Gotta Love Dogs!

As I finish my first week back taking mid-days, AKA kindergarden/preschool routes, for the first time in almost 5 years.  I was reminded that kids come with all types of chaperones. Sometimes it is mom or dad, other times it could be an older sibling or Grandparent, it can even be a daycare provider or friend. The one chaperone that is always cute and unpredictable is one in the form of a K9. I came across this type of chaperone this week on one of the mid-days I was driving. I was driving the route and I was about 5 minutes early so I pulled over in front of the students house and I put on my hazards and honked my horn to let the parent know that I was there.With this being a preschool route I am required to get out of my seat and help the student get all buckled in. So I unbuckle and wait sitting sideways in my seat until the student comes out.  The parent communicated back by opening the door and keeping it open while she got the student ready for preschool. I know this because she made me wait the five minutes that I was early while she brushed the young girls hair, washed her face, put on her jacket and shoes then look for the backpack that was so desperately needed. By this time the student was out on the porch looking back at her mother like “hurry up, I want to go”! Waiting with the student was a black lab mix dog that was about 6 months old. The dog kept looking into the house at mom and back at the student wondering which way it should go. Once the mother handed the little girl her backpack, she walked down the sidewalk toward the bus. She then stopped at the door of the bus turned around waved at mom and told the black lab “Midnight” to go! The little girl preceded to get on the bus. I stand up to help her and then I watch Midnight outside of the bus as he watched the girl go onto the bus and down the aisle. Midnight then looked at mom on the porch and turned back to the bus and continued to get on! I acted quickly by squatting down like a football quarterback waiting for the snap with my feet heels together blocking the aisle. While the mom runs out of the house then grabs the dogs collar which is to big and slides right off Midnights head while I am pushing Midnight off the bus. We finally got Midnight off then I realized I had caught my jeans on the bus metal bracket that holds the door release handle and put a hole in my jeans. Oh great I say as I get the little girl all buckled into her seat. This was funny and out of the ordinary situation. One of reasons I needed to act so quickly was because not knowing this dog, which seemed sweet, may have acted differently with me and the other students. In addition, what was the other students reactions going to be? Had they had bad experiences with other dogs or were they allergic? You just never know what can happen. 

I am glad that this ended up being just a cute story that I was able to share. Yet by having this happen I then think about another student on my regular everyday route. This student is a first grader and his house sits back about half a football field away from the road. His K9 chaperon is a black pit-bull mix female named “Bella” she walks or runs with him to the end of the driveway and up to the bus door. She checks that he gets on and waits for me to close the doors before returning to the house. She then will do the same in the afternoon. It just makes me smile and realize what a great loving dog she is. 

Then you have the ones that are what I call “micro dogs” the ones that people carry or the ones like jack Russell's that run circles around the students as they are trying to catch them. This type K9  happened a couple of years ago where it had  broken  out to the house like a jail prisoner. The kids starts chasing it in hopes to get it back into the house before having to get onto the bus. So here is this dog just running hula hoop circles around this kid and then the other students at the stop decide to help. So as I am pulling up to the stop I see this slew of kids running around in circles chasing this dog that is going mach speed around them...it is a huge cat and mouse race! As I slow down to make the stop the dog runs behind my front wheels under the bus the thru to the other side. I’lI could do was stop quickly, hold my breath and wish for the best. Because the last thing I needed was to have 20 elementary kids watch a dog get squished under the bus tires at 8:30 am before school. Thank goodness I reacted in time and all was ok, the parent was able to grab the dog and we were off to school with a great story to tell. 

Bus Mom

The main purpose of my job as a bus driver is to keep the students safe while transporting them to and from school. While doing this I have turned into a bus mom. just like a regular mom I look after the students to make sure that are not hitting each other, rough housing, using bad language  or being mean. When they do we sometimes have to put them in a time out, better known as the front seat.  In fact I have had to take care of students that have had bloody noses, lost teeth and even have accidents. like yesterday I had a couple of my elementary notify me that one of the little girls was crying. So when I was able to stop the bus in a safe area I had the other student that was sitting with this little girl come up to the front to talk to me. I asked him what was wrong with her. He was quickly to answer, “She says her tummy hurts and she is going to throw up”. At that moment a couple of thing need to happen. The first thing is I tell him to take the trash can back to the seat with him so in case she does throw up it will go into the trash can and not the floor. Because what I have learned from the past is that if you don’t have a place for vomit to go....it will go everywhere! and if you have ever watched the movie “Stand by me” where the one actor is telling about the pie eating contest at the fair and the contestant vomits. Once one vomits then another and another until you have a “barforama”! Well with the bus being a enclosed environment this is not something you want to happen. If it did it was smell so bad that you wouldn’t get it out of the bus for many years unless you hose the inside of it out with pine sol!  So of course I defused the situation with the trash can! the next thing I wanted to do is get her home ASAP because I was worried about her. Lucky for me her house is close to one to my stops so I was able to get her home, honk the bus horn for mom to come out and get her before any damage was done. You see the regulations that we have for the buses doesn't allow us to have things on the bus like paper towels, Kleenex or other things that we may need when these bloody noses and other bodily fluid situations occur. So when they happen we are scrabbling to find things that we can use until we get to the school where we sent a student in or have the school send a teacher out. Either way we are stuck.  So you learn to be Macgyver it and use whatever you can find to stop the nose bleed or whatever the situation may be. 

Another reason I refer to myself as a bus mom is that there has been times when there has been very sports talented kids that don't always have the support from their parents or the parents have to work so they miss out on games and such. So I try to be there for them like when I can I will bid on a sports trip that they will be going to a game and I root them on. There was one time I had this girl that made it to the state basketball play offs and not one of her family members could make it, so I was able to take the trip. Once the trip was over I saw that there where some photographers there taking pictures of the games. there just so happened to be one of her at the free throw line that was amazing! so I bought it for her and gave it to her when we got back to the school. she was so grateful that from that point on when ever she went to a dance and got her Senior pictures she always gave me one. 

The one girl I will never forget about was the one we called “homeless”. Our district has a program that will transport a student that has to move out of district because of living and home situations. So we try to keep the student in the same school at least during this time in their lives. So I was driving out of district to pick this girl up who was a senior and she was living with her father in a trailer. Her father was a long haul driver so she was basically living on her own. She would tell me about having to wash her clothes in the bath tub and extra. I started making sure she had what she needed since her father was doing what he could to provide but she was a girl and we all know that girls need things Dad’s just don't understand about. What touched me most was she was also staying after school to make up credits that she had failed earlier in 9th and 10th grade so she could graduate with her class. She was determined to graduate high school because neither of her parents had. Then came the end of the year and prom rolled around. She wanted to go so bad but her father just couldn’t afford it and her boyfriend was also being raised by his grandparents. (just a side note...he used to ride my bus a few years back.) So I had these bus mom feels of helping these two young very driven students. I reached out to the other drivers and told them the story. I called in some favors from my friends that did hair and nails. When it was all said and done this couple had  prom tickets, tux & dress, dinner and pictures all paid for! The good news is that they both graduated. 

These are just a few reasons I call myself a “Bus Mom”

Happy New 1/2 Year!

As many of you are celebrating the fact that it is a new calendar year and you have set your resolutions. Us bus drivers are celebrating the fact that we are half way through our school calendar year. This marks that we are going to have a 2 month vacation in 6 months...YAHOO! Plus, we have a bunch of National holidays in there and not to mention spring break. So yes this is a little different perspective for us bus drivers since we don’t have to dwell on the 12 months of “how is this year going to be different”. For us this year is half over and so far so good. With that said and with just coming back from winter break I have had a pretty good week. I am not sure what happened to my students over the winter break. I think that Santa brought them a big bag of politeness because as my high and middle school students got off the bus at the school in the morning on Tuesday I would say half of them said, “Thank you”. So here I am sitting in my seat repeating “ you are welcome” about 30 times. I felt like a broken record. I guess I am going to have to come up with something a little more witty like, “No.... Thank you” or Have a great day and learn something useful” or say something back to them crazy like " shoes" just to see if you are listening..LOL.  I don’t know I guess I will have to work on that. 

The one thing that I decided to do in this new 1/2 year is to start taking what we call mid-day routes. We have a big white board that posts other drivers kindergarden or pre-school routes. This is where if the regular driver is going to be gone for whatever reason other drivers can bid to drive it for them on that day. Many subs do this to earn extra hours and money. I to need a little more cash flow this year for a few months. so I went up to our dispatcher and asked her to show me how the process works since I haven’t taken a mid-day in probable 4 years. Many people standing around that over heard this were definitely shocked since, "I never take a mid-day" as they stated. So she showed me and in return i will have more interesting material to write about for this blog....so stay tuned :)

So, yesterday I got to my first elementary stop where I pick up about 20 students. Apparently one of the students had to run back to the house because she forgot her violin. The reason I know this is because every single kid that got on the bus and said, “ Lucy went to get her violin”.  They are so helpful at this age or they think I have Alzheimer's and need to be reminded 20 times in a 2 min period. 

The one thing I still don’t understand and maybe it is because I am not a teacher or school district administrator, is why after a two week vacation come back on a Tuesday and Wednesday we have a one hour late start. Then a week and a half later we have a day off. Ok, that last one is a holiday but still.   

So I look forward to all the events and stories that this new 1/2 year will bring and I will get to share them all with you :)