I lost my Knob!

The day was going as normal...I arrived for my afternoon route and did my pre-trip. I then followed the other 5 buses over to to high school in convoy style. I loaded my high school students and continued my convoy over to the middle school with the rest of the busses. As I pulled into my signed numbers parking stall, I pushed the “N” on the control panel on the right and pulled our the big yellow diamond shaped knob that say “ Parking Brake”. I then reached over to the left and yanked on the black knob that opens and closes the door for the students to enter and exit the bus. Well, today I realized that I have been really working out and it has been paying off because when I yanked....the Whole knob and metal shaft came with it! All I heard with all the air pressure blowing out the whole like it was the Old Faithful Geyser! I put my hands over it like I was going to get wet or something.. LOL! After I realized how silly it was I just let the air do its thing and called the shop to bring me another bus. At that point I informed all my students of what had happened and that we would be waiting 15 mins for another bus. This is when the kids started telling bus stories of past years...one student “ remember when Chris threw up in the back of the bus?’” ..another student “ Or when that one girl threw a slug at the bus!” I then shared some other stories like when another driver had my bus in the day and toilet papered the inside of my bus and the way I retaliated was by driving his bus and letting all my students empty all of their paper out of their notebooks all over the bus! It took us 4 big school size trash cans to empty and clean the bus afterwards..LOL!  

So we spent the rest of the time telling stories and listening to some of the students say how they needed to use the bathroom and wanted off the bus. ( which we are not allowed to do) So there was a ton of comedy going on with teenage boys! Of course it took longer that I had expected for the other bus to get there...and this is why.  When we need another bus from base one of our mechanics brings it to us so they can fix or just drive the other one back. Well I think that they aren't allowed out of their shop much because this one particular mechanic took the longest route possible to get to where I was. Did he not know that I had 50 high school students on my bus? Really? Seriously? ....I sometimes wonder what people are thinking. Next time I will send then GPS coordination's..LOL! well he finally got there and I had all the students get on the other bus and loaded. When I closed the doors one student called out , “ hey, you know you can drive 5 over the speed limit!” you have to just love them for helping :)

On a different note....bus drivers have a saying “ you can’t live off of a bus drivers salary”. with that said, many of us have other jobs that we do to help us get the bills paid. I am exception, I am a personal trainer and have my own business. So after my route when I lost my knob, I had a meeting with some new clients for my personal training business. As one family walked in I recognized that daughter, I asked her where she went to elementary school and she told me the one that I drive for. I then explained to her parents that I drive school bus also. Later when I was doing her paper work I asked her what grade she was in and she said “ I am a senior and you drove me from Kindergarden thru 5th grade.” WOW....she looked so young and that made me smile. It sometimes amazes me how fast the past 10 yrs. have gone.