The Transcendent Taxi Cab

My book The Transcendent Taxi Cab based on my blog was just published by Smashword as an ebook and is available on their site as well as other ebook distributors like Barnes & Noble. Check it out. You can read the first 15% for free. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/923891?fbclid=IwAR2yD_Bt9GJJ7CCTqMbYidGnzKwoILcESyt8jY4YqxXBgFExAXY74osPdew

The Book Begins on December 15, 2009

Read my taxi book that I published at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/923891

Since this blog is actually a book, you need to start at the very beginning at

http://thetranscendenttaxicab.blogspot.com/2009/12/in-beginning.html , which I wrote on Tuesday,

December 15, 2009, with the intention of writing 100 chapters, documenting the events that occurred

while I was driving a taxi cab. As a former inner city pastor, I approached the job as a ministry,

because many of the people that took taxi's were in need as my stories document. After I concluded

the 100 chapters I discontinued writing and quit driving taxi in 2013. Today, in retrospect I feel that I

served God's will by driving thousands of people thousands of miles over nearly a decacade and hold

taxi drivers in the highest regard.

This is a link to my published taxi book.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/923891

My good friends at taxi finder and taxi guru have a new press release at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Rideshare/Estimates/prweb13261754.htm

They also have 3 new websites located at:

http://uberfarefinder.com/

http://lyftfarefinder.com/

http://curbfarefinder.com/

At the same time they feature my taxi cab stories on their websites.

http://www.taxifarefinder.com/newsroom/2014/12/16/the-night-before-christmas-by-bob-gersztyn/

The Night Before Christmas

This is a new article that was published on Taxi Fare Finder's web page titled "The Night Before Christmas. Please click the "Like" button when you read it.

http://www.taxifarefinder.com/newsroom/2014/12/16/the-night-before-christmas-by-bob-gersztyn/

Taxi Fare Finder

 After not driving a taxi for 9 months I was contacted by a taxi cab web site called taxi fare finder that provides a world wide service by finding a taxi cab in most cities around the world along with fare prices and tip recommendations.  They also feature taxi cab drivers who have blogs, so they contacted me around Thanksgiving 2013 for an interview, even though they knew that I no longer drove a cab. A cab driver is like a military veteran, once you were in long enough you earned your stripes. They published their interview with me along with some of my photos and links in December at: 
http://www.taxifarefinder.com/newsroom/2013/12/05/the-transcendent-taxi-ride-a-trip-with-a-minister-cabbie/

Link For Jesus Rocks The World

I quit driving cab nearly 2 months ago, after nearly 9 years. I needed a change and got one, because now I'm a bartender. So now I tend bar 4 nights a week and write the other 3. I began a blog to go along with my book, Jesus Rocks The World: The Definitive History of Contemporary Christian Music," last August. I make regular entries in that now. I wrote the book while I drove taxi. Some nights I brought my lap top with me to work on it. It was published as a 2 volume set, by Praeger Publishing, an academic reference book company. Click on the link that I provided to go to the blog or some of the articles written about it, or even the utube video.

Jesus Rocks The World, my blog:  http://jesusrockstheworld.wordpress.com/

Washington Post, On Faith, 17 April 2013. http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-04-17/national/38610291_1_christian-rock-mason-proffit-jesus-people

Religion News Service 17 April 2013. http://www.religionnews.com/2013/04/17/former-jesus-freak-traces-the-evolution-of-christian-rock/#comment-93675

 

World Wide Religious News, reprint from a Washington Post Article, 17 April 2013. http://wwrn.org/articles/39589/

 

Huffington Post 18 April 2013 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/18/bob-gersztyn-former-jesus-freak-traces-the-evolution-of-christian-rock_n_3111836.html?flv=1

 

FaithVillage.Com 18 April 2013. http://www.faithvillage.com/article/e321e77735384f4db10bf47cc4664a4e/former_jesus_freak_traces_the_evolution_of_christian_rock

 

Hartford Faith and Values, 18 April 2013. http://hartfordfavs.com/culture/entertainment-and-pop-culture/former-jesus-freak-traces-the-evolution-of-christian-rock  

Sojourners,18 April 2013. http://sojo.net/blogs/2013/04/18/former-%E2%80%98jesus-freak%E2%80%99-traces-evolution-christian-rock

 

The Christian Century, 19 April 2013. http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2013-04/former-jesus-freak-traces-evolution-christian-rock

 

Crosswalk.com The Intersection of Faith and Life, 19 April 2013. http://www.crosswalk.com/culture/the-arts/jesus-freak-and-the-evolution-of-christian-rock.html

 

San Antonio Homepage, 20 April 2013. http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Christian-mainstream-It-s-only-rock-n-roll-4448385.php

The State Journal Homepage, April 26, 2013, Springfield, Illinois: http://www.sj-r.com/features/x1973693864/Ex-Jesus-freak-compiles-history-of-Christian-rock?zc_p=0

Don Lattin’s Homepage.  http://www.donlattin.com/pagestories/dl_stories.html  25 April 2013.

Rivers of Hope Blog. April 28, 2013. http://greatriversofhope.wordpress.com/tag/christian-music/

Christian Pirate Radio. http://www.mycprsandiego.com/MusicReviewsAll/

 

Shelbyville, Tennessee Times/Gazette, February 10, 2013. http://www.t-g.com/story/1939119.html

Salem, Oregon, Statesman Journal November 2012. http://community.statesmanjournal.com/blogs/books/2012/11/14/author-traces-christian-rock-since-60s/

Utube video.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msI1J-_xjVk&feature=youtu.be

 

ABC-CLIO publishing website for my book, “Jesus Rocks The World: The Definitive History of Contemporary Christian Music.”  http://www.abc-clio.com/product.aspx?id=2147512109

 

Amazon website: http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Rocks-World-Definitive-Contemporary/dp/0313377707

Jesus Rocks The World Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/JesusRocksTheWorld2012

 

It's been nearly 2 years since I made my last entry. Since then I've had 2 books published by an academic publisher and still drive a taxi. I shot this on Tuesday morning, February 12, at around 2:15 AM. I used a monopod, but at 2 1/2 seconds even a tripod would have blur. It was a slow night. I don't intend to continue this blog, unless I get 100 followers. When and if I do, let me know, if I'm still alive and I'll continue with information that may get you through life with a little more understanding, or not.

Go To The Beginning

Go to the very first blog entry that I made in the beginning of December 2009, titled “In The Beginning.”  From that point to the end of March 2010 it is just straight taxi cab stories.  Then on March 31, 2010 I began creating science fiction scenarios with “Alien Cab Driver,” to keep my interest up and couple that with radio programs, both real and fictional.  Everything is based on real or inspired events, with the names and locations changed to protect both the innocent and me.  So check it out from the very beginning and let me know what you think.  My email address is fototune@comcast.net and the link to the “Beginning” is http://thetranscendenttaxicab.blogspot.com/2009/12/in-beginning.html

The End

This is the end, as I predicted a year ago.  Of course I created the circumstances for me to fulfill my own prophecy, just as God does.  Does this mean that I am God?  I don’t know, but one thing is for sure, and that is that this is the end.  Coincidentally, even though I knew nothing about it, a full lunar eclipse would occur, just as the winter solstice took place, on December 21, 2010.  So here it is the 100^th blog entry, from when I began it a year ago.  My goal was 100 entries from which I would construct my novel.  I don’t have time right now, since I’m in the process of finishing up the 2 volume history of contemporary Christian music that I’ve been working on since 2008.  So this is my last blog entry.

I finished lunch a half hour ago, and it was dead, so I pulled into the VA hospital parking lot, to wait for a call.  I put my seat in the recline position, after pushing it back all the way and put my cap over my eyes, as I relaxed and closed my eyes, as a talk show on the radio droned in the background.

“When the earth’s population reached 1 Trillion, even the common man began to realize that there were too many people.  This marked a wave of fear that began to reverberate around the globe, until it found a home with the “World Wide Council For Humanities Survival” (“WWCFHS”)   After food shortages collapsed all the governments of the world and anarchy resulted.  The “WWCFHS” was founded to fill the vacuum that resulted, and it quickly found a solution to the problem.

First of all, there were too many of us for the planet to support, and at the rate of growth, as it was currently projected, the human race would become extinct because of overpopulation within 100 years, of painful starvation and last ditch wars, until everyone was either dead or back in the stone age.

The “WWCFHS” headed by Dr. Hentworth Drenoble proposed a plan that would cut the earth’s population by 50% within a 20 year period, and stabilize the economy.  First, a lottery was created, that used the existing world citizen ID #’s that everyone was issued at birth.  If your number was picked, you were contacted, and reported to the nearest airport by your home, within 24 hours to be transported free of charge to a staging area, where lottery winners were consolidated.  Then you would be transported to an undersea paradise created by engineers in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  However, in reality there was no paradise, but internment camps located in the Hawaiian Islands.  The internment camps were stage one of the “solution.”

Stage 2 of the “solution” included cannibalism.  The internment camps were in reality food processing plants, where lottery winners were processed.  Camps were set up where some semblance of normalcy existed and families and reproduction were encouraged.  The reason for this was to keep a store of food available, in case the lottery system failed at some point.

“Number 25 get the Lone Oak for Vic,” the voice on the radio announced.

I grabbed my microphone and told John the dispatcher that I got it, as I started my cab and wrote down the call.  Vic was a regular, that liked to get as close to falling down drunk every night as he could, without actually passing out.  Tonight was no exception, but experience taught cab drivers that patience could earn the driver a big tip.  Since cab drivers don’t get paid hourly, passengers that waste time can be a deficit, and Vic wasted a lot of time, from taking 15 to 20 minutes to finally come out from the bar, to another 10 minutes at his house, where he struggled to find his keys and wallet and finally exit the cab.  However, if the driver was patient and helped him to the door, the result could be anywhere from a $20.00 to $50.00 tip, on top of the fare.  After I got Vic to his door, he gave me $33.00 to cover the $8.60 fare.

My next passenger was a dancer, from Hard Candy, that was celebrating her birthday with her gambling addict boyfriend.  After she came out of the club she complained that she was celebrating her birthday by coming to the same place that she worked at to see the same naked girls that she saw every day at work.  After I told her happy birthday, she said that she wanted to go to Taco Bell, and then we would pick up her boyfriend, who was still gambling.  We crossed the bridge to West Salem and after she got her order we returned to the club where her boyfriend was waiting out front.

On the drive to their apartment located in West Salem, across the bridge, they argued and then made up.  They talked about praying for each other and the woman said that she prayed for the man regularly, while the man said that he prayed for himself, but appreciated her prayers anyway.  Finally he expressed gratitude for her prayers and they began to kiss as I pulled into the driveway of their apartment.  The guy paid me and gave me a $2.00 tip, as I drove off and turned on the radio.

“What are we going to do when the population exceeds the planet’s ability to support it?”  The voice on the radio asked.  “Resort to cannibalism, of course.  This has been the way ever since the dawn of man.  Primitive man used cannibalism as a necessary method of providing food, and it continues today in some aboriginal tribes.  In some cases it became part of their religious ritual, and eventually only became symbolic, as in the case of Christian communion, where believers eat the body and blood of Christ.  However, in the future, it will become a necessity for the survival of the human race.”

A Convergence of Drivers

            Mike Shaunacy was driving his taxi down 12^th Street around Midnight, when he spotted a woman frantically waving at him on the side of the deserted street.  He pulled into the parking lot by a transmission repair shop and the woman hurriedly got in the front seat of the cab with him.

            “Get me out of here as fast as you can,” the woman told #21, as a jet black BMW pulled into the lot about 10 feet from the cab, as a large man got out and began to walk towards the taxi.  “Take off before he gets to us,” the woman blurted out in a panicked tone of voice, as she handed him a $20.00 bill and told him that it was all his.

            “That’s great,” Mike told her as he peeled out of the driveway heading South on the one way street, “but where are we headed?”

The woman gave him an address in the middle of felony flats, so Shaunacy turned left and headed there.  The woman asked him if he ever helped helpless females to get away from their assailants before, and he told her that he had only been driving a taxi for a few months and had not.  When they arrived at the destination his passenger thanked him as she got out and begged him not to tell anybody where he took her.

Shaunacy headed to the Greyhound station after he cleared, where there were already 2 other cabs in the 1^st 2^nd  taxi stands.  When he pulled in both drivers were out of their cabs and standing between them with their windows down and the radio microphone resting on the outside of the driver’s door with the volume up to the max.  It was drivers #11, Dora Dimes, a hard as nails middle aged woman who #21 decided that he wanted to fuck.  She had a nice body, but her face usually wore a scowl that scared off most suitors.  For some reason she seemed interesting to #21, so he began to flirt with her.

“Hey beautiful,” #21 said to #11, as he nodded to #33, who was standing beside her.  The rain had let up for the time being, so the drivers all decided to stretch their legs as they began to talk about the way that #52 had just quit showing up for work after being a model employee for the past year.

“He always seemed strange to me,” Dora said.

“I only talked to him a few times, but he was kind of different, that’s for sure,” #21 agreed.

“I think that he may have only used his job as a taxi driver as a cover for something else that he was involved in,” #33 said.

“How would you know?”  Number 11 said, “you didn’t even start working here until after he was gone.”

“That may be true, but I ran into him a couple of times when I worked for Universal Cab, and besides that everyone at Yellow Cab talks about it so much that I can piece together the story from what they say.

“Okay, I guess that makes sense,” #11 said, “did you hear about #43 getting parked?”

“I thought that I heard something on the radio last night, but it was so busy that I forgot,” #21 said, and asked, “what happened, while he wondered if #33 was hinting at knowing that he was only driving taxi to deal drugs to his customers.”

“I guess that he picked up a flag on Portland Road and then before he could call it in, he got a time call for Walmart North.  He told John the dispatcher that he already had a flag, but would go right over to Walmart after he dropped him off.  Then John told him that he wasn’t supposed to pick up flags because it was too busy, and when he got to Walmart, he couldn’t find the time call, but there was a DC Cab sitting next to the grocery door, so they or another company may have gotten it.  Because of this he was parked and sent home,” Dora explained.

“Number 11, get South Liberty Bar & Grill for Tammy,” John called over the radio.

“Roger,” #11 said, as she got in her cab and drove off.

“Number 33, get ER for Samantha,” the radio announce.”

“Yes, I have it,” Owens answered.

Finally John said, “#21 get Miguel, at the Lucky Fortune.”

“Confirm,” #21 said, as he wrote it down and drove down Church Street and took D Street to Lancaster.  When he got there and went inside he found his fare playing video poker and told him that his cab was waiting.  His passenger, who looked to be in his mid 40’s told him that he would be out in a minute, and after about 5 minutes, he came out with a young blonde anglo woman, who looked about 25 years old.  They both got in the back seat of #21’s van and the man told him an address off Silverton Road.  As they headed there the man asked if they could stop at a convenience store.

“Sure, just let me know which one,” #21 told him.

The woman began to speak and she said, “I hope that I don’t ever get thrown in jail for an indefinite number of years, without any clothes, while being abused by my captors.”

“Neither do I,” #21 said, while the older man nervously laughed. 

When they arrived at the convenience store they both got out and went inside, while #21 ran the meter.  Since they were in the neighborhood of one of the deliveries that Shaunacy needed to make, he called the buyer on his cell phone, while waiting.

“Hi Scott, it’s Mike,” #21 spoke into his phone.  “I’ll be at your place in around 15 minutes, with your order.  It comes to 5 big ones.”

After he hung the phone up his passengers came out and got back in the cab.  The Latino man pulled out his wallet and started talking about what a beautiful country America is.  He said that he forgot his wallet inside a convenience store 2 times and in each instance, when he returned the clerk had it and returned it to him, with all the money and his ID intact.  He said that in Mexico, he’d be lucky if he got the empty wallet back.