Back to work

 

So, after a three week break from school bus driving, it was back to work this morning.  I kinda wondered whether or not I’d remember the Pre-Trip, or the routes, and during the first part of my Elementary school run, I had a crash course in how to drive a big ol’ bus.  (No, no crashes)  By the time I was into my third school’s run, I was feeling pretty good, and I picked up the PA mic and said, to the Middle School kids, "whoa!  Three weeks off and I still remember how to drive this bus!"

Right then, an SUV squeezed by me on the left and I edged over to give him room… and smacked a basketball hoop setup on my right.  Woke the kids up, fer sure.  Knocked that mirror all outa wack and so I drove without it to the school… and couldn’t get it adjusted right when I let off the kids.  I drove back to the barn and swept out the bus (and those Middle Schoolers are the messiest kids I transport) then grabbed hold of the mirror and got it back into the right position

Heh.  I drove over thousand miles last week – I can do just 56 today, in the bus, and ten or twenty more in my car.

Pretty funny, really.  I get paid to drive and what do I do for a vacation?

Drive some more.

***

Blacky Cat didn’t give me a hard time for leaving him.  Some pets let their humans know that they’re displeased, but Blacky seemed to mostly want to eat, and ended up getting, I think, like two days worth of food, which he ate, then spent most of the evening sprawled out on my bed.

We got a extra week of Winter Break because snow days were called the week before the break… but it didn’t Really snow down here until the first week of vacation.  I had been planning to go to SoCal to see family for Christmas, but the weather didn’t co operate – it Really snowed here the first week of the break, and rather than chance it, I stayed home.  I did drive down for New Year’s though, and had lunch with some of my family on New Year’s Day.

It turns out that I had the best Winter Break ever this time around.  I saw family that I hadn’t seen since 1984, and my brother, who I hadn’t seen since 88, and of course the time blew by and it was time to go home, and here I am, back to work, driving my school bus.

I do have somewhere to go this summer though.  Ideally, Jhni will fly up here and this time, we will drive down the coast on US 101.  We’d see the Oregon coast, and the Redwoods in NorCal, and the coast down to, I dunno, Santa Barbara or so, then cut over to Big Bear on the edges of the High Desert.  My cousin tells me that they could plan something for the summer, so I’d hopefully combine the two, and have company for at least half the driving (I didnt have any company but myself and the weather this time).

A thousand mile drive Friday and Saturday?  Guess a nap is justified before I go back for this afternoon’s runs.  Tomorrow, I’ll get the 12,000 mile service done on my Caliber.  It’s been a good car for me, and if I take care of it, it will last a long time – years after I pay it off, probably.

Back to work… but first, a cat-nap.

*****