So I started my afternoon cardinal with the typical old-junk bus that was out all day. Usually these days I get switched into something halfway through my shift. Tonight, it was a low-floor! It was kindof interesting to try and remember how those things worked… since I haven’t driven one since summer. Anyway, I enjoyed it…. right up until two blocks before my releif.

As I was pulling away from Gilman, two girls come running across the street right in front of my bus. As I slam on the brakes, avoiding hitting them by a few inches, I remind them that that’s a good reason to run around behind the bus. One stop later, at MacKay, no one wanted on the bus, so I continued driving. An impatient driver was passing me as I started accelerating, which is a pretty normal, if irritable, occurrence at night. What’s not normal is when they decide to cut in front of the bus as if the bus isn’t moving. If I had been going a couple mph faster, I would’ve taken out their passenger door…. or they my front bumper. And by “taken out” I mean: demolished door/totaled car and a scratch on the bus’s bumper. One block later, I was slightly glad to be relieved. Ahh the joys of a bus driver!

Well, I’ve finally done it. I’ve worked at cyride for about 26 months and finally earned my one-year safe driver’s award. Not because I had an accident to delay it, but because it’s awarded for one year of full-time driving hours (i.e. 2080 hours). Working 20 hours a week during the school year and even less in the summers, it’s taken me over two years to earn this. Which in a way says that I’ve actually been a safe driver for two years, not just one. Either way, it’s nice to get. Though I don’t get a shirt or anything, I will get my picture up on the “safe driver” board. Hey… it’s the little things.

On a coincidentally unrelated note, I also started my nine-month term on the safety committee on Oct. 1. Continue reading I am a safe bus driver! →

On my time card at work today I see a “new run assignment at dispatch desk” note. Fearing the worst, I figured they finally cut my last two cardinals, effectively cutting about 6 hours ($60) a week from me. Surprisingly, however, I find that they added back the 20 minutes they stole a couple weeks ago, so I’m back up to 20.5 hours a week! On top of that, I got the rocket-sled 942.

Now, normally, when they change your run, it starts the next Monday, so I figured I’d do what I was doing for the last two weeks today still. But the flow sheet (the thing the dispaters use to see all the buses and what routes/times they’re running) said I was doing my old run with slightly different times. Then the run sheet (the sheet that tells a driver what trips to do) told me to do my old run with the original times. As they send me out to start a 7:29 orange trip, another dispatcher over the radio explains that, no… I’m doing what I was supposed to be doing last week. The new run really does start monday; the flow-sheet was wrong. One dispatcher called me back to base, but when I got there, the one at the desk sent me back out to the parking lot. Argh! Don’t we all love communication issues?

To make my day more fun… I was driving around in a padidle all day 🙂 . My bus was winking at everyone I passed. I thought it was funny anyway…