At least for me it will be. It usually is for Stacy with her shifts, but that all changes on January 4th. For me though, I'm driving a regular route the rest of the week and probably in January also. The driver of the route had a real disaster occur last Thursday night. They had a fire and their log home burned totally down. The wife (the driver) and her husband both suffered 3rd degree burns of various extents. But in addition to losing all they owned they also lost their youngest daughter in the fire. But it goes from worse to worser for them, they had no home owners insurance and the wife was the only one to have medical because she worked for the district. Stacy and I both feel sorry for her, she is a genuinely nice person who cares a great deal for her bus "kids". She'd buy things at a local auction that Stacy and I occasionally go to and have raffles for different things with her route kids.
For me personally this means I've got to get up at- GROAN!!!! 4:40 am to leave by 5:10 go get a bus and be out at her very rural routes first pick up by 6:20. At least the district is on four day weeks and after Thursday that's it until January 7th.
I still can't get over the buses. Back in California the local mountain communities buses were available all wheel drive yet there was usually (with the global warming) less than a foot or two all winter there. Here where it usually snows around three or more feet all the buses are two wheel drive. Like today, that made for some very interesting feelings when a 45 foot bus starts to have the back end want to go opposite of the front end. The newest buses have switchable traction control which those drivers say is pretty great. But most of the buses have none. And as a sub I usually get the 'older' models to drive.
I've found out that there is apparently a family heritage of sorts to school bus driving which surprised me and is pretty neat, and brother Mike has told me when he finally retires he'd like to give it a try himself.
Well enough about school buses for now.
Along the lines of the above mentioned snow and global warming, this winter has been a little different in that so far, almost every time it has snowed it has warmed up into the upper 30's right afterword. Usually when its the snowy time of the year it stays cold, like 20's or less, for the duration. Not this year! We've had one pretty cold week but no snow, and it's been snowing almost every night and morning yet every afternoon its warmed and becomes an icy slushy mess by evening. Last year it was a high of 18. Today it was 38. Do I believe that its either global warming or a real evolutionary change to the earth? Yup!
Okay, I guess enough of Tad's rants for this update. More later, Tad.
For me personally this means I've got to get up at- GROAN!!!! 4:40 am to leave by 5:10 go get a bus and be out at her very rural routes first pick up by 6:20. At least the district is on four day weeks and after Thursday that's it until January 7th.
I still can't get over the buses. Back in California the local mountain communities buses were available all wheel drive yet there was usually (with the global warming) less than a foot or two all winter there. Here where it usually snows around three or more feet all the buses are two wheel drive. Like today, that made for some very interesting feelings when a 45 foot bus starts to have the back end want to go opposite of the front end. The newest buses have switchable traction control which those drivers say is pretty great. But most of the buses have none. And as a sub I usually get the 'older' models to drive.
I've found out that there is apparently a family heritage of sorts to school bus driving which surprised me and is pretty neat, and brother Mike has told me when he finally retires he'd like to give it a try himself.
Well enough about school buses for now.
Along the lines of the above mentioned snow and global warming, this winter has been a little different in that so far, almost every time it has snowed it has warmed up into the upper 30's right afterword. Usually when its the snowy time of the year it stays cold, like 20's or less, for the duration. Not this year! We've had one pretty cold week but no snow, and it's been snowing almost every night and morning yet every afternoon its warmed and becomes an icy slushy mess by evening. Last year it was a high of 18. Today it was 38. Do I believe that its either global warming or a real evolutionary change to the earth? Yup!
Okay, I guess enough of Tad's rants for this update. More later, Tad.
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