Crash... Boom ... Bam!

In the last 30 days I have been driving my bus thinking to myself about what my next blog should consist of. Every time I think I have it all thought out and get ready to write it something else happens that is blog worthy. Well, this month the blog worthy material consists of crashes and other drivers. In my life time as a bus driver ( 11 years ) I think that in the last month we have had the most accidents in our fleet that has ever taken place since I have been here. Now let me clarify on what I mean by accidents, because many people automatically think the bus is as fault but in reality it is the other driver or objects that cause this mishaps. We have had multiple people rear end the buses this month. In one case the bus was stopped at a stop loading students and the driver felt a jolt in the back. When she looked up in the mirror thinking that it was the students in the back jumping around, the kids started shouting “ we have just been hit!”. You see buses are pretty heavy and are high off the ground so when I car rear ends a bus, the car usually ends up with hood under the bus and the buses bumper at the windshield. the main question is “how do you not see a big yellow Twinkie ?”  I can understand the smaller special needs bus getting rear ended when she stopped at a cross walk to let the pedestrian cross. Where not the car behind her but the car behind that one didn’t stop and pushed the first car right into the bus going 30 mph. Then you have the early morning driver who is late for work, not quite awake yet and sipping on their first cup of coffee when they run the red light and crash into the bus that is now in the intersection. How about the deer that commits suicide by jumping into the lane that the bus is traveling. Better yet, the idiot that make a turn into the parking lot hits a parked bus and drives away.....hello can you say, “hit and run” ?  These are just a few of the accidents that we have had in the last month. They all get reported and a committee then goes over them to see if they were “preventable” or not. What do you think? 

I personally had my first “road rage” experience. I had just pulled into my last school of the day, got off my bus to read the hub miles. While I was writing it down a heavy set woman wearing what looked like an Olive Garden server attire came around and asked me if I was the bus driver. I smiled and said yes, why? OMG....She went on this rant about how I ran and red light, cut her off, was speeding and a few other things. I of course stayed calm and started questioning her right back. Like which light did I run? How fast did she think I was going, etc. Then I explained to her that I when I got back to transportation I would have my boss check and confirm her accusations on the computer. She looked at me shocked and said, “What does that mean?”  This is when I smiled and told her “ we have Zonar / GPS on my bus and it will tell them IF I was speeding, stopped and what time” her jaw dropped!  She then asked me my name and typed away on her phone, I am assuming I just made her Facebook status :) ! I did call base and let them know what had happened and to expect a call. She never called, go figure! 

So in one of  my last blog I talked about a little boy having an accident on my bus and how I have a kindergarden route in the middle of the day. Well this kindergarden route is at a different school than my normal route, so I drive out of 4 different schools in a day. this one day the office told me that I had a new kindergardener to take home. So I go to the school I start loading my students and the new little boy looks up at me and says, “ I know you! You were my bus driver from my other school.”  He took his seat and as I was driving away from the school he goes on to tell the other 2 students that he remembers the rules of the bus. He starts saying, “ Don't talk loud, sit down in your seat, don’t pee on the bus floor....” I just bust out laughing!  

Changes...Changes...Everywhere there are changes!

Since this year there has been so many changes to our routes I now do three runs per route. Which means that I drive for 3 different schools morning and afternoon. I actually drive high school and then 2 different elementary now. So in the last week each run has produced something blog worthy. On my high school route in the afternoon I had about seven high school boys in the back of the bus, they range in age from 15 -17 years old. As a am driving down the road I see all of them just up standing on their seats  squealing like an old lady that just say a mouse run across the floor. I pull over and ask them what is going on, one of the boys replies, “ There is a wasp!” my response was , “ are you kidding me? You are acting like a bunch of sissy girls! Someone take off your shoe and kill the thing!” So the bravest one of the bunch did just that...with a good hard whack we were on our way back down the road. I did a tell them that that was totally going into my next blog and they ask me to put their names in, of course I can’t but they know who they are :)

Now just yesterday I pulled up to a first graders stop, there is usually a family member waiting for him, but not today. He sits up as I come to a stop and yells , “ THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE! I GET TO GO HOME BY MYSELF!” as he gets off and crosses in front of the school bus he keeps repeating this with his hands up like Rocky Balboa! I 

spoke to Dad this morning and told him about it. He said that hey heard about it all night. How cute!

On my last run of the day I have another group of elementary kids that only takes me five minutes from the school to the first stop and seven minutes for the second stop. As I get  within sight of the first stop one of my kindergartens states, “ I have to go to the bathroom!” I tell him we are so close to his stop to please hold it. As I round the corner not a minute later, “ I had an accident!”. Next thing I know there are students all telling me about “ the pee”! It is on the floor, it is on the seat, it is running down the aisle....etc! So I get to the last second and final stop, open the door and ask, “ Are you mom? well he has an accident.” the mom’s reply, “ I am so sorry, I quess you won’t forget his name.” this is so true since this is the first “Pee” accident I have every had in the 11 years that I have been driving school bus. 

Now I mentioned change in the title and that is because this year there has been so many changes in our transportation department. We have the new bell times which give us all new routes. These routes seem to keep changing. They office will add or take off stops, change stop times and drivers changing routes. We even changed bus loading zones at one school. Oh yes the loading zone I almost forgot to talk about that. So at the high school that I drive for was remodeled years ago before I came along, and when it was they forgot to put in a bus loading zone. So they had to create a loading lane in the upper lot where there was just enough room along a “J” shape sidewalk. They then made a curb on the other side to keep regular cars out. So the system over the years has been 6 buses at a time to go in there, which means we have 3 waves that go thru and pick up students. So the second week of school the fourth bus in line died, in other words it would not start. I was the fifth bus and we park really close to the bus in front of us. So here we all are stuck in this loading lane with buses on the road waiting to get in. Parents fighting to pick up their kids next to us. So I had the driver behind me back up, then I backed up and pulled into the parent pickup lane and got the out of dodge. One of my high school students said after I did this, “ I have never been more proud that you are my bus driver than I am right now”. Not sure why, it was just another day in the life as a school bus driver!  

Emotional Cluster!

At the end of the last school year in June, our mangers informed us that the district had decided to reformat the transportation routes and go with staggered bell time through out the district. With doing this they would be reorganizing the routes to accommodate this new change and cut out many as much as ten or more full time routes. The process would then be to rebid all of the routes. Starting from the top to the bottom on the seniority list. With this news followed many emotions from the drivers in my district. We felt loss, anger, confusion, and betrayal. Our emotions were very real and we felt that they were disregard due to the districts needs to cut cost. Not realizing how it was going to effect all of us and how was management was going to handle it. They didn’t prepare us or our  the management team for the up coming year as far as what to expect emotionally. For me, this was a summer of a long emotional depression and sadness. I had driven many of these students for 10 years plus on my route. I knew their parents, sibling and even grandparents. I took this every hard. I didn’t realize how hard until I was garage sale hunting in that area one day this summer break and I broke into tears as I drove down the same street I had for 10 years in my bus. This was a forced change on me that I have not taken well. 

 So two weeks before school started we were given 15 mins to pick a route. We got to come in on our own time and look at all the route changes. Then we could decide on what we were going to bid on in our 15 mins. I did get a route that still had my high school students and 2 other parts from old routes I had driven in the past. 

As for the first day of school , OH LORD WHAT A CLUSTER!!! Since many people had to change routes and didn’t know the new areas plus the route sheets that were given to them didn’t have the correct information. To say the least the radio was not stop talking plus many were late to the schools. Even now a week later there are many routes that are still not right. Many of the drivers are stressed out by not getting to school on time, missing students, making wrong turns, etc! So much makes perfect sense to the “ educated big wigs downtown” on paper as far as the numbers goes but when it comes down to you implementing it....Oh please give me a break! We are the ones on the road dealing with parents, students, teacher & principles plus all of the other people on the road! Whose wonderful idea was this? 

The positive side to all this is that I make more money since I am on the road 7.5 hours instead of 4.5 hours. My students that I used to have appreciate me more now that they have someone else driving them. Yes, I still drive out of the same school so I see my elementary students everyday still :) and today I found a whole roll of Oreo Cookies on my bus. I would like to think of it as a sign / treat for all the emotional distress that I have gone through with all of the restructuring the district has done here at transportation.

I wish all of my fellow drivers patience and safe driving... this to shall pass! 

These Crazy Kids!

Now, in this day and age of social networking We have been told to not have any of our students on our Facebook. Of course I am a bit of a push the envelope kind of girl so I have a few of my high school students and their parents on my Facebook page. Yet again I have had this same route and have known these kids and parents for years. With that said I was on Facebook the other night and I saw one of my high school boys status post and it was about 5 of the boys on my bus. It said, " We just shoved a piece of bread in our butts, and ran 30 yards. The loser had to eat the bread.haahhahaaa". TMI GROSS!!!  I had to ask my own son what Blue Mountain State show was and he informed me that is a show that people do funny stuff like they boys on my bus did. So the next morning I stopped at the store before my route and picked them up a fresh loaf of bread. When I got to their stop I handed it to one them and said “ for the next time you get hungry for bread” they all laughed and told me I was awesome!  I thanked them for the great new material for my new blog!

 The other day one of my grade school girls got on the bus and asked me “ why do you have your pretty face on today?”  yes I was wearing a little makeup that day but I was unaware that I had my not so pretty face on most of the time. 

There are only 24 more days left of school so this is what we call our busy season. It is where we have our regular routes, sport teams that we have to transport plus teachers are all trying to get all of there field trips in before school ends. So there is a lot of shuffling going on with what buses and routes people are driving. in fact we have everyone driving that has a CDL in our district right now.  therefore on the road you don’t know who you will run into or who will be driving your route when you are gone. for example this week I was going because my husband had to have surgery on his shoulder. A co-worker of mine drove my route and he just so happened to turn on the radio so the kids could listen to music. Now I know this because I had a bunch of students tell me when I got back,  “ the other driver played music, I thought you said the radio was broken?”. Yep I was busted!  A few years ago I used to have the radio on all the time. Then the requests started for me keep changing it to other stations and turn the volume up or down. Plus the students would try to talk over the music so it would then get really loud. So I started just telling them that the radio was broken... problem solved. Well now I am thanking my co-worker for throwing me under the bus!  Just FYI.. That radio will be  broken again on Monday :) 

My Quarter Mile

I realized the other day that I hadn’t blogged in a while. I tried to think if there was anything that had happened recently blog worthy. Nothing came to mind, until the next day. Now I have mentioned how short me route is. In fact, some of the sub’s call my route “stupid easy” since there are only a hand full of stops in a 1/4 mile. So on the next day I came to the first stop and one of my “big family” ( multiple kids) students got on and stated very matter of fact to me “my sister was up all night throwing up!” then continued her seat, as I sit there thinking to myself “ you were exposed to some sort of flu and now you just exposed me...GREAT!”.  I closed the doors and went to stop number two. As I got to this stop I could see one of my 3rd graders running for the bus, so I waited. When she walked up the stairs she says to me, “ I really should start drinking coffee so I won’t be late anymore” reminder she is a 3rd grader and about 8 yrs old! I just started laughing and closed the door. Now this next stop was something I have NEVER seen before...as I approached the stop I see this father in his car rushing to the stop with his child in the back seat. He jumps out opens the back door, let’s his daughter out and gives her a little push to hurry so she doesn’t miss the bus. He then turns around without looking and gets back into the car. He then shuts the car door and realizes he is in the back seat!  He then gets out of the back seat, looks around to see if anyone saw what he did then says something to his daughter like nothing happened. He gets back into the car and drives away. I could not stop laughing until I got to the next stop until I saw the “bus stop fashion mom’s”. You see on my route there is what I call “suburbia morning bus stop fashion”, and at the last stop this one particular morning I got just that!  What it is, are Mom’s standing there with Rubber or UGG boots, pajama pants, long coats to cover the backside, hair in pony tails and no makeup or makeup left on from the night before, with coffee cups in hand trying to wave or kiss their child while getting on the bus. Then there is the child trying to act like they don’t know who that women is! ( you know the look) 

Since that was my last stop of the morning I could not believe that all of those things just happened in less than 15 minutes in one day!  But they did and now I am sharing them with you...hope you got a chuckle out of this one :)

Snow & Smells

As I look back on January, I remember it being right after Martin Luther King weekend. I am sitting in my bed with my PJ’s on and it is 4: 30am in the morning. I have the TV on, Facebook up on my computer and my cell phone in my hand. I am like that  person waiting for the winning lottery or Keno number to come up on one of my screens. The anticipation is killing me. “ come on show me the closer!” I say to the screens. Then at precisely at 4:41 am, one of my co-works posted on Facebook what I had been waiting for.... “ School Closed, just got my call”.  YAHOOOOO! I know, I am worse than one of the kids :) So now, it is time to decide what to do for the whole “snow day”.  This is another one of those reasons I love driving a school bus, because we get all the holidays and snow days that the kids do. Yes, let me tell you I am seriously like one of the kids on a snow day. I am out in the snow as much as possible!  It just so happens that this was our first of many snow days here in Washington. The first day the roads were just barely covered and I was surprised that they called the whole day and not just a 2 hrs late start, but who am I to complain? So I ended up going to the mall with my daughter and getting supplies for the house because they were calling for more snow. The rest of the week we got over a foot of snow and then the freezing rain. So with the holiday weekend and all the snow days, I was off of work and at home for over a week. I couldn’t wait to get back to driving and a normal schedule. The following Monday, the snow had melted mostly but the temperatures were still low. Our first day back ending up being a 2 hour late start. I am not so sure that was enough time because the snow had melted plus the rain then overnight temperatures dropped below 30. Which is a recipe for some really icy roads in the mornings. Which they were, I say this because while I was walking out to my car at home I almost fell on my biscuits. Then driving into the bus barn I watched people slide all over the roads.  What really made me think that we shouldn’t have been at work, was when I stood right outside  the door of base / transportations lounge. What I saw was like an episode of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” I waited for the sound effects to be going off because I stood there watching my co-workers walk super carefully across the sheet of ice that covered our bus parking lot. Then I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or help when I saw two of my co-workers do that “banana peel slip” move and fall right on their biscuits.  I am seriously kicking myself for not video taping this. It was quite comical to watch. Yet, you have to wonder what the bosses were thinking in a situation like this. What if someone seriously had gotten hurt? I say this because the rest of the morning all we heard over the radio was about kids falling and buses sliding. Oh well we got through it and to say the least it was an interesting first day back after a great snow storm! 

Now, I have written in my past blogs about how little air flow there is in my bus and how the windows get all steamed up on rainy days. Well, there is another down fall of this very poor air circulation.....SMELLS!  In fact, one of the things that I really stress when going over the rules of the bus at the beginning of every year is to not wear or apply any perfumes or lotions while on the bus.One of the reasons for that is because if a person does apply, the whole bus will smell it. yet if a student has asthma, if could possibly trigger a breathing attack. This is my way of communicating to the students I can smell everything on the bus! I have smelled nail polish, hand sanitizer, matches and many other things. Over the years, I have taking many sports trips. I realized very quick which ones I no longer wanted to take...football and soccer. These two sports always play no matter what. Say it is raining, they are out in the grass, mud and rain, running up and down the field sweating their teenage hormonal bodies off for the win. Well, you have heard the saying “it smells like a locker room in here”. Oh you have not smelled anything until you cram 50 wet, muddy, sweaty athletic bodies plus all their gear into a 40 foot bus! This is were you go YUCK!! How about the walking teenage whoopee cushion? Oh yes, stink bombs, farting or whatever you what to call it....are the worse! I know that you can’t aways control your bodily functions timing and need to release the gas unexpectedly but OMG, on the bus? With all the windows up it smells like an outhouse!  So is a little tip for new drivers...close your driver window ASAP!!! If you don’t... that smell has no where to go but towards you right past your nose and out the window! So close your window and have the kids in the back ( preferably  the trouble makers) to put down their windows for a few minutes. This should clear out the smell in no time. Plus, you get to smile knowing that they just had to inhale that wonderful smell! :) 

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 :)

Tis the Season

On days like today when the weather is 20 degrees and as I drive my frozen Twinkie down the road. The trees are frosty and the mornings are still dark. I love that some residents leave their holiday lights on all night so that I have the pleasure to enjoy them on my way to pick my students up. It is so peaceful and relaxing. ...then the kids get on the bus. 

The students are all bundled up so much they look like big puffy stuffed animals. Like today, there was this first grader who was late for the bus. He was running as fast as his little 2 foot long legs could move in his big winter coat, heavy back pack and a crocodile  looking hat ( see picture)  on his head that was 2 sizes to big. The hat was so big it was falling down over his eyes resting on his nose. As he got to my service door his stuffed the remainder for his breakfast that was in his hand into his mouth which made his checks puff out and he was unable to close his mouth all the way. He then grabbed the rail and raised his leg up as far as he could to make the step and got on the bus. All I could do is chuckle...it was so cute and funny! 

Then there are the high schoolers, that don’t wear coats or anything to keep them warm. They are standing out there in the 20 degree weather in shorts and t-shirts. I just don't get it. They even complain how cold they are. I frequently respond  to them with “ you know they make these things called coats, that you put over your body to keep you warm.” Of course they just give me that look like Duh! I even had a high school student ask me early in the year if I could make my bus “drift”. Apparently they have been watching the movie  “Fast and Furious”. I explained to this student that a bus is not made to do that. Yet on the days that roads are frosty and icy like today, I do have a tendency to slide around a corner or two. Which I have to  be careful not to hit a light pole or tree on these narrow suburb streets. So I guess today the bus did “drift” at little. 

Over the last ten years the holidays have changed for me as a bus driver. I remember when I would wear Christmas clothes, Santa hats or Reindeer horns throughout the month. I would even give all the students mini candy canes on the last day of school before Holiday break. Then there was the holiday music that I would have play on the radio the whole month of December. Yes, things have changed in the last ten years. I have found that since the district and everyone else have become “respectful to others culture and beliefs” I have had to change the way I can express my holiday spirit. I feel that since I have to be careful not to offend the students, parents and other drivers, I have lost my freedom of mine own expression. It used to be fun and joyful but now it has been about everyone else's feelings. Well, what about mine? I do enjoy our transportation holiday dinner and gift giving that we still do if people want to partake. 

I look forward to these last days before the holiday winter break because I get cards and gifts from some of my students. I wish I had a sticker on my bus that says, “ I drive for Starbucks gift cards” :)  This is one of the times of year that I know that the families and students really do appreciate all I do. 

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas Everyone! 

How it Happened

As my blog gets more notice amongst my coworkers, friends and the school bus community.  There is one question that gets asked the most, “ Why did you become a bus driver?”. Here is that story....

A little over ten years ago I was going through a divorce. I was new to this city and needed a job. I was now a single mom of two young children 4 and 8. So I needed a job where I didn’t need a lot

 of childcare and the flexibility where I could be active in my children's’ school lives. I started out by driving around town and putting in applications everywhere and anywhere. In fact, I was puling out of the Pepsi distribution center here in our area when I looked across the street and saw a sign that read “ Drivers Needed” on the front gate of the school bus lot. I sat there for a minute and thought about it. I had worked with children when I was a nanny for 3 years and ran a daycare center for a year. Also I come from a long line of truck drivers. Both my grandfathers where truck drivers and so are a few of my uncles. So for me it was like “ I can do this!” so I drove over and went it. They asked me a few questions and then sent me over the main office to fill out an application, back then they didn’t have online applications :) I then waited and about a week later when they called for an interview. When I went to the interview I didn’t realize that the whole office staff was going to be there. So the supervise of transportation, the Head Driver trainer & special needs coordinator, the Office secretary, payroll/dispatcher and finally the Fleet/ Shop supervisor all in this tiny room interviewing me. What I remember most about that meeting was that the two ladies did most of the asking of questions and the Fleet supervisor doodled on the paper in front of him...LOL. After the intern view process was over I then had to go take the drug testing and start 6 to 8 weeks of Bus Driver Bootcamp! Ok it is really just training but it took FOREVER!  Because I wasn’t just learning how to drive different types of buses on the streets and how to not hit anything. I also had to watch and read as much information about safety, WAC codes, laws on state and federal levels, district policies and union contract. Mind you none of this is paid! So in 6-8 weeks I got my Masters degree in School Bus Driver better known as a CDL ( commercial drivers license).   

I then had to prove to my driver trainer who I would like to add was the state School Bus Rodeo Champion in our state for 6 years! More on what a school bus rodeo will be covered in a different blog. And no there are no clowns and we don’t ride on top for 8 seconds :).  So after proving that I could drive and student mange I was what the office calls, “ Let loose” to start subbing on routes for drivers. So on my very first solo route was a special needs bus. I remember it like yesterday because it was the one and only time I have ever backed into and hit anything in the 10 years that I have driven!  I had dropped off a student at their house and backed out of the driveway and right into a mailbox. I was so scared and flustered when I got back to transportation. I called the owner of the mailbox and her response was “ Don’t worry about it. in fact I should thank you for squishing it. I have this fish mailbox that I have been wanting to put up and my husband wouldn’t let me. And now I can :)”  when I shared this with my boss, we both just laughed!  Because you don’t always get that great of a response from the people in the community. 

I have to say that this has been a great job over the years. It has allowed me to volunteer for my children’s field trips and events. I was able to go back to college and get my Associates Degree. I have been able to work as much or as little as I needed for income. I had the opportunity to take trips for the schools sports teams and other classes to places I would not have had the money or time to go see. I have met some of the most wonderful people and students over this time as a school bus driver. Now I am blogging for a national published magazine " School Transportation News" which will start showing up on their website in January 2012. 

Frozen Twinkie!

I am cold! Is what I tell my husband when he calls in the morning before I get to work. His response “ why? It is only 25 degrees out”. Leave it to my husband to point out the obvious. My reply, “ Well you get to work in a warm office with a cozy chair and put your hands on a “not cold” keyboard. While I get to work in a frozen Twinkie!” 

I just dread the cold mornings. Just the thought of walking out of the warm bus driver lounge puts me in a “i don’t wanna” mood. So I stand there in the lounge all bundled up like I am ready to climb Mt Everest in my 2 layers of long underwear and workout pants ( remember I am a personal trainer in my other life). I also have about 4 layers on the upper half of me, plus my hat and gloves. I just stand staring at the door to the  bus lot and wish for one magical moment my bus would defrost itself, drive over here and pick me up.  Of course that isn’t going to happen. That is when I look around the lounge at my fellow drivers and whine! I then walk up to a new driver or one with less seniority than I, hold out the keys to my bus, smile and state, “ we have a tradition here. People with lower seniority have to go pre-trip my bus, drive it over here and make sure it is all toasty warm for me :)” .  Yeah that goes over well...nobody takes me serious and just laughs..ugh! “ok fine!” I say and turn around and march my happy now cold biscuits out the bus. It is dark this time of year and I usually wear all black ( personal trainer uniform) which means other drivers can’t see me. which leaves me to dodge all the buses backing up and leaving the lot.  So there I am walking down the row of buses watching all of my co-workers scrapping the ice off all 40 windows and checking their lights. As I pass each one of them they say good morning in their foggy breath. My reply is, “ I can’t work under these conditions! I am going home!..hahaha” yet I keep walking. I approach my bus and I am reminded of this Twinkie TV commercial where the bear in the woods sees a camp trailer. He imagines it to be a giant Twinkie and starts to eat it. Yep, my bus is a frozen Twinkie! All long and yellow with 3 frozen white holes on the top that look like  the cream filling holes on a Twinkie. Well, folks sorry to disappoint you but it is just a bus. A very, very cold bus! One that I have to warm up before all your precious like darlings get in.  I continue to turn on the battery, close the air tank values, unplug the engine block heater cord ( does that thing really work?) and I climb in. I then look at my seat and realize I have to put my biscuits on the frozen vinyl. Why can’t I have heated seats?  Thank goodness I have learn that if you put a thin blanker or towel down first, it will take the bite out of the first contact your biscuits hit the seat. The next obstacle I face is the frozen 14 inch metal round steering wheel staring at me. I am so glad that I am wearing gloves, Because I think about that “Christmas Story” movie where the kid gets his tongue stuck to the cold metal pole. What if that happened to my hands on the steering wheel?  Now that I have got past all of that I do my speed walking pre-trip to keep myself warm and to make sure I don't turn into a popsicle. The funnest part is trying to open frozen emergency doors and roof hatches (AKA Twinkie cream filling holes ). Since I am 5’5”, I have to stand on the seats and pound over my hand on the roof hatches to break them free. I even do my best karate kick right next the door latch on the side and rear door exits to get them to open. Sometimes I have to wait until right before my first stop when the bus has finally warm to get the doors open. I usually do this right before picking up my first students. Since the bus is a diesel, it only warms up on what we have been told “ under load” meaning after it has moved. The question is aways how long or far do you have to move it for that to happen? Well in my case and type of bus ( thomas), it takes until my first student stop for me to notice any temperature change inside the bus, which is about 5 miles. The district gives us 15 minutes  to “pre-trip” my bus before leaving the lot. The first part of my route is only 11 miles long which takes me all of 20 minutes to complete before I start my second. That means that I am in the cold and a on frozen Twinkie for 25 mins before I pick up my first student.  So what do you think my reaction is when the student gets on the bus and states  “ wow the bus is warm!” or “it is hot in here”. I just smile say good morning and  I say to myself, “ Self, I wish they knew that the bus doesn’t just come this way.”  And I am still in all my layers of clothes, hat and gloves! So, if you are one of those parents that gives your bus driver gifts durning the holidays. Please remember this story and get that driver something that will keep them warm!   Here are a couple of suggestions....Gerbing Heated clothing, hats, gloves or a Starbucks card. I am just saying :)

Talk Radio

There are two radios on my bus, one is your basic AM/FM Cassette find ( yes we are in 2011) and the other is a CB radio. The district has paid for about 14 mile radius of air rights. Therefore, anyone and everyone in that radius that has a CB radio can possible hear whatever we are saying. So you have to watch what you say and make sure you don’t use any foul or profanity...not that us bus drivers would anyway.  :)

The CB radio is used for when we back out of our bus stalls and to communicate with base and other drivers.  When I was in training to be a school bus driver they taught us how to use this CB radio properly with the correct terminology list 104 -  received the information,108 - this bus in service and clear- the next person can talk now. I was scared to death when I was a rookie to use the radio. What if I choked and said something wrong and absolutely hilarious?  No worries there, because what I learned after my first week I was there that not everyone went by protocol. I learned that some people would use it like a phone and not a CB radio where hundreds of people were listening in. It is like when you had one to those old baby monitors that picked up your neighbors wireless phone conversations. You know the ones, were all you heard was  was talk, talk, talk about nothing really important from your neighbors.  I also realized really quick who were the people that must love the sound of there own voice. They are the ones that I swear have the wheel in one hand the radio in the other. These people are the ones that are just to helpful!! The ones that mother the other drivers to death! Like where to park the bus, there is a dog in the road, your kids are doing _____! They are constantly on the radio telling others how to do the job. It isn’t like we all didn’t go through the same training and have the same licenses plus we are considered professional drivers. So to those people that think I am writing about them ( which I probably am) stay off the radio, stop being so helpful and let others figure it out themselves!  Next we have to drivers that feel like they have to paint a picture for the other person on the radio by describing the whole scenario in great detail before getting to the point! again this is going on while the rest of the district is saying to themselves “ spit it out already!!”.  Most of us already know what you are going to say.  Then you have base.....we love base.  Some of the drivers find them every entertaining. You see some of them are not from the area or haven’t driven a school bus, and if they have I think that at times they have forgotten what it is really like out in what we call “in the field” or “on the road”. they will say to us over the radio, “ I have your card, so come see me when you get in. I have to tell you..blah blah blah.” and they go into great detail. Question...isn’t that why you pulled their card was so you could talk to them when they get into base and that rest of us don’t need to hear or have anything to do with us?  Base can be such a comedy show at times. Like when a new/sub driver is lost on a route due to the route sheet not being correct ( for whatever reason). So here is base who can’t see where the driver is and I mean direction they may be facing or what street they are on and where on that street are they located. Then they continue to tell them where they need to go or turn around at. When you have other drivers that are in that area and know the route which could be of better help. So we just sit back and listen to the whole thing shaking our heads because there is no way we could get a word in edge wise if we tried!  I know they are there to help and when we do need them they are there...well sometimes. There are times when a driver calls into base and there is no response. So the driver will say “hello...can anyone hear me?” or “is this thing working?” and other drivers will speak up and let that driver know yes their radio is working. Of course base was just on the phone or in the restroom when that happens..lol. Now let’s talk about those who think the radio is a nuisance. These are the people that get called on the radio and when they respond they sound like they are being bothered. You can hear it in their tone...”Whhhhaat?!” or have that “ are you kidding me, why you are bothering me for that?”...LOL! Then you have those drivers that I swear have a brain fart in the middle of talking! they start the sentence and forget half way through what they are saying or what route they are on or where they are. don’t get me wrong, many of us do it and I am not judging, just laughing when they do it! then there is when they run out of fuel....note to others...when this happens don’t call on the radio, use your cell. Don’t get me wrong, this will be get back to all of us and we will tease you! we also like to make comments to each other over the radio that nobody else know what we are talking about, like inside jokes. One of my favorite things that happens on a daily basis is that someone will leave their Hazard lights on flashing while they driving down the road. When this occurs someone else will be helpful and not to point out who it is they will just plainly say “FLASHERS” ...we all look down and check ours to see if it is us. Do you know how many times I just want to get back on the radio and say “ where and are they fully naked?”

Now I know I have talked about all the funny stuff but when one of our drivers gets into trouble we all are quiet and listening carefully on how we can help or hope that they are ok. like when there is a fight on the bus or an accident. because those things do happen and we are a bus family and  we care about our other drivers even when they annoy us at other times just like a really family. So we tease each other about things that have happened on a route over the radio all the time..of course it is with love :) 

Let's talk RAIN!!

Here is a little science riddle for you......What do you get when you put 60 wet children with soaked backpacks into a 40 foot yellow metal lunch box on wheels? 

Anybody? huh huh... can you guess? 

A rolling yellow sauna! hahahahaha!  

 The kids stand out in the rain for 5 minutes with their pretty color printed umbrellas. As I pull up to the bus stop they piles on. Well at least the ones that can get their umbrellas down. So picture this - a kid holding their umbrella like it is a jousting sword. Mind you it is 3-4 feet wide and my bus door is only 2 1/2 feet wide. So the kids push and push trying to get the umbrella through the door multiple times! After I am done laughing I tell them to turn it sideways and then they can get it through. They then hand it to me to put it down.. did I mention it was soaked? Yes, on rainy days I wear rain gear while I drive! Now that the student has the umbrella down they continue to shake it all the way down the isle to the seat they chose to sit down in. Now the floors are wet the seats are wet and the kids are wet...Where do you think all that moisture goes? I goes all over the windows...my windows. My buses front windshield is about 3 ft high and 7 ft across with a 6 inch fan for the defroster, which is trying to keep up with 60 kids wet bodies....while I am trying to see out of to drive! I have learned some tricks over the years. 1) don’t turn on the student heaters. this just makes the kids dry out faster and more moisture in the air. 2) crack all the window down one notch...and make sure the kids don’t put them up when they get on! 3) turn on all my fans in the front to re-direct the moisture out and away from My windows! 

Did I mention that bus drivers like to play in the puddles. Think about it...it is the time of year were the trees are shedding their leaves and clogging up all the drains on the streets. Which creates these great water back ups we like to call puddles. This is when the inner child comes out in us school bus drivers. Our eyes get all big and glassy when we see “the water puddle” that we just have to drive through and try to make the biggest  splash possible, to the point we think there are judges watching to give us that perfect score. So we drive as closes as possible to the deep part of the puddle to make the biggest splash....and we admire our work as we drive away....I just hope that isn’t you that is standing on the sidewalk..LOL! 

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. 

OOpps...I am a sub today!

OMG... this morning was defiantly a “blog” day! My morning started out GREAT! I woke up before the alarm, I had breakfast with my daughter then got into the shower. When I got out to the shower my phone was ringing...me” hello” work “ are you coming in today?”  me “ yes...but it is late start.” work , “ no it isn’t.. how soon can you get here!”  

You see like many families we sitting down at the beginning of every month and we pull out our calendars. Everyone reads off to me what we have going on and I consolidate it to one calendar and post on the fridge. Well in the process of doing this I forgot to mention to my family that the district may have a late start for students but the staff & bus drivers have to still go in at regular time! That is why I was late for my own route today. But that is just the beginning!  here is how the rest went.

So I got to work an hour later than I usually do and they hand me a Route Sheet ( this is what our wonderful office staff puts together for sub drivers) this Route sheet has all the info on it about the one route...like regular driver, stop times, school, etc.  This is one reason I am not a sub driver anymore...I hate not knowing where I am going and trying to read a paper while driving plus student management.. ugh!  

Ok back to the story....So they give me the sheet and I realize this is a “special needs” route.  which means small bus that will have 10 or less students. No biggie right? well these buses are hard to see out of because that are built like a van that just crashed through a box! Well I shook it off since if was my fault for being late right? ..lol! I start the route and head to the first of 5 apartment complexes that are on the route sheet. I pull in and look at the building that I am suppose to be picking up 2 students. The building is being remodeled! Nobody can live here and all I see are men caring building materials. I look around and ask a few other adults and nobody knows anything... great this is starting off perfect! so I continue to the next stop hoping for better luck when “base calls” ...” are you near John’s stop?” I respond “ I don’t even have that name on my sheet”...base “ you are right. well they live at “blah blah” “ I think to myself, ( do I have a pen and paper ready to write this down? or am I just suppose to memorize that while I am driving around this apartment complex maze? ) My response “ I am looking for this address and I there is no name for the child on the sheet. Plus I am supposed to turn Left at a unNamed road?”  Now remember this is all being said on our radios for the WHOLE district to hear!  At that time, another driver pulled up and told me who & where I should be going...while the person at base is giving me more direction from their end...Geeze! I had to have the other driver tell the car behind me to back up so I could turn around and go where I supposed to go. I continue to the next apartment complex that was next to the one I was already in... did I mention Apartment Maze??? ok just checking. I pick up 2 students their and they direct me back to the other Apt complex to pick up the one I missed. I finally go out of this maze and proceeded to cross the street into the next Apt maze. this is the one that “base” instructed me to go to that wasn't even on my sheet. I pull up and there is other special need bus already there picking up. I think great? they are picking up my student... sure enough! I had a parent walk a student over to me and I ask them if their student was going to my school for drop off. They said “no” and yelled at the other parent that just put her student on the wrong bus...lol! So we did an instant switch and proceeded to our next stop. Well I tried to...when reading the sheet it says ( and I quote) T/A ( turn around) Unnamed RD then L/ Fern st and R/ Unnamed Rd. ..this is were I just laughed , because I am what they call a seasoned driver. meaning I have been driving for this district for 10 yrs! With that experience I could figure out where I was supposed to go from the rest of the information. But what if I was a completely new person to the area and to bus driving? LMAO!!! 

I just shoot my head and kept driving. At this moment base informs me that I don't’ meed to stop at the next stop or the last one...thank goodness since I am already 5 mins late to the next one!  I then pull into my 4th apt complex and look for building I. I circle around looking for it.....I see all the other buildings like H, J, k, L, N, Q but no I! WTH?! So I circle around again... at this point one of the kids says, “ did you turn the wrong way again?” LOL..I say “ nope, but this is a good time to sing “ the wheels on the bus go round and round”  and they broke into song!  I never did find the building or the student.. I guess their parents took them after calling base and them informing the parent that I was a “sub” .  I was now off to my last stop and yet another apt complex with HUGE speed bumps! I told the students on the bus to “lift your feet and make a wish every time we go over a speed bump” ..those students are going to have a Very, very , very lucky day!  

The good news is that they made it to school only 5 mins late and safe! 

 I was remind  today that I have got into my own personal “bus driver box” where I only drive my route and am in my comfort zone. I now realize  by doing so, I miss out on these adventurous days of not knowing where I am going, who am I picking up and what can happened on a bus route! 

The First Day Of School!!

This is the moment you all have been waiting for....what was the first day of school like as a bus driver?  Well it started out with “ what am I going to wear?”...lol! You see I planned on riding my motorcycle today because it is suppose to be in the 80’s! So I wanted to wear something warm this morning that still looked good. Ok I got that all picked out jumped on the motorcycle and headed 5 miles on the freeway to “the bus barn”.  I got off the bike, took off all of my gear and walked towards the front door. The first thing I noticed was some animal cut out pictures of a rabbit and such with some saying in quotes. I really didn’t pay a whole lot of attention. so I turned the handle and walked into the TWIIGHT ZONE! it was like I just went back into time and walked into my kindergarden room for the first time. There were “Alice in Wonderland” stuff everywhere!!! with quotes from the movie/book and pictures are all the creatures. so I stopped...went back out the door .... and look at the address. Yep I was in the right place...ok time to continue! From there I moved my blue dot to let everyone know that I had arrived...Yahoo! I then checked my box for any important route changes and notices....and nothing really great to right about. Then came the fun part....opening the driver lounge door! the next thing you hear “ good morning” “ how was your summer” “did they change your route?” “what bus are you in?” ...LOL! 

So from there I walk out to my 40 ft Thomas school bus and continue with my “pre-trip” inspection.  Factoids~ I have 28 seats that fit 3 elementary student at one time and 2 middle/high school students at another. I  will let you do the math on the one, just so you know that is a lot of kids!

After heading out in my bus on my route I pass a couple of my fellow drivers and wave. You see just like Jeep people & motorcycle riders we wave at all fellow bus drivers. the thing is everyone has different style of waves. You have the one finger shoot at you wave, the High Hitler wave and my favorite” clown hand on a spring” wave! you know the one....where the person or kid waves at you so hard that you think their wrist is going to break and that they haven’t seen another person in years. So yes I wave about 20 times  in a 2 hr period at fellow drivers. 

Well ,my high school route and students were about  the same as last year except a few kids that I haven’t seen in 3 years as the attended the wonderful middle school years. But when I got to my elementary route here are a couple of things the kids said as the got on.....” so you decided to take on other year, huh” “ I broke my foot” “ my little brother will be riding tomorrow” “ same seat policy as last year?” “what do you do when we are in school?”...they are so cute and funny! you just have to love them! 

Note to parents...We bus drivers understand your need and want to take your children to school in the first day BUT this makes the roads so clogged with traffic that we are all 5 to 10 minutes late to school for all the other children. Please use what you pay for and conserve energy by carpooling and having your child ride the school bus!

When returning to “the Barn” walk into the drivers lounge and what do I see? Bagels, donuts, cookies and brownies....how do you think we all get the “Bus Driver Butt?!” seriously?! UGH!!

Now to talk about adding heat to the first day of school...you see the bus is a tin can on wheels. Therefore the inside of  a bus is at least 10 degrees hotter than outside. So when your child asks me to turn on the air conditioner, I tell then to put down the window :) But what most new drivers don’t know is that our bus seat is a big sheet of vinyl and makes your legs and butt sweat. so after you have been sitting in the heated bus on vinyl for 2 to 4 hrs...you stand up and looks like you have just wet your pants! So a little tip for you newbies...sit on a bath towel, it works wonders. 

Well, all in all, the day went pretty good. Only 3 students ended up on my bus that were supposed to be on someone else's bus. So I had to make just a few extra stops to get them to the correct place plus my radio knob from up overhead keeps falling off while I was driving hitting me in the head. Yep, just another “first day of school” in the life of a school bus driver!

Preparing for "Back to School"

Every summer right before school starts, I try to take a beach trip. This is my way of mentally preparing myself for the next nine months of the unknown! As I sit here in the salty air and sunshine, I think about what to expect on the first day of school. This year is going to be a little different you see... we usually have a crew / inservice meeting about a week before school starts. This meeting is a mandatory meeting and it gives us an opportunity to put stuff back in our buses like brooms, paper work,..etc. Plus they tell  us all or any changes that where made  or new expectations of us as drivers. We will meet the new sub drivers, which we all check out and take bets on how long they will last ..... just like the new kids in the classroom. (LOL)

 Yet this day is just like the first day of school for the bus drivers. On that day we would act just like the kids do on the first day of school, since this is the first time we have seen each other since the last day of the school year. So you have some people that dress in their best “back to School” clothes, some that can’t wait to tell you all about their summer, then there those who just act like you saw them yesterday. We all go around chatting, laughing and sharing until the boss comes in and makes all sit down and be quiet ... just like a teacher in a class room. 

Ok  now back to my pre-first day thoughts or more like physic visions....The first day of school is exciting to me for a few reasons. I look forward to seeing the kids after the summer break with all the new tans, freckles, clothes, backpacks and hair cuts.  There will be the same old faces but there will be new ones also. It will be at this time that I will find out who moved over the summer... then I get a little sad since i didn’t get to say good bye. 

Once I get to the school, just like the kids we find out what teachers are still there, which ones have left and see some new faces as well. 

You see the first day of school is just as exciting for us as it is the students! 

So from here on end I will be blogging about actual events that happen in my day and life as a school bus driver...hold on this is going to get interesting!!!