How an Uber Driver Saved a Portland Weatherman’s Day

I walked into the KATU News Studios this afternoon and realized I’d forgotten something crucial: my pants.

Well, technically I had some – but they were blue jeans – and on camera they gave away my secret.

As a result, I did most of my 3pm weather during Afternoon Live and the start of our 4pm newscast, hiding behind the weather desk.

But here’s what no one knew: while I was hiding behind the desk, my pants were riding Uber, all by themselves, on a 10 mile journey to KATU News. They tell me there was traffic.

Now you might be wondering why no one in my family was willing to drive through the building rush hour traffic and bring me my suit pants. That’s a fair question.

The answer is this: with the kids’ practices, dinner, work and everything else – there was no real way to squeeze it in. In fact, my wife was about to leave home and joked about my pants taking Uber. That was more than a joke, though – it was a great idea to save the day!

I opened the app to see what was available, and bingo, the driver was picking up the bottom part of my suit in 7 minutes.

Then, after a trek on I-205 and I-84 and Sandy Boulevard–Uber driver Josue sent me a message he’d arrived outside our secure parking lot and had my pants. We took a selfie, of course!

Special thanks to Josue for saving this weatherman’s day-and bacon. A suit really is not optional…even if you’re just filling in for another meteorologist.

By the way, Josue told me I was a fantastic passenger, “You were very quiet!”

I’ve never heard that before.