Category: Uncategorized

Last Friday night I ended up about as far south as my house is north, from downtown. One of the realities of Lyft driving is that you get to go on these adventures and have no idea really, where you’ll end up. I pulled up in front of a house in Highlands Ranch and a woman came out and hopped in the front seat. She was very chatty and told me that we were first going to pick up her friend and they were going out to celebrate her 46th birthday. I said, “My oldest daughter Stephanie, turns 46 in…

Last week I picked up two young girls at the Denver School of Preforming Arts (near old Stapleton airport in east Denver). The destination— north of Boulder (39 miles). It turns out that they are both students there, and they commute there everyday, each way. They leave at 6:15 in the morning with rides from both parents or Lyft. They told me they average 25 Lyft rides a month. One of the girls is into theater and the other is a singer/ dancer. They were highly engaging in both their questions and experiences. I said “This is quite an effort…

I gave this ride a week ago and I have spent the whole week trying to grasp how I might write about her in three or four paragraphs.  I had just dropped off a delightful woman with the thickest Boston accent I have ever heard. Living 30 years in Colorado had not influenced her diction or her undying love of Tom Brady.  I dropped her off at the huge Amazon warehouse up north.    The next ride took me to the industrial section north of I-70.  I drove to the back an apartment complex with very confusing directions ( I…

I gave my first shared ride about three years ago, when Lyft came out with a “new program”.  The idea is: A total stranger (me) picks up another total stranger who agrees (for a cheaper ride) to allow another total stranger headed in the same direction, to share the ride.  Initially there were lots of glitches but eventually the algorithm smoothed it out. Now it is not unusual to have three strangers all sharing space in my red car 🚗.  Today ride 1 started with a guy headed down on Colorado Blvd to pick up new glasses.  In minutes he…

In case you were in Antarctica last week, “Green Book” won the Oscar for best picture of 2019.  It’s time for some family pride.  Our son-in-law Patrick, is the Editor of this delightful story. Last Sunday night our family and many friends celebrated as we watched our beautiful daughter Stephanie, and Patrick take the final stage. This movie basically tells the unlikeliest story of a ‘record promotion’ road trip taken with an erudite Jazz/Classical pianist, who is African American and his ‘low-grade bouncer/thug’ Italian driver. One of the stars of the show is a 1961 lime green Cadillac, in which…

So in the middle of Friday LYFT driving I hit a Starbucks drive-thru.  It was the usual eight car line which means ‘Mark – Breathe.’  I had been listening to ‘the news’ and again found myself repeating something I reread recently “People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.” “Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’”.  At the current 7,000+ lies in a little over two years, I…

This past Monday (my day for Me) I had a massage scheduled 23 miles from my perch in Arvada.  I knew it was snowing so I gave myself 1.5 hours to drive there.  I pulled out on Indiana St. and in 25 minutes I went four blocks.  It was “amateur hour” in the snow lane.  I canceled the massage and thought “I will turn on my Lyft app – Mark to the rescue”. In seven seconds I had a ride.  I called him and told him that Google said it would take me 22 minutes to go the 2.7 miles. …

No not me, but Tommy, who picked us up last Saturday at DIA. We were coming back from a great time in the Bahamas, flying through a big snowstorm and my first ever “medical—emergency” in the seat right behind me. Now I’ll put in a shameless plug for Lyft and flying out of airports. Why would anyone drive their car, leave it parked, and then pay more than it costs take a Lyft? You get picked up and dropped off at your home and 80% of what you spend goes to a local. So we stepped out on Level 6…

Today I celebrate two years of writing “Lyfting Me Up”. Almost every week it has been my joy to have you ride along in my red car. Here are a few things I’ve experienced that I would like to share with you. 1. In 1971, as I began at the Enid State School, Ernestine S, a classic 60- year-old social worker said to a brand new beginning social worker, “Mark- No matter how different these people seem, remember this: they are more like you are, than they are different”. I have now given 4,703 rides to folks who all have…

It has been a very slow time in my Lyft life.  The reality of Christmas time duties in my life as the pastor of Greeley First Christian Church, has made my hobby as a Lyft driver take a break. Yesterday I gave a handful of rides. One of them was a gift to me.  I picked her up in an old SW Denver neighborhood, she was headed to DIA.   She would meet her family at Lake Geneva in Wisconsin for the holidays.  Somewhere about 20 miles out, she asked me what I do besides Lyft.  This opened up the…