Can it get any worse?

Freezing drizzle so heavy, so bad I used all my windshield solvent getting 1/2 way to my first stop.  I’m going slow because of the treacherous road conditions so the heater/ defroster won’t get warm enough to clear the windshield. 

I stopped twice to scrape the windshield but by the time I got back inside it was froze back over.  

Next comes 3-5 inches of snow on top of the frozen base.  Now 8-10 inches would actually provide a little traction. And help me slow the 30,000 pound bus down.  But 3-5?  That’s just frosting on glaze. 

The kids will be on the corners waiting for me dressed like kids do.  Girls bare midriff, tights shredded with holes to show off their legs.  Guys showing how macho they are. Wearing light shirts/t shirts. Jackets open or no jackets.

Traffic will hold me up and if I’m a few minutes late calls will go into the office demanding to know how soon I’ll arrive.  Multiply that times 220 drivers so dispatch will be frantic.  

All the heat will be used to attempt to clear the freezing drizzle so the kids will complain about how cold the bus is. 

Now add rush hour traffic made worse by parents who take their kids to school.  

Aaahhh winter in Minnesota.  

Edit: did I mention my rear tires are worn down to 3/32 of tread?  Now legal minimum is 2/32  so that clearly doesn’t call for replacement yet.  

Heck I have a whole. 32nd of an inch of tread to compress that 5 inches of snow and grab through the ice to traction.  

Move south. We close schools when the temps get below 25f. It doesn't even have to be icy. Just cold.

In reply to Toyman01 :

In weather like this I swear most drivers are from the Deep South or Hawaii!  

Toyman01 said:

Move south. We close schools when the temps get below 25f. It doesn't even have to be icy. Just cold.

 

Careful where you go in the south, this problem can get way way worse: 

frenchyd said:

Now add rush hour traffic made worse by parents who take their kids to school.  

Also, as much as I hate cold weather, its currently 64F and 90% humidity which is pretty terrible.

I listened to a story that said that there are shortages of bus drivers because the pay and benefits are easy to improve upon when the economy is good.  That's a shame, because I put A LOT of trust into my bus driver 10 times a week when I load my most precious cargo of all onto that big yellow truck. My daughter made it through 13 years without an incident. My son has come home to an empty bus stop twice due to scheduling snafus (bad parents!) and the bus driver saved the day. From this parent, let me say thank you for your hard work and all the crap you have to deal with. 

Toyman01 said:

Move south. We close schools when the temps get below 25f. It doesn't even have to be icy. Just cold.

 

Besides if I move south I die early!  Since we are deep frozen so much the Northern Tier of states live longer than most.  

I got going to work late today and surprisingly the drive wasn't bad at all.  I guess maybe enough snow had built up on the streets to cover the glaze.

pinchvalve said:

I listened to a story that said that there are shortages of bus drivers because the pay and benefits are easy to improve upon when the economy is good.  That's a shame, because I put A LOT of trust into my bus driver 10 times a week when I load my most precious cargo of all onto that big yellow truck. My daughter made it through 13 years without an incident. My son has come home to an empty bus stop twice due to scheduling snafus (bad parents!) and the bus driver saved the day. From this parent, let me say thank you for your hard work and all the crap you have to deal with. 

Wednesday night I was given a new First grader to get home.  She didn’t recognize any of the stops and after about a 1/2 hour of waiting, calling dispatch who called the school to find the parents didn’t speak English.  

Anyway an hour and 15 minutes later she was United with her dad.  Tears stopped and everyone felt joy.  

Then I was off to pick up the kids for my last route, got home  at that 8:00 night after 14 straight hours behind the wheel. 

If that question is concurrent with my life, then yes, yes it can. I've learned not to tempt fate by asking.

I refuse to live an a place that doesn't get ice on lakes and ponds. Playing hockey in an arena is unnatural.

In reply to Appleseed :

We get ice on ponds occasionally. Just a little, right along the edge. 

I'm kind of amazed we have a ice rink at all much less two under one roof, Carolina Ice Palace. I hate to think what their electric bill is in the summer. 

In answer to your question:  Yes, it can certainly get worse.  Of course, it might also get better.  Or it could get worse, and then better, or better and then worse.  Only thing certain is change.

stuart in mn said:

I got going to work late today and surprisingly the drive wasn't bad at all.  I guess maybe enough snow had built up on the streets to cover the glaze.

Yes you are correct. Snow on ice is horrible but apparently the snow sorta melted into the ice and provided good traction. 

I was only 4 minutes late to one school and 3 to another. 

Of course all the freeways were parking lots. 

Just the mere mention of snow in the forecast will cause local schools to close.  They don't even wait for the first flake to fall.  Happened back in December and it was a few degrees warmer than forecast.  Nothing but rain, but the kids had a "snow day".

37f in San Diego this morning and we had ice on some of the roads. It was the apocalypse for traffic. 

80*F and sunny here in central Georgia today... Gonna have a cold front this weekend, lows might get below freezing!

-33 here this morning. Not too bad on the ice front though.

pinchvalve said:

 My son has come home to an empty bus stop twice due to scheduling snafus (bad parents!) 

NOT bad parents, stupid berkeleying rule. I'm not sure when it became a rule or a law, but it's berkeleying stupid. How can any two income household be at the bus stop at the bizarre times they come every day which is typically when most "9-5ers" need to be on their way to work or already at work. I've seen so many people drop great careers because the babysitter for the 2 hours a day was so overpriced that it made more sense to quit their berkeleying job and take food off the table (literally in some cases) than to have someone else sit at the bus stop for the kids, bus stops which are at least around here, at the end of the kids driveway, or at furthest at the end of the block, in the first place. 

Sure, I can kind of understand elementary school kids needing someone older there, but they also go to class during "normal" business hours, which makes it even harder if you have a career that isn't in the service industry or at the damn school. 

End rant.

In reply to RevRico :

Bus times are a matter of  school budgets and driver availability. We start a little before 6:00 am  and morning runs can end as late as 10:00 and may have to go to three different schools in the morning. 

This school district has 220 buses plus vans  on average they run between 7-16 drivers short which we make  up with mechanics and office/ dispatch  

we currently make more per hour than city bus drivers. ( non school ) but they can’t drive, no background check . 

In short, school taxes would be tripled for transportation if you want all kids picked up in a short window.  This suburb simply can’t meet your schedule even if we could find the extra 440 drivers  to do it. 

In reply to frenchyd :

Glad you made it through the day.   I do not miss driving in snow and ice, or driving kids.    

In reply to pinchvalve :

It's sad how little school bus drivers get in many areas given the responsibilties involved. My friend's wife drives for one of the local districts here and gets paid about half what our drivers do. She likes the hours and time off but it's getting hard to find people that want to work less than full time and for that pay.  It's often no longer a quiet slowish paced job like it was for all the reasons Frenchy listed and if they continue to have trouble hiring it's only going to get worse.  

In reply to Wally : Thank you Wally, just got home, it’s 7:00pm. I left this morning at 5:30 am  yes I had 3 hours off during the day, but not every day. Several times a week I take kids to outside activities. Then I can be driving as much as 14 hours straight, in spite of rules that say I can’t.  

Yesterday a school bus driver had 5 bullets shot at him by an angry motorist, 2 hit him but he will survive.  

Last year one of our drivers was hospitalized by several mother’s who objected to the inflexibility of the schedule.  They felt the driver should just wait for students and not be in such a hurry.  

Parents constantly report drivers who they claim didn’t show up in spite of what the GPS reports. ( including time of arrival and departure)  or make claims about driver misconduct. That’s why we have 5 camera’s on the bus.  Including two primarily focused on the driver.  

The camera’s have audio so parents can clearly hear me tell the kids to use the hand rail entering and leaving.  

Once a month I give a safety seminar on bus rules and safety for all new kids and any kid written up more than 3 times.  

 Kids hear me greet them every morning and wish them well when I drop them off.  99.9% of those kids are polite and respectful. Tell me thank you and give me cookies and cards. Some even give me coffee  or store gift cards.  

Young kids will high 5 me in the morning or hug me, or both!  Teenagers are too cool for that but they include me in conversations and jokes.  I tell them to study hard do well and don’t become a school bus driver.  

But I’m happy to do it!   Money is terrible, hours are long, sometimes cold or really hot during the summer.  ( no A/C on the big buses ) 

yet I know I help some kids.  One a juvenile delinquent wanna be turned his life around because I took an interest in him and gave him a future he couldn’t see.  He was a foster kid moving every few months.  Different schools different parents.  

I quietly talked to him and showed him a path he never knew existed. Something he could do even if he wasn’t smart enough to go to college. ( serve in the military)  spoke about income security and other benefits.  

 A Girl who was so bashful she was desperate I had a boy on the bus sit next to her and she really blossomed. Still shy but no longer desperate.  So what if I played Cupid. Nothing improper, just a nudge caused by a rule that doesn’t exist. 

Wait, frenchyd is a school bus driver??

If this is, indeed, true, then all my earlier judgements and impatiences with same are now null and void. Go in peace, good sir.

Margie

In reply to Marjorie Suddard : 5+ years   But I don’t expect to make up for previous sins and omissions  

Who the berk shoots at a school bus? The bastard better pray he's never caught. They will bring Hell down upon him.

A true story. We had a bus driver that was absolutely fantastic at shifting. He would rev match up and down shifts heal and toe the bus to stop. I remember being fascinated by this. All other bus drivers would keep the motor as low in the rpms as possible at al times while this guy was reving the snot out of this bus.  The guy was so smooth with the shifting. He never missed a shift or made any gear noise at all.