A few more bits of fun from yesterday afternoon that I forgot to mention…

It was only my first day, and already, a bunch of the ladies at work were hitting on me. This one older lady came over and introduced herself. It seemed innocent enough, until she said, “Ooooh… you are a cutie!” As soon as she was gone, all the other girls in the break room said to me: “Stay away from her! She's man-hunting!” My first day, and I'm already a target. Sheesh.

The 6-year-old girl who was convinced that I had a girlfriend was also obsessed with something else… my hair. She was determined to give me ponytails. I don't know how she planned to do it, since I have maybe 2 inches of hair tops. Her rationale for it being possible was that she gives her dad ponytails. One of the other girls pointed out that her dad has much longer hair than me, but the 6-year-old still didn't think that should matter. Oh well.

I actually would love to go back and get to drive those kids around once I get to drive buses. They were already planning for me to be their bus driver next year, but since they didn't want to lose their current driver, they decided that we would just have to alternate, so that they could have both of us.

One of the other girls on that bus was asking me my name, so I told her it was Mike. She then said, “What's your last name?” I don't really mind giving out my last name, but I don't expect elementary kids to be able to pronounce it, so I just told her I didn't have a last name, just like Madonna. I don't think she bought it. I guess some of them are smarter than others.

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This afternoon's runs were fun. The driver I rode with actually has double routes, which was kind of nice. Neither one was very big (20 or 30 kids, tops), and each one didn't take terribly long, either.

Both sets of kids were completely fascinated by me being on their bus, and both sets kept asking the driver if I was his son, so we just started playing along. One six-year-old girl refused to believe that I don't have a girlfriend, and kept trying to pry the name of my non-existent lover out of me. That was fun. She also sang me an Easter song, which was nothing short of “special”. I've already can't remember what song it was, though. In between routes, we had a layover, so the driver parked the bus, and we went into a record store to kill time. It's fun to get paid for doing nothing.

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This morning, I got to ride along on a bus for kids with behavioral problems. There are maybe 10 of them total on the whole route, all very spread out. It was a strange experience, to say the least. They were, by far, the best behaved group of kids that I've ever seen on a school bus.

I got to hear some interesting talk over the radio this morning, including, “I don't know what it is, but it sure does smell… can someone come take a look at this?” I can't speak for anyone else, but I think that I personally would rather not come take a look if it really does smell so bad.

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Yay! I took my CDL skills test this morning and pretty much aced it! No more ugly sunrise on my license. Now I have an ugly powder blue bar. The examiner was super-nice, and I only missed points on piddly little things (with the exception of my alley dock and parallel park maneuverability). Tomorrow, I get to start riding around on buses with other drivers, and get paid the full hourly rate, but I don't actually drive a bus with kids until next week. And that makes me very happy.

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Tomorrow, I get to go take my CDL skills test at 8 AM. Today was all practice leading up to that. We did quite a bit of driving around this morning, and I didn't know it until after, but my instructor was grading me the entire time. Even without knowing that, and driving like I normally do, I scored a 94%. All about my practice test fun…

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Yesterday, I got to drive another transit-style bus. This one was a school bus, and actually had air brakes, which made me happy. On top of that, I think that it rode much nicer, so I was definitely a lot happier when driving it.

On top of that, I learned that as soon as I pass my CDL skills test, I get to start driving kids around. That means that, if all goes to plan, I will start driving kids on Wednesday. Yay! And I have today off, so I get to have another three day weekend, then it's more practice on Monday, and testing on Tuesday.

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Today was another good, fun day. Right away, we drove over to the bus lot and traded our usual training bus for one of the transit coaches. We somehow managed to pick a bus from the lot with the dirtiest windows in the world and mirrors that were stuck. We spent about 5 minutes washing the windows on the outside before we realized that it was the inside that was truly dirty. I don't know how someone drives that bus on a daily basis. It was nasty.

It also rode horribly on the road. Granted, the transit coaches that I've driven before had air-ride seats and air suspensions. This bus had neither. The driver's seat was fixed-height (yuck), and it had a traditional leaf spring/shock absorber suspension. I did, however, get to take the bus by McDonald's and park it in the lot so we could go grab breakfast. I sure do love buying food while driving in large vehicles.

After that, we drove over to the bus lot, then switched over to the other trainee driving. She drove around for a couple of hours, then we headed back to the bus lot to swap the transit coach out for yet another bus. This time, we got what my instructor calls the “Cadillac buses”. It was a Thomas/Freightliner bus, and it was by far the best bus I've driven so far. I was still getting situated in the seat, and my instructor had already started making fun of me. “Mike's having fun with this bus.”

And I was. It had the nicest air-ride seat of any of the school buses I've driven so far. And it just rode so pleasantly on the road. The driver's platform was elevated a few inches, and that made me happier. Plus, the instrument panel was just so much nicer. There was even a panel dimmer, which I haven't seen on any of the other buses so far. It even had a cigarette lighter socket, which just amused the hell out of me. And the pedal feel was nothing short of divine. If it hadn't been for the horrendous front-end shimmy that it had, I would have been in heaven. I would say that the “Cadillac bus” designation is well-deserved.

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Today's training was fun, but uneventful. I found out that my CDL test got moved up to the 30th, so I only have one week left now. Yay! We did some practice CDL pre-trips today, and I forgot a ton of stuff on mine, but it was also the first time I've done one without being guided, so I'm not too disappointed. Plus, I completely rocked out on the maneuverability course. The backward serpentine, which gave me a ton of problems the last time I tried, was totally easy for me today. I am so very happy.

After we did all that stuff, I got to drive the bus around to the bus lot, and then the instructor had me park it in a space on the actual lot, backing it in between two other buses. I was totally amazed when I did it all in one fluid movement. I've always hated backing in cars, and I expected to be completely mortified of it with a bus. I guess having good mirror coverage makes life much easier.

After that, we got to drive around downtown in a baby bus. Not just a short bus, mind you… a baby bus. One of those tiny little things that is kind of like a school bus, but is based off of a full-size truck/van chassis, so it still has the traditional driver side door and all. It SUCKED. The driver's compartment was so completely proportioned wrong for me. If I sat up straight in the seat, I looked straight into the headliner. And the mirrors were just terrible, not to mention brake feel. If I have the choice, I will definitely stick to my full-size buses.

Tomorrow, we get to go out in a transit-style bus. I can't wait.

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Today was a very fun day! First, I got to drive the bus up to the State Highway Patrol post so my instructor could check on some times for CDL tests for some of her other students. Then, the other girl training with me took over the driving for a bit, and we headed back downtown.

Read on for food fun

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While driving the bus today, I got to listen in on some great conversations over the two-way radio. One driver had this very lengthy conversation with the dispatcher about vomit on her bus. I never did figure out exactly why the conversation was so involved, or what the final outcome was. Then, I was treated to a discussion on what time it was, and exactly how many minutes had elapsed since that driver last radioed dispatch. It's always interesting how people's perception of these things varies.

There were also at least two accidents that I heard about, one of them involving some talk about an ambulance. One driver apparently got in a physical fight with one of her students at some point. I wish there was a tape recorder on it so I could have rewound to listen to the conversations with more attention.

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