I'm on hiatus indefinitely

Because my life is crap and you don't want to help me out by purchasing from my web store, I'm on indefinite hiatus from strength training and hence blog posting.

So let me explain. I'm a cab driver in the city of Chicago.  As of late, this city has made a fool out of me and disrespected the time and effort I have to expend to have the privilege to earn a living by driving people around town.

There are new quasi taxi services called rideshare services.  They go by cute wisemaker names like Lyft, Uber and sidecar.  They offer the same service as I do, namely picking up people and charging them money to take them to their destinations.

The problem with this is they don't have to deal with one iota of the rules, regulations, and licencing and insurance coverage requirements that I'm required to have to transport people in Chicago. Just in the last year I had to pay an extra fifty dollars a month in insurance which is an addition to the two hundred dollars a month I already shell out for commercial drivers insurance.

Also, I have to every once a year go down to a city government building and waste a day of my life to renew my license. That entails signing an affidavit that states I owe no outstanding debt to the city of Chicago. I also have to submit to a $45 drug test and physical.  I also have to take $50 defensive driving classes and driver education classes on occasion.  I also have to take fingerprints which are then background checked and every month the Chicago police department checks my records for any felony charges.

Every twice a year, I have to take the cab I'm driving to a city of Chicago cab inspection facility where they find fault with the smallest of things like a spot of oil on the underframe, call it a leak, and physically rip off  the cab's medallion licence plate without which I can't transport people for profit because they deem the cab unfit for use.  Then the inspectors issue a three hundred dollar ticket which causes me to have to take the cab to get "repaired". How do you repair a spot of oil?  What a joke. Finally I have to take another day out of my time to have it reinspected.

Uber, lyft and the like don't have any  of this to deal with. They don't have to worry about vehicle inspections or insurance requirements. Their drivers don't have to submit to background checks or drug tests. They're not required to pick up anybody they don't like or from which they can't make a decent sized fare unlike me where I have I am required by Chicago ordinance to pick up anybody and everybody no matter how rough they look or whether I can make any sizable profit from them.  This means they have almost zero overhead costs which means they can lowball and undercut my rates for next to nothing. I can't beat cheaper.

So rather than crying like a little bitch and playing like I'm a victim, I've decided to get out of the taxi business. If the city of Chicago wants to play dumb and turn a blind eye to the serious shortcomings these rideshare services have in their lack of proper insurance coverages and driver vetting which enables them to be less costly than me, my decision is to leave.

My only