Stuck With No One to Talk To

 A little while back, I wrote about a Waymo vehicle that drove away with a customers luggage at a California airport.

Could you imagine one morning, enjoying your morning coffee and getting ready to head off to work. You get into your car and as you prepare to back out of the driveway, your vehicles' senses start bleeping away. What the heck? 

You get out of the car to see what is going on, only to find out you can't get out of your own driveway because there a whole bunch of white computerized vehicles circling and moving aimlessly around with no sense of direction as to where they are headed?

I saw this report a couple weeks ago about Waymo cars being stuck on a side street in an Atlanta suburb. There were enough to clog the street. When I Googled this to find out more, this was not the only issue they have had over the few years in existence.

Maybe that chauffeur who yaps a little too much, really isn't that bad after all? Look, I'm not picking on our guys, but the majority of them like to talk.

Thinking about chauffeurs who talk too much has always been a challenge as to which customers not to send them too. Because, not all of you like to have a conversation while you are making your way to wherever! You might be doing work in the vehicle or making a phone call. When, all of a sudden, you ask innocently, "how are you today?".

Was that a mistake, because now the chauffeur who may be working on his fourth cup of coffee before 7 AM, thinks this is his opportunity to let you know how his day is going!

Sometimes it works the other way. We may get a phone call from a customer who wondered why the chauffeur didn't talk at all to them. "Did I say something wrong?"

Look, I know  myself, it's hard for me to be on an elevator for thirty seconds without striking up a conversation, let alone a two hour ride in a car to JFK crawling along the Van Wyck Expressway!

"How are you, today?"

John A Sutich

Just Another Story Blog

World Cup

 Who remembers Super Bowl  XLVIII?  For those of you who are not Roman, who remembers Super Bowl 48, at Met Life Stadium. I'm not talking about the trashing Peyton Manning took from the Legion of Boom and the Seattle Seahawks. I'm talking about the aftermath of the game and the thousands of people that were stranded at the stadium because everyone thought the train was the way to go. Oops! Somebody didn't plan that too well.

As Mike Tyson once said, "everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth". 

I mention this because the World Cup will be played at that very same stadium this June and July. FIFA and the people in charge of this event being played at Met Life this summer, apparently weren't at the stadium at 1 AM trying to board the only train that goes to Secaucus Junction to connect to a train to NYC after the completion of the big game.

Maybe they are planning something different, who knows. But soccer, worldwide is much bigger than our Super Bowl and I'm guessing there will be plenty of international guests ascending on the Tri-State area to be involved.

After game chaos! Who knows, maybe these 82,500 soccer fans will have better luck than the 82,500 football fans. Just saying.

Mass transit is a great way to go if the numbers work out. Like, last week, Doris, myself and three others were leaving NYC and we went to Port Authority to take a bus. Not just any bus, the 158 which goes right by our apartment in West New York.

Normally the bus leaves out of gate 202, but after 10 PM they switch it to gate 302. Up we go to gate 302. Never ending lines of people going to gates 303, 305, 323 etc. As crazy as this sounds, this is organized chaos. As the bus arrives, we start making our way through the terminal area, out to the platform then onto the bus. We were probably in the middle of the line and when we got onto the bus, Doris and I were lucky to get seats in the front of the bus while the other three were spread out a little further back. Seems like everyone likes heads to the back of the bus. Me, "front row". You remember that line? Bob Uecker.

People kept coming on. Standing room only. It got a little scary, because we had people stacked in front of us right up the infamous white line that passengers are not allowed to pass. Some worker from the platform yells to the driver, "how many you got?". Over 90 he responds. Four people standing on the front steps were begging to get on. Nope, off. Get off my bus! They were that close. They must of stopped to use the restroom.

Now, the reason we were in the city was because we went to see a musical called the Buena Vista Social Club. It's about a club in Cuba in the late 1950's before Fidel Castro took over. The play was a lot of music in Cuban Spanish. 

I was so lucky to be sitting in front of somebody who knew the words to every song and felt it was his job to provide stereo for me. I got used to it until he started clapping in rhythm to the songs. Then it became a little annoying.

But what the heck, he was a proud man enjoying his heritage. 

John A Sutich

Just Another Story Blog

Leave the Vinegar Behind

 Not sure if I need to get my eyesight fixed or my hearing unclogged. According to my wife though, it would be both.

The other day I saw a guy on the news talking about parking in NYC and the comical signs you see on the street about what you can do and not do when it comes to parking your vehicle in the Big Apple. What I thought I heard and saw was NYC.signs.net, but when I applied that to the search bar, it comes up with a whole bunch of crap about signs, alright!  Sign makers, signs for business, etc. Nothing governmental  to help navigate yourself away from getting a parking ticket.

So, I tried a different way and put NYC Parking and I got a simple answer of NYC-Parking Signs locator, which actually brings you to a map. Now, this site is pretty cool. On the map you can enter a street, like say, 42nd Steet and behold the map brings up all the signs in the area selected. You then highlight one of them and you are good to go. If you can decipher it correctly?

My first thought as an owner of a transportation company was, this is a fantastic tool. But then, I thought to myself, who will take the time out for that.

We have gotten our share of parking tickets over the years. Back in the early nineties, there was a time it got so high, one of vehicles was impounded in Brooklynn while the chauffeur was getting a cup of coffee. This was a very expensive cup of java my friend. First we had to pay to get the car out of the impound lot, then go pay the fines which after adding fees and penalties, it came to $1,700. Remember now, these are all phantom summonses, because our guys are so good, they never get parking tickets of any kind!

That was not a sarcastic statement, that was the truth. It happened to me. I was sitting on a side street waiting for Doris and about a hundred feet away or so, I saw a ticket meter guy walking and staring at me. Never stopped, never waved to move, nothing. About a month later, there was the ticket in the mail, with a fine, because it wasn't paid on time.

So, I'm at the NYDMV in Brooklynn where the towing company told me to go. I waited patiently in line for close to an hour until I got my turn at the window. When I pulled out all my information, like tickets, plate numbers  to make sure there were no more fines lurking around, the woman very nicely say's to me, "for a business you need to go to the Manhattan office downtown".

Now, I looked around and very kindly said I didn't notice any signage to tell me this. Her answer was, "because there is none". I'm not sure of the following conversation we had, but I remained calm. Boy, did I feel like screaming, but I remembered what Kim in our office used to tell me. "You can catch more flies with honey, than vinegar".

I had already placed all my paperwork on the counter and I noticed she started running print outs of each vehicle as I was jabbering away about basically nothing. I said if she needed me to leave, I would go to the other location. "Just stand there and don't say anything" she retorted. Which I did, and in about ten minutes I was able to receive everything I needed without having to go downtown. She was great, but then again I wasn't an ass to her, although, I think I had every right to be.

Thank goodness I left the vinegar in the car.

Be safe.

John A Sutich

Just Another Story Blog

Just A Heads Up

 When Covid started back in March of 2020, I started writing a weekly newsletter or email. Whatever you want to call it. Basically there are over 300 of them. They cover everything from the beginning of that horrible time up to date. There were mostly happy upbeat emails, with some sad thoughts along the way.

If you were part of Perfect Limo's email list or happened to part of my chain, you most likely got them weekly. Maybe you still look for them. Unfortunately, the email system changed and my weekly letters are no longer weekly. 

You can still find them on Perfect Limo Facebook, but I found out not everyone in this world is on Facebook. But if you are reading this and you want to read all 300 or so, you can always get onto Perfect Limo, Facebook page. 

Originally Published on August 14, 2020

 Perfect Limo Service, Inc.

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about real Superheroes. This week we will take a look at fictional Superheroes of television, movies and comic books. I have mixed emotions about how they approach their fight against evil. Superman never wore a mask and incredibly enough, we still had no clue that he was really Clark Kent.

"Holy hole in a doughnut”, Batman, (from season one episode “Zelda the Great”), only covered his eyes. What about the Lone Ranger, he also just covered his eyes but left poor Tonto and Silver to be exposed to everyone. What was that all about, not in today’s world. When he took his mask off and he rode into town unsuspectingly as a regular guy did everyone seem to forget who his buddies are?

Does anyone remember Blazing Saddles? Mongo (Alex Karras) when he walks out of the bar and punches the horse and knocks him out. You don’t think Silver saw that? Me and Tonto are on our own right now!

You want it done right, look at Spiderman and Ironman. Superheroes for our current environment. Full face coverings, my men! They are concerned about spreading covid-19, so with all the other evil they are fighting, they are doing their part to provide safety for others. A "Thank You" to them and all the REAL heroes that are doing their best to combat the corona virus. Our essential workers are the best.

If my calculations are correct, we are in week 23 of the pandemic. Which really means nothing, unless you live in my "let's find the crap" world that I'm in. Just for the fun of it, I decided to Google the number 23. You are probably thinking, what I was thinking. It is the number worn by Michael Jordan and Lebron James! While this may be true, it has a lot more meaning than that. Go figure.

Figured I did. Among other crazy things, and there are a lot, like mathematics, religion and movies like Airport and Diehard With A Divergence. I did my homework, now you have to do yours.

A statement about the first Morse code sent which included the following: inventor Samuel F.B. Morse on May 24, 1844, sent, over an experimental line from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, a message that said: "What hath God wrought?" Taken from the Bible, Numbers 23:23.

Pretty basic communication. Better than the Pony Express.

Fast forward to today. Twitter, Instagram, Tic Tock and who knows what else have become our modern way of communicating mostly through that little device we can not live without. What fancy ringer do you have?

Oh, I purposely didn’t say Facebook, because that is for us old people. LOL.

So, real quick, if you left your house and drove 10 minutes away from your home, and you are only going to get milk at the local store which is 15 minutes away, do you turn around to get the phone? Don’t lie! I’d turn around.

The NBA is in full swing. My man Zion is not making it to the playoffs. Boy, did they try. Ratings baby, what else do you need to know. Somebody forgot to tell the refs and Zion's knee. It leaves us with you know who!

Twenty-three, Lebron, he is missing his fans. I guess the virtual fan base is not the same. Did anyone one else see “Weekend at Bernie’s” face in one of the squares. That was great. What is really great is, presently, sports are not what we know as a fan.

I’m a Giant ticket holder and I was given an opportunity to have some name recognition in the end zone. Pretty cool. Not sure what it means, but just to think I will be part of this season in some way is exciting. Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys are talking about letting 50% of the fans in because the Texas Governor is allowing that number. Aren’t their corona virus numbers high? I’m good watching Fox 5 and dealing with that “homer” Troy Aikman.

We do a lot of social media stuff on the different sites, and every week we talk in general about basic transportation crap. What I want to do is create a separate email to send fun things to do to you, my beautiful client base. It will be from havefun@perfectlimo.com.

If you get this, it will have suggestions as to what to do and where to go to have a good time in this pandemic world. We will try our best to find things for you to do.

You will have to spend money though. If I find out you used my ideas and drove yourself or even worst, used Uber, I’m choking right now, then I would have to come to your house with my 36” Mickey Mantle to correct the situation. LOL. I’m not a violent man, but.

In the movie War Dogs, Henry Girard, played by Bradley Cooper says at the end of the movie, “I’m not a bad man, but I had to do what a bad man would do”.

Just joking, use my ideas to have fun and I will not be offended if you unsubscribe us. But you will miss out on some good shit.

Listen, life as we know it is different right now. Perfect Limo and myself are here for you. Even if you just wanted to talk or email junk to me, I will try my best to respond. We are in this together.

Be safe my friends.

Thank You,

John Sutich

President

Perfect Limo Service, Inc.

Originally Posted July 31, 2020

 Perfect Limo Service, Inc.

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"Super heroes don’t wear cape’s, they wear masks." I see this billboard when I’m down around the Lincoln Tunnel. I’m not sure why we all don’t want to be super heroes. I just don’t get it. Try to get in the habit of putting on the mask just as you would put on your underwear. We need to partner up with essential heroes and help them, this is a team effort.

I'm sure you all must have heard Tony D'Amato's (Al Pacino) speech in the movie Any Given Sunday. "We’re in hell right now, gentlemen. Believe me. And, we can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb outta hell… one inch at a time."

This is what I’m talking about. We can do this. Go Team America.

(Although it's fiction, it's pretty good.)

Think about some things you have to do to maintain your health like physicals and so on. Here’s one that I’m sure you all can relate to. I went to the dentist Tuesday. (I’d rather be buying a car.) So before I went I had my temperature checked at my office and I was 97.4. The deal was I had to sit in my Jeep in 90 degree weather, and wait for the call.

Ring, ring “you can proceed to the front door, now”. So, the nurse takes my temperature and I think I hit 101. Now either my AC sucks in my Jeep that bad, or I got the virus walking through the driveway. Against protocol, she let me inside where it is a little cooler than the front porch and took my temperature again with the finger clip. Down to 98. Thermal again came in around 97.7. Whew, I’m a fast healer.

When my oral hygienist put me in the chair, she prepared herself for the task ahead. Who remembers Marty McFly, Back to the Future , when he crashes into Peabody’s barn and gets out of the “you made a time machine out of a Delorean” looking like he was from outer space? That was my hygienist.

Thinking about it, I never knew that my mouth can be that distorted. When they are pushing and pulling in different directions’ “turn your head” then they ask questions about your life. Do I really need to answer them? I try to mentally keep a list of all the answers to rattle them off right after the rinse, but more questions come before I can retort.

So, last week I mentioned Toe Wrestling. Who wants to know more? Nobody, good, because like I said two weeks ago, the NBA started last night with the Pelicans and Jazz. Means nothing to a lot of people, but this is big. Nail biter all the way to the end. Zion, probably the best player on the court, had limited minutes or better known as time restrictions. Are you kidding me? The game is on the line with seconds to go and your best player is sitting on the bench. Although, it's not a bench right now, it is a social distanced seat. Anyway they lost at the buzzer.

Let me put it another way. What if my best chauffeur was on "time restriction" and I had to stop him while driving five minutes from the airport. I think you would be a little upset!

Anyway, hockey started, baseball started, let's keep it going. Football is lurking around the corner.

Not sure if anyone is following the New England Patriot news with players opting out. If it continues, Belichick will have to reach out to Who, What and Why from Abbott and Costello's baseball team to see if they know anything about football. Could you see Bill doing that skit!

Onto the business side of this week's message. All is good. Every week I'm glad to report that the arrow is pointing upwards. Is it 2019? Not even close. We do have core of

customers that are always there, not willing to sit around and be cooped indoors and going about their business. I'm not saying go out and be reckless, all I'm pushing for is to be smart. Enjoy a nice ride to your favorite restaurant, we will get you there and back in a safe and relaxing chauffeur driven vehicle. What about a winery tour or even a ride to the beach, we are here for you.

You want to talk about beach! Sharks in the water are you kidding me? I'm afraid to go in the water when there are jelly fish! Forget about sharks. I'll stay on the boardwalk enjoying my Piña Colada.

Be safe my friends.

Thank You,

John Sutich

President

Perfect Limo Service, Inc.

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