Hang up and Drive!!

Warning: Bitchfest Ahead...Beware of many hollow words!

***Disclaimer: School bus drivers are passionate about the safety of the precious cargo they are entrusted with everyday. If we thought about this overwhelming, extreme responsibility too much, we'd run screaming.

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I'm sort of out of sorts. I can feel the job stress taking it's toll. It seems like about the time I'm ready to crash and burn (figuratively speaking, of course) and don't know if I can make it another day, we get a vacation. Thank God, Halleluliah!

This year is no different. I am so glad Christmas vacation is upon us.

The main school district I drive a school bus for had it's last day today. I still have two more days before I'm done, because I take special needs kids into another district and they aren't done until after school on Friday. (Special needs kids are placed in whichever school in our area fills the kids' needs the best. Even if the school isn't part of the district in which they live.) I wish all these schools would get together when they are making up their yearly calendars and have one common plan, but they don't so I am working two more days than many of my co-workers. The extra time means I'll get extra pay, which is good this time of year.

The next two days will be a piece of cake, kid-wise, since I only have two out-of-district kids, but I still have to drive the farthest in the worst traffic to get them to school. The traffic and road conditions due to weather are the major reasons for my building about-to-blow stress. I love my job dearly, love each and every one of my kids, but I see more driving faux-pas in one day than most people see in a weeks worth of driving. (I say faux-pas just to be polite, but I'm thinking something much more harsh!!)

I see so many people doing so many ignorant things while they drive. Today I saw a lady juggling a map (or maybe it was a newspaper) while she was talking on her cell phone AND trying to drive all at the same time! Good God, pull over and figure it out, THEN get on the road! One really scary thing is seeing so many high school kids on cell phones as they drive...they don't have enough experience to do that...do they?

If I listed the pet peeves that plague my life, most of them would have to do with driving. I'm able to greatly contain my road rage while on the bus...I can't scream, swear, or otherwise get out any possible hostility toward these drooling, comatose drivers in front of the kids, so I just smile, grit my teeth, and pray a lot. But don't dare tail gait me while I'm in my car. I could use a new car... I will step on my brake and invite you to eat my bumper!! Riding my butt doesn't make me go faster...I go slower...well, ONE OF US needs to be doing something to make this situation safer, and it sure as hell isn't you!

And what is it about that little lever on the side of the steering wheel...so many people don't seem to know what it's there for. They're TURN SIGNALS...use them! And at dawn and dusk, even if you can see without your headlights, doesn't mean your gray, grunt-colored car can be seen easily. Turn on the lights...the life you save could be your own! And just because I wasn't coming down the road at this time yesterday, LOOK for God sake, before you pull out of your driveway!

ACK! I won't even get into people who run my stop arm while I'm letting off kids, or people who won't take their turn at a 4-way stop and just sit there not knowing what the hell to do or people who hate getting behind a bus and who, instead, feel it's okay to pull out in front of a bus to keep from getting behind it or people who speed thru school zones while there are kids walking on the sidewalks.

Well, I think the veins are standing out on my forehead and my eyes are bugging out, so I probably better get off this subject. If you're still with me, please know, I meant to point no fingers at YOU when I was talking about all these traffic goofs. I meant the kind of "you" that means anyone... you know... people in general.

Anyway, it's a good thing I have two good days left in me. Friday about 4pm, I will be celebrating with a glass of wine and Andy will be doing most of the driving for the next two weeks. Then I'll go back Jan. 3rd all refreshed and ready to drive until Spring break.

Vacation=peace

Thought for the day...

"Better than a thousand hollow words,
Is one word that brings peace."

Buddha