Autism and Employment (another PennSilverTaco thread)!

Wait…..wait. Never mind.
If I send my family out your way.
You all will move out my way to get away from them.

Maybe I should keep them.

 

I thought you were in Jersey?

 

Moved back to CA

 

@ColoradoTJ
@shakerhood

As a lifelong car enthusiast, I feel that it is my duty to hate California, and I was born there! My uncle lives in NorCal and has to register his 1977 VW Westfalia camper at this brother's house in Texas because it won't pass smog...

 

I dashed in Bethlehem again today...

 

You never know what you're gonna see in someone's driveway while delivering food; I saw this 1989-1990ish Dodge Grand Caravan next door to a customer's house in Bethlehem this morning. It's not in the worst condition and it's inspected through March 2024, so it would seem that someone is actually driving it!

 

Bethlehem's intersection from hell!

 

So, there's a stop sign there and it's a 2-way street, but I'm not supposed to enter?!?!

 

@6 gearT444E
@ABA180
@ColoradoTJ
@Just_A_Guy
@shakerhood
@steelcity2
@TnShooter

I am reminded occasionally why delivering for DoorDash and Uber Eats irritates me at times, and today was one of those times; I got some stacked orders today, which is two separate orders. Most of the time, it's two different orders from two different places, usually going to separate customers but sometimes going to the same customer. The second most common scenario is two orders from the same place, and I also occasionally get orders from two different places going to the same customer. That ended up happening today, and the customer was a construction worker who let me take pictures of his 1999 Tacoma.

Anyway, I went to this "hole in the wall" independent pizzeria in Fountain Hill called Lorenzo's; I had never been there before and did what I've done countless times, parking the truck curbside and turning on the hazards. I had no idea there was parking in the back, and I wasn't in a NO PARKING zone. I had gotten there a few minutes before the "pick up by" time, so I waited outside next to my truck for a couple minutes before going in. My theory is that this is the first thing I did that irritated the staff...

So, I go inside the pizza place and get chewed out for "not parking in the back" by some Italian guy who I think was the owner, and a couple other employees. I worked as a delivery driver for an independent pizzeria owned by an Italian immigrant, and the owner could best be described as a hotheaded Tony Soprano wannabe; I have encountered similar personality types at other privately owned restaurants, not always Italian or even immigrants. I told the guy that I was just picking up a DoorDash order and did not intend to park there for a long time. He seemed to be okay at first, until I read off the customer name. He told me that I would have to park my truck around back and come back in to get the pizza. He was worried that somebody would hit my truck; I was parked on a public street that did not explicitly say NO PARKING, and he wasn't a cop, so it was none of his business where I parked my truck as far as he was concerned.

Yeah, NO!

I say "Okay, bye", walked out, and immediately unassigned the order. How hard would it have been to just hand me the goddamn pizza?!?! So, I'm supposed waste another 5-10 minutes parking the truck and walking back into the store for a $6.50 payout?

Once again...

NO!

 

I have gotten a lot better at managing my anger and frustration, but I still have autistic moments when someone really pisses me off; I have had many encounters while delivering food where not only my patience, but my faith in humanity, is pushed to the limit. A prime example would be back in 2019 when I was still doing deliveries in Philly from time to time; I had to use the bathroom very badly, and I stopped at a gas station that had once had a public restroom, but for whatever reason did not any longer. The cashier would not let me use the bathroom, so I went next door to this cheesesteak place; I would like to say that I was not picking up a DoorDash order, because that would have made the owner an even bigger asshole.

They would not let me use the bathroom unless I spent at least five bucks; I had no cash on me, I didn't feel like using my credit card for a $5 purchase, and this was one of those rare occasions when I wasn't hungry. I stormed out of the restaurant, and attempted to slam the door behind me. A guy who I believe was the owner leapt from his stool, stopped the door from slamming, and chased me halfway across the parking lot swearing at me; I just ignored him and walked back to my truck, which was still parked at the gas station. The cheesesteak guy said "go shit in a bush for all I care" before giving up and going back to his restaurant; I hopped in the the Tacoma and drove around the corner to a bank. There happened to be a Philly cop at the bank, seemingly working security; I explained my situation to the cop and told him what had just happened at the cheesesteak place, and he pointed me right towards the bathroom.

It was almost another two years before I did DoorDash in Philly, and now I don't deliver there at all because (A) Philly is a crime-ridden shithole, (B) the traffic sucks, and (C) a good number of places still don't have public bathrooms.

 

It’s not as bad as you make it out to be.

Most unmodified cars can pass the smog without a huge effort.

 

Yeah, but anything with a carburetor should qualify for antique tags and be exempt from smog testing in my opinion...

 

And within reason, you should be allowed to modify your vehicle to your heart's content. Removing the catalytic converter is something that I do not agree with, but I hear that you're not even allowed to do an ECU/chip upgrade in California or else it automatically fails; I understand the importance of smog testing, especially with how the geography of California can trap smog. However, how it could possibly harm the planet to put a performance chip in a Civic Si or K&N intake kit in a Toyota Tacoma?!?!

 

You know that you could get a Toyota with a carb all the way until 1991?

 

Yeah, and the aforementioned uncle with the Westfalia agrees with me that all vehicles 1995 and older should be exempt from emissions in California. In Pennsylvania, OBD1 vehicles just get a visual inspection and pass as long as the CEL isn't on and the emissions control system hasn't been tampered with. Anything 25 years and older qualifies for antique tags and no longer has to get inspected!

 

Also, the 1991 Jeep Grand Wagoneer (final year) had a carbureted V8!

 

Before Washington got rid of its emissions testing program. Everything 10 years and older got tested. If it was a 1996 or older that shit got on the rollers and they put a sniffer on it. I don't know how my Land cruiser ever passed...



And the taco because it could be plugged in I fooled all the sensors to generate a pass

 

Did you delete the cat on the Cruiser?

 

Not back then, but they were toast. I've replaced them with a cat for a 94 Toyota Supra since the one for the LC is stupid expensive and I was remaking the exhaust anyway.





I swear this thing is hell on exhaust, completely worn out the Magnaflow 18" I put in there too now. I have a Vibrant Ultra Quiet to stick in soon. Sounds ridiculous as is right now.

https://youtu.be/Q9cQzD6BjlM

 

@PennSilverTaco

Sounds like a damn diesel under load right now though at low RPM, kinda a neat side effect

https://youtu.be/48ze6zIR7mU?si=Elns5WtQqHJyPZFa