Taxi cab confessions

Carl Simms formerly owned a Boulder coffee business that supplied grinds to other coffee houses. Once the recession hit, Carl was forced to close down.

"Faced with the choice of going into debt or going out, I decided to try this instead," said Carl, referring to his yellow cab.

After his business closed, he seemed to have lost nearly everything, including his home. He now lives out of his cab and jokes that the glove compartment doubles as a medicine cabinet and the trunk is in fact a closet.

A lot of other people are in Carl's shoes due to the recession. In fact, across America over one and half million people are homeless right now. The numbers of homeless are skyrocketing in Boulder, leaving some business owners to send out memos informing employees to call the authorities when a homeless man is present in one of the stores.

In order to make ends meet, Carl picked up another job working as a manager at Coldstone Creamery. While there are many signs that the economy is finally turning around, Carl has yet to see the results.

"Small business has not even begun to recover yet, and that's the motor, the engine behind the economy," said Carl.

Once things pick up for him, Carl plans on reopening his coffee business. Until then, he picked up a hobby to keep himself busy.

Carl said, "The real me, I write. I write, I write, I write."

That is no exaggeration. He has written five novels so far about the people he has met while driving his cab over the past ten months. Every ride, and every passenger, remind him to keep looking forward.

"No matter how tough your life may seem at the time, you run into somebody who's got a hell of a lot tougher life than you do, so what the hell do you have to complain about," said Carl.