
Canto 8 – Hammer Plans
Trav Dalgoda was busy with research. He had discovered that Frieda could answer practically any question his evil little brain could ask, and so, allowed him to feed his avarice and greed until they became obese and bloated. Where most men had two little angels on their shoulders, one good and one evil, to debate with, Trav had only these two little fat things that he actually called Greed and Avarice when he talked to them. They were discussing now how he could obtain the so-called Hammer of God.
“Ummm! Frieda says the Hammer is a building device and it is on the planet below. I have got to have it,” said Goofy to himself.
“Ged will distrust it, and he won’t let you use it,” said Avarice.
Greed scratched his fat red behind with his pitchfork. “We have to get there before Ged,” he said lazily.
“I can go down to the planet in my new star ship,” said Goofy.
“Yes, and blow something up with it on the way!” said Avarice.
“Explosions in space are so pretty!” cooed Greed.
“No,” said Goofy. “I can’t let myself get carried away. Ham always says, “Don’t blow things up, Goofy.””
“Not even a little something?” asked Avarice sadly, feeling the sharpness of his left horn with a fat finger.
“Well…” said Goofy, almost relenting.
It was then that the manic spacer was interrupted from his internal dialogue by the sweet-faced blue Princess. She had entered the room from behind him. They were all alone, just Trav, the Princess, and Frieda. She was as naked as the day she was born. She walked up to him, took his gloved hand, and put it sadly on her breast.
“Oh! No, girl!” insisted Trav, turning bright red under his eye patch. “Nobody asked for that!”
She pointed sadly at the slave tattoo on her right shoulder. She looked down at the deck beneath her feet.
“No, I mean it!” said Trav. “You don’t have to do that for me. I am not your master!”
“Maybe I can help,” suggested Frieda.
“How?” asked Trav.
“Tagasserah nah, po choi freem koohballa Marjarac Inoijuc.”
The blue princess was suddenly transformed into the happiest creature Trav had ever seen. She kissed the Goof on the end of his nose and left the control room clapping her hands together gleefully.
“What was that about?” asked Trav, puzzled.
“I explained to her that you wanted her to be free so she could be your friend. I explained that she owed you a debt of honor for releasing her from her servitude.”
“Really? All of that, huh?”
“Yes.”
“So what can you tell me and my two little friends about the planet below?” asked Trav.
“First you must put the Crown of All Stars upon your own head,” said Frieda.
“But won’t that melt my brain?”
“Oh, it might. But from what I’ve observed of you, I don’t think your circuits are complex enough to be in danger.”
“Oh, thanks,” said Trav. “Say, by the way, old Jester, can you teach the lovely Princess to speak our language?”
“Khomparuc sah, Trav. It shall be done.”

Trav Dalgoda, a goof for all seasons.




















Uber New Year
Who knew that being an Uber driver required the skills of a swashbuckling hero?
But that is exactly what it is. I am approaching the end of my first $100 dollar week. And I have already been on a harrowing ride through the world of ride-sharing for money.
The key to successfully picking up and ferrying passengers to the site of their choosing is a matter of being personable and at ease with driving and talking. Of course, I have talking skills. My whole 31 year career was a matter of learning to effectively talk to kids all day long. And you may not believe this, but adults, people who actually have money and the freedom to choose their own path, are easier to talk to than kids. I have learned about people’s families, people’s jobs, opinions of their bosses, opinions of the government and taxes, and even some tell me about their love lives, both directly, and second hand. If there are two in the car, then they forget that the driver has ears and can hear (within the limitations of really old ears).
One recent passenger was absolutely convinced that no Uber driver actually knows how to drive. That passenger sat in the back seat and sent a barrage of traffic warnings and worries forward for me to deal with at the same time I was watching the road ahead. It was almost exactly as harrowing as driving with my wife as a passenger. I felt like a child again, driving for the meanest teacher I ever had growing up. (Sorry, Ms. Rubelmacher, I learned a lot from you. Don’t give me detention for writing that.)
But why did I say “Swashbuckling hero” if I am only going to talk about talking to passengers? And why all the Batman gifs?
Well, I am talking about driving in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex, ain’t I? Do you know what Texas drivers are like? On Saturday I picked up a coach headed for a retirement party at a Luby’s on the border of DeSoto (a southwest Dallas suburb. That was a twenty-two dollar trip from east-central Dallas catty-cornered all the way across the city in a diagonal direction on the tollway and then I-35 South. I had three cars cut me off for driving too slow (by which I mean the speed limit. Hey, Uber monitors that through their app.) The Uber Navigator told me to keep right at a time when keeping right nearly threw me off 35 onto an intersecting highway, so I had to make a quick two-wheeled Starsky and Hutch turn through the corner of the median to stay on course. (Fortunately, Uber can’t monitor that.) Dallas drivers are a combination of speedy predators in WASP rockets, Texas killer grandmas in Cadillacs, and Elmer Fudds going too slow in classic cars from the 50’s. They provide you with a booby-trapped obstacle course to drive through, and go so fast that the speed limit becomes dangerously too slow.
So I definitely appreciate Batman for providing me with all the animated illustrations to use for portraying the high-risk life of an Uber driver. It makes driving this way easier to pretend that I am one half of the dynamic duo driving the Batmobile in Dallas downtown traffic. Yes, it’s true, I am saying I pretend to be Batman.
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Filed under angry rant, commentary, feeling sorry for myself, heroes, humor, irony, self pity, strange and wonderful ideas about life
Tagged as Batman, Uber driving