Sixty-two

For the last day of NoJoMo, this is entry 62 for the month.

 

 

It’s looking like a wild weedend – a major storm system is on the horizon.  They say there will be snow down to the valley floor tomorrow, followed by high winds on Sunday and Monday.  Gusts here in the valley are predicted to be anywhere from 30 to 60 miles an hour.  The coast will see gusts to 90 miles an hour.  Snow is already falling in the outer reaches of this area.

I know that students and not a few bus drivers are going damn – shoulda been today!  I don’t know if anyone hates snowdays.  There are three built into our contract – paid days off for us drivers and I don’t think the kids mind not having to go to school.

Since there’s no school tomorrow, there’s no bus driving either.  The newspaper of course, never takes a day off, and just now I called the info line; the Sunday papers, First and Final editions will be FAT.  They will be in bundles of five.

Fuck.

I know my stepvan has snow tires on it (but no studs), but I do not like driving that big ol’ box in snow – it’s a rear wheel drive rig, and there is no seatbelt, and damn sure no airbags in it.  I suppose it could be worse.  The other driver has a pickup truck and I don’t think it’s four wheel drive.  Some locations may not get any papers – we don’t get paid to risk our lives for fat fucking papers full of junk that most people will promptly throw away.

Yeah, I’ve got an attitude.  On the one hand, I count on the money I earn from the paper delivery, but on the other, they are not worth injury – not at all.

 

 

So, I had to fill out reams of paperwork about the accident yesterday, and was nearly late to pick up the kids at the Elementary School.  Nearly but not really.  It was a zoo again on my bus, but I have a whip and a chair and fight these wild beasts to make it easier for me to drive them home.

Ok, that’s a big exageration – I don’t have no whip and chair, but I made it clear that I’d take no shit today, and before we left the school, I stood in front of them and told them that as they should have learned from yesterday’s accident, I need them to be as quiet as possible.

Most amazingly, the kids were quieter than normal today; at least until we passed the point of impact yesterday.  Then the noise level rose to near "normal", sigh, but the signals were with me and I got rid of them pretty quickly today.  It coulda been worse.

 

 

I was a bit afraid that I would be afraid to drive the school bus.  I have filled out more accident reports in the last year and a half than I did in the last 20 years.  I’ve got ’em joking at the barn about our bus’s cloaking devices – because that’s the most common excuse people offer when they hit out buses – "I didn’t see you!".

Yup.  40 feet long, ten feet high, and YELLOW.  Damn near invisible, eh?

 

 

Well, almost certainly my papers will be later than ever tomorrow morning.  On the one hand, omg I hate fat papers; but on the other, I’ll get to sleep in a bit later than the 5:15 I’ve been getting up at all week.  And you know what I say:  The papers may be wordy and fat, but they are QUIET.

Onwards.

*****