So I guess it’s assumed that I don’t have a whole lot to do (correct) and if the student isn’t riding, I never leave the lot. (also true) So what is there to complain about you ask? Good question! Do you have any idea the really awful jobs that the admin people can find for you to do in this instance? well I won’t go into it, but suffice it to say, I would rather be on the bus. I had a lot of at the bus barn time this past week, I even got my bus #501 washed on the outside and the inside, I don’t think it’s had a bath since I drove it last year. Well it’s clean now, almost squeaky clean. I should clean my house so well.
anyway, I was sitting in the drivers room waiting for my time to go home when a couple of the relief drivers came in and were talking about one of the buses that drive into the middle school I drive into. (bus 69).
She has been overloaded for the past 2 weeks, and they have to send a sweeper bus out to pick up her overflow. What they do is take one complete stop off the bus and lighten the load a bit for her. They did it for me a couple of times at the start of the school year. This stop has 10 kids at it, I have no idea what came over me, but I volunteered to take the overload since I was at that school anyway AND there were days that I did not have a rider to take home. Why send out a big bus, when there is a smaller one already there? So now it has become a major cluster fuck at the admin level trying to figure out how they are going to handle this.

Now they are looking at giving me a bigger bus, changing all the pick up times for my 2 current students, like my high school girl wants to be picked up at 6AM instead of 6:15 AM. UGH, that would mean that I would have to pick up the middle school girl that’s downtown at 7AM instead of 7:08AM, just so I could get back to that one tiny stop in time to get them all to school. They have now decided that I will take them and drop them off every day. 1 decision made… well the other driver and I have figured out that she is over the limit for capacity in the afternoon so I’m going over there this afternoon and take her last stop home for her. I think I can handle 10 students.

Yesterday Zoe, came with me on my route to see where these girls live, and to get a feel for the route. She also had 4 of the 10 kids ride my bus last evening so they could get an idea of how that’s going to run for them. They loved it, I ask them if they felt weird riding the little bus, and they said NO we love it! We get home faster, this bus doesn’t smell funny, and it has more room for them to stretch their legs. I expect that at some point the admin guys will get their act together, and I will have bus 69’s last stop added to my route. Then it will just be a wait and see, to see if they change my bus. Basically Zoe told me that they would give me one of the “big” little buses, and that if one of the other drivers needed a spare bus, I would get shafted to one of the clunkers we still have on the line. Why not just give me enough students to fill my little bus? Even if it means splitting that last stop, and leave the buses with who is driving them now.
Like I said, its a cluster fuck up out there, and I’m not holding my breath for them to get this figured out.
Once again, no good deed shall go unpunished! What was I thinking????

Let me tell you about the big bus when I left it.
The High School kids really haven’t changed much. Still pretty full of themselves, and of course they know everything. One junior girl sits in the passenger side front seat on the way to school every day and does her best job of backseat driving. Telling me things like “You should just hit that car”, “Why did you slow down for that guy riding the bike?”, “I wouldn’t wait for him to get to the bus, leave without him” and more things along those lines. Good thing this person does not have her drivers license yet, cuz when she gets it… I’m staying away from that school!
The Middle School kids have turned out to be a huge problem for me. I drive these kids from my own neighborhood, so I know several of them. They took away my first 2 stops, to lighten the load a bit, then gave me one of the stops back. Good thing that only had 5 students, and the huge bus stop has 65 so when everyone shows up, bus full at 70 kids. Been averaging about 65, so 5 from the big stop are not riding. The issue comes from one student in general. The families do not get along, mine and his and his dad is taking full advantage of that problem. So if his son feels in the least bit slighted, he calls into management and complains about me. Some times I didn’t even know there was a problem until I got back to the lot. So how can I fix something if I don’t know it’s broke? So basically, this dad was running my bus, too bad the jerk does not have a CDL to drive a school bus. (Wonder how he would like to keep control of 65-68 students while driving whit his back to them? Oh and you can’t hit or yell at them either) Course he couldn’t pass the driving test, mainly because he has NO POINTS left on his license, and then again, he would NEVER pass the random drug tests we have to take. So suffice it to say, he’s a jerk, and his kid is a jerk in training. I just didn’t like always being second guessed, being wrong when I did nothing and generally having no control over anything on that bus load of students. the topper was this. I had a girl on the bus that was spitting on everyone as well as out the bus window at passing cars! YUCK, I told her to knock it off, and then told the other 2 girls in her seat that she was not to be allowed to sit next to the window ever again. Problem solved. Well she was mad at me, because of this, she was complaining at the bus stop and this jerk in training told her to have her parents call and complain about me to the district transportation people, it would get me in trouble, AND she could then sit next to the window again. Because the transportation people will always take the parents side over the bus driver. Does the kid tell her parents that the reason she has to sit in the aisle position is because she is spitting out the window? Hell no, so the parents think I am just picking on the kid. So the bus people do to, then when I tell management WHY this kid is sitting on the aisle they go… “Oh we didn’t know! ” Well no shit Sherlock! Here’s a clue, let me drive my own darn bus and keep your nose outta bus business. If I need your help I’ll ask for it!
The little kids are a whole different group of problems, they just NEVER want to sit down, if your are between the ages of 5 and 10, it’s your job to STAND all the way to school! So once again, I am announcing to the bus to please sit down. I have no place to pull the bus over to enforce that rule, I have to wait till i get to the school and then get all up in their grill about it. UGH. Now I remember why I quit driving in the first place.
Which brings me to my current situation. The second to last day before fall break, management told me they were trading buses with me. Taking away bus 21 (which drives like a dream for a school bus and is only 3 years old) and giving me bus 66. This bus is OLD, has had 4 radiators put in it since August, and drives like a tank! No that’s being mean to tanks, it drives worse than that, you can barely turn a corner without ripping your shoulder out in the process. Well I really did not want to trade buses, but had no choice in the matter. Now add bus problems to student management problems and it was just too much for me. So I traded routes. I now drive a small bus, like I did last year. But I should be so lucky to have a good bus like last year. I have the oldest bus in the fleet, well there are 3 of them the same age. 1 is retired the other is still online, but never used and then there is my bus. Good old bus 539. This bus is the worst thing to drive. Yes, I did know this was going to be the bus I was going to have when i took the new route. But better to know you are driving a POS than to wonder when your bus will fall apart. Now the biggest problem with this bus is the brake peddle. The bus can’t stay at 55 MPH to save its life. It has no get up and go, as a matter of fact, it won’t even get up and think about it, it just say’s hell no! But I bid on this route knowing that. The bus stinks!!! The engine in inside right next to the drivers seat, it is covered, but that’s about it, I get diesel fumes up by me all the time. No more fresh air, and I always have a headache when I get off the bus. Did I mention the soar throat as well. Wonder if its related? I knew about this too! The bus handles really bad, to put it mildly, it’s a beast to turn and that’s not the worst part. I knew all this before I bid on the route. It’s the brake peddle that about kills me, the rest of it is just a pain, but this brakeing issue is painful. The seat can not go back any further, I need about 2 more inches. The brake peddle is ABOVE the gas peddle, so you have to about jerk your knee up to your chin to hit the break peddle, hence it throws your hip totally out every time you have to break. Forget it on icy roads, where you foot sort of hovers over the break peddle, there is no hovering! Not without crying in pain. I have to press my hands into the steering wheel, arms straight out and locked to shove my body as far back into the seat back so that I can get my foot up to the brake peddle just so it can hover there when I am in traffic. I honestly think if I could get 2 more inches in lenght for the brake peddle it would be better. Or they can give me bus 523 which is not being used, and is the bus I drove last year. Go figure.
I was thinking maybe that this braking thing could be a safety issue. Hummmm, maybe I will talk to my team leader about this issue.
So I guess I will have more to talk about now, all my aches and pains driving this bus. Oh I didn’t say, I have 2 students, one to the high school one to the middle school. Only one kid on the bas at a time. I died and went to heaven! (Lord I hope bus 539 won’t be there with me)

My first group of students every day goes to the new high school in our district. They did a really cool thing with this school, when they opened it last year, it only had Sophomores and Freshmen attending. They didn’t want to drag Juniors and Seniors out of a school they had already started in. This year, we added Juniors, but they were last years Sophomores, and then a new class of 9th graders/Freshmen started. So I have this smallish group numbering at around 40 students I drive to school each morning, and take them home in the afternoon. All in all a nice group of kids, and I have no complaints with them. I did overhear a pretty good story today. A Junior boy and a Sophomore girl were talking about skipping classes/ calling in sick for school. I already knew this, but a student can not call themselves in as absent. The boy found this a bit annoying since he will be 18 over the summer and even though he plans on going to school next year, he wants to just show up long enough to turn in his homework, then cut the rest of the class. He’s upset because he can not call himself in next year, even though he will be “of age” this summer. He informed the kids around him that he would be getting his own place this summer after he turned 18. He will have his own place, and attend school on his terms. I’m thinking he has no clue about real life.
First off, there are no apartments in the area for him to rent to remain in this particular school. He would be out of the schools limits. Then there is the thing about paying the rent, a car, insurance, food, utilities and all the other wonderful expenses we all know about. On top of having to get a job to pay for all this, he still thinks he will be going to school full time, and kicking back like he does now. Oh I wish I could be a fly on the wall when he figures out it’s not as easy as it sounds. Oh to be young and stupid again!

Now my second group of kids…. yep you guessed it, the middle schoolers! Now this bus load of kids have a whole different set of issues. First off, my bus only holds 72 students, and up till this afternoon we were at 69 and holding. As I had heard and feared, some of them that were being taken by mom last week are now full time riders. So if they all show up, we are talking 86 kids. I’m so thrilled, nothing better than a bus full of sweating middle school students. The last stop on this route is where the massive explosion takes place. I pulled up there the first day and there were 60 kids standing there. I about died! Well, I hit the limit today, if one more kid had tried to get on the bus, I would have had to get an overload bus to come help me. There was a great deal of “bitching” going on last week since they were packed in there like sardines, but giving them all assigned seats really helped the situation. Even though they might have a butt cheek hanging off the seat edge, its their seat to hang off of, and no one is going to take it away from them. I have this 6th grade girl that sits in the 3row back from me, her 2 best friends sit with er, and her other best friend sat in the seat across the aisle, with 2, 7th grade boys. Well, we got another student on the bus on Friday, and he speaks no English. He is from Vietnam, and it’s very difficult for me to get across to him that he has to sit in a different seat, so to make it easier all the way around I moved the other little girl. she however does not want to be away from her friends, so today on the way home I had her sitting in the seat right behind me. Now on a side story here, she actually enjoyed that because she could scootch down in her seat, and watch everyone from my kid mirror. Well the queen bee in that 3rd row informed me that SHE was not happy that her gang of girls were split up, and that if this continued SHE would find another way to school. I looked up at her and said ” And this will make me unhappy WHY???” “Knock yourself out,  find a different way to school, I’m totally surprised you have not done that already” Here give me your home phone number, and I’ll call your parents tonight when I get back in and we can discuss it, so they know YOU will not be riding the bus any longer.” She turned a funny shade of green, not becoming to her hair color at all, and shut up. Guess her folks don’t realize what a princess she thinks she is. I also think this is not a phone call she really wants me to make, even if she does not give me her number, like I work for the district, I have access to the kids personal files to get said information.  Once again I wish I was that stupid!

Now for the little darlings that make up my Elementary School bus. On the whole not a bad group of kids. I have this one little girl that’s in 1st grade that sits in the front seat. She is doing really well by herself, but is sort of lonely. I had a 4th grade girl that is new to the school, sit with her, so they could keep each other company. Now they are best friends, the 4th grader actually get to the bus first, to sit in the front seat to share it with her “little buddy”. Now I even have 2 1st graders sitting there and the 4th grader is still keeping them company. It’s really very sweet. I have some on the bus that are going to be problems, I can already see it coming. tomorrow, they get their assigned seats, as do the High Schoolers.

The transportation office told me today, that they are going to take one of my middle school stops away from me, I told them better to take the 1st 2 away since they are in the same area, and you have to pass 1 to get to the other, and we are only talking 15 students total. I think that will help in the long run, it will most assuradly lighten the load on my bus, and with winter coming and big fat coats, there will be a bit more room. Still going to be crowded, but it will be better.

Let me start with the bad news first. Bailey our oldest sheepdog had to be put down in August. He would have been 10 this December. He had massive liver failure and it came on suddenly. He never really complained of any thing, we knew because he quit eating, and he was throwing up whatever he did eat. Took him to the vet on a Friday, and had to have him put down on Saturday. That about wrecked both of us, but it did make us appreciate the other 5 we still have here and to treasure the time we have with them. It’s just so sad to think that  these fur children we have give us so much, and they live for such a short period of time.What also amazes me is how empty the house seems now that Bailey is gone. He was the sheepie in the store, and if there are actually old customers out there that read this blog, you will remember that he grew up at Needle Nutz. He came to work with me every day, slept under the stitching table, and on occasion even helped keep your kids occupied as you shopped. He was a very gentle soul, my first champion Sheepdog and Andy’s and my first fur child. He was a very much loved member of this family and he is very much missed.

The next major thing with me is that I started working again. No I’m not doing the baking thing, even though I did think about it for a nanosecond. I am driving a school bus again. I did that a while back when Andy and I fist got married. It was an interesting job, and I decided that it would be a good thing for me to do again. I’m driving for a different district this time, so the whole adventure is totally different as well. I have a really good route, not one of the longest routes that they have there, but then again I have no seniority so I would not get a long one to start out with. I like the job, it’s totally different than the last time I drove. Trip down memory lane time, my last time driving, I drove regular ed, and had a bus load of screaming kids. The middle schoolers were totally out of control, no matter what I did. The high schoolers were awesome and the elementary school kids were somewhere in the middle. All in all it was an ok route. Fast forward to the here and now, and I drive a special needs bus, I have 3 students, adding 1 more to the mix in January and it takes me 1.5 hours to get them picked up, and delivered to school. I end up driving from way out east of the city to down near the southern part of the city. If you know the area, I drive from Falcon,   way down to Southgate. Round trip for those 3 students is 53 miles, during rush hour traffic in the morning. I hit all the traffic going into Peterson AFB. Now how fun is that? I get to drive that bus 65 miles per hour, on highway 24, 50 mph on Platte and Powers, and I get to drive on the interstate as well. It takes all my skills. Now for those of you that know me really well, you know that I hate to drive. I would much prefer to be the passenger which is why I go with Shelly to dog shows because she wants to drive.

I have done some designing, but not a whole lot, I did get Martina’s Alpine Seasons completed, now I need to get it framed. That’s a next year project. I am currently working on Martina’s PIG… or Persian Iris Garden, and I’m over 1/2 way done with that one. It’s awesome!

Guess thats all for now, I hope to actually keep the resolution i’m making to write on this more often, and to get my charts available on here for downloading.

Let me know what your interested in seeing, I have 3 more Santa’s ready to go, they are even charted, I have a very cute Santer sampler that has no decorative stitches in it, but I might see if JCS is interested. If not, well then it will be available here soon.