Embracing Change

Embracing change is hard for all of us, humans tend to resist change and stay with the Status Quo, but change is usually good for Humanity and helps push us forward as a species.
My Daughter must have seen The Little Mermaid over 1000 times during the first few years of her life.  At first she loved the colors and the music and as she got older she loved the movie and moved on to Mulan, for the next 1000 views.

Last year, I entered the Ride-share world by becoming a Lyft Driver.  6 Months ago, I entered the Food Delivery business by becoming a Dasher and last month, I applied to Amazon Flex to enter the package delivery business. All 3 of these independent contractor opportunities have 1 thing in common, delivery apps tied into Google Maps.

Flashback to 1981, I was a Computer Science Student at Stony Brook University, learning programming using punch cards, taking classes with teachers that now have University Streets and Buildings named after them, like Marberger Drive.  She was talking about a new idea, recursive algorithms, which allows programs to make a decision, gather information about that choice, and then go back to that starting point and make a different decision and gather information on that choice and so on, and so on, and so on until all possible outcomes have been explored, letting tbe program decide the best option based on the goals of the program.  She mentioned a mapping application to determine the best route from point A to point B.  Combining this recursive algorithm technology along with GPS technology, Google Maps was born, which is the backbone of the three delivery apps I mentioned above and many more.

Rideshare Apps... Lyft, Uber, Via, Juno
Food Delivery Apps... DoorDash, Uber Eats, GrubHub
Package Delivery Apps... Amazon Flex

CBS News Reported on February that for the first time in history, U.S, Restaurants are projecting to make more money form food consumed outside their doors.  Food Delivery swelled to a $10 Billion Industry, which just started in the early 2000's.  It took just under 2 decades to reach that point.

**** Actually, now with this new world we are living in, Restaurants hit 100% of their food consumed outside their doors this week!

There is a lot of cross over between these apps, but they all have in common an army of Independent Contractors available to service the needs of the communities.

As a Lyft Driver, I have driven riders to 7-11 and back so they can do their shopping, driven riders to Subway and back to work to get their lunch and I have heard people us Lyft to deliver packages, such as auto parts to a mechanic.

As a DoorDash Driver, Handy Pantry and 24 hour deli's are on the list of restaurants, so we can do so food shopping for our DoorDash Clients.

As a Future Amazon Flex driver, I can see them, along with packages, deliver Amazon Fresh and Grocery store deliveries, as long as the stores pick and packages the order.

All this was possible because we were able to embrace change and build upon what was done previously.  

Dude, Where's my car? IRL

I never thought I would ever utter these words in real life...  Dude, where's my car? 

Turns out on a Sunny Saturday afternoon in early September, I actually had to say those words a few times. 

My car needed brakes and a friend in Commack offered to help me make the repairs early Saturday morning.  Since I had a Roadside Assistance Company Policy, I decided to have my car towed to Commack the night before so we could fix my car bright and early Saturday morning.  Both the Roadside Assistance Company and The Towing Company said it was fine to drop off the car on my Friends driveway and leave the keys in the Mailbox.  So, they towed my car on Friday night and that's the last time I saw it until about 12:33 pm the next day, about 12 hours after it left us.

After the Tow Truck left, we went to bed, expecting to wake up early and join our friend to repair my brakes.  At about 7:15 am, as we were about to head over to Commack, I get a text that my car is not in his driveway.   Hmmm, I was a little worried, but I was sure that maybe he parked it in the street or in the parking lot across the street.  I asked if the keys were in the mailbox, and they were not there.  Hmmmm, starting to get more worried, but I had the Tow Truck Drivers Cell, since he called to confirm the pickup, ask for directions to my car and again to verify the drop off in Commack, since there were cars in the destinations driveway.  So I called and called and texted and called to no avail. 

Meanwhile, we decided to head over to Commack while waiting for a response from our Tow Truck Driver.  We made it to my friends house, drove around the nearby blocks searching for my car. 
At this point, over an hour had passed with no reply from our friendly Nieborhood Tow Truck Driver and my car is parked on the street in front of someone's house in Commack, with the keys in their mailbox, my brake pads and Rotars in the trunk and that's the first time I said... Dude, where's my car? 

At this point, after google mapping variations of the Commack address without any luck, we called the Roadside Assistance Company to see if those Dude's could find my car.  After about a hour or two waiting at a Starbuck.s in Commack, the Roadside Assistance Company conferenced in the owner of the Towing Company and the first thing I said was, you guessed it... Dude, where's my car?   He didn't get the movie reference, and he said he would let me know where my car was ASAP.  Thanks to a GPS tracker on his tow trucks, he told me that it was 2.1 miles away in front of a similar sounding address across town. 

We made our way to the wrong address and there it was, parked in front of a lovely home in Commack, minding it's own business, with niebors mowing their lawns,  enjoying the beautiful weather and ignoring my misplaced car.  We rang the bell after retreiving my keys from the mailbox to give the homeowner a heads up about why my  car was in front of his house with the keys in their mailbox.  After a good laugh we thanked him and he thanked us for the heads up, and we proceeded to get my car to where is should of been over 12 hours ago.

Well, my brakes got repaired, I got  content for my Blog and now I have to watch that movie or write a screen play for the Sequel to... Dude, Where's my car?