a restaurant. That’s one clever bug! And, should I inform you when I see someone driving her car without a mask? You never know, she might exit the vehicle at anytime! And it’s good to introduce these totalitarian measures now, when death rates, which never came even remotely close to the projections, are falling off the table. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao would all be quite impressed with the work you are doing. Might I recommend that you add additional hotlines? I think I saw one of my neighbors idling his car too long, and another one put a recyclable can in with the trash, not to mention the guy at Wentworth pond that didn’t leash his dog. Lets keep this going until every small business in the town is boarded up!
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