Tuesday, August 23
It's the second day of school. Originally my doctor had a screening scheduled for me on top of my route today but I felt like it would be really unfair to have Jenny drive for me when I didn't quite know what to expect out of my route myself. I rescheduled for another day.
After what happened yesterday, I spent the morning re-doing the route so that the out-of-town kids were in the middle and the town kids were on either end. I use google maps so it isn't too tricky to move the stops around and see how long to plan for travel between each stop, but I have more stops in the complete route than Google maps allows so I had to split it and just make sure that between the two I was still getting the PM kids to school at the right time.
Once I had the route settled the way I liked it, I messaged any parents that were affected by the changes by more than a few minutes. I wasn't able to reach anyone at Lil' Cubs but since their morning time was only a few minutes different and their afternoon time was later than they were planning I didn't worry too much about it.
I went ahead and switched Exum and Alayna Maxwell so we could drop Exum off first, then head back to the highway and take the blacktop across Saxman road and over to Maxwell's. That should give us better consistency when there's weather and the roads get really muddy. Plus, the roads are so dry and dusty right now, and that trip across Ave S seemed to take FOREVER yesterday.
I'm really glad I set things up that way. Alayna Maxwell had some sort of appointment today and her mom picked her up. Were were able to take Exum at the time his mom was expecting and then head back to town instead of going out to Maxwell's house. Since we are coming from the other direction to Exum's now, we turned into the driveway then asked his mom if it was possible to pull through on the road that looked like it wrapped around the house. Exum's mom peeked around the house and shook her head regrettably "no," there were toys in the way. I then motioned to the large grassy area in front of us and she happily agreed that we could turn around there every day. It's just the right size and works out really well.
Not having Alayna gave us a bunch of extra time (after I very clearly told all the parents that our route was really tight this year). I asked what we should do, and she asked if the bus needed to be fueled. We were sitting at about half so we headed down to the Co-op. Kaci headed inside to chat and I swept out the bus while Larry fueled, checked fluids and cleaned the windshield. I decided I'd head to the back and clean up the rear windows. I was in the middle of that when I started to hear splashing and realized the fuel tank was overflowing. Diesel fuel was splashing everywhere, like a grand, expensive water fall. It was all over the bus and all over the blacktop.
Back inside, Larry asked me if I needed an electric bicycle. There was a lovely aqua colored once sitting in the middle of the office charging up. He, Vicki, and Kaci chatted about some older guy that I don't know who had just bought it right before he started having dizzy spells and his doctor told him he could ride his bike anymore. Now he cruses around town on a tricycle. I fiddled with a 3D puzzle made out of large nails and metal rings. It baffled me, and Vicki admitted that they had never seen it solved and suspected it couldn't be.
This year I had the route set up to go straight on 6th after picking up Omari, then go over to Broadway taking Ave V, and loop back South to pick up Ayven. Last year's habits got the better of me and I automatically turned Left on Adams toward Lil' Cubs after Omari got on. We went ahead and stopped at Lil' Cubs then took 7th up and around back to Ayven's on Broadway. I think I'll make that a permanent change. No use fighting something that's working.
There was a big construction mess up on the corner of 7th & Ave V right there by Zimmerman's. It looks like they're getting ready for new sidewalks and curb & gutter. There wasn't much room for us to squeeze by but we made it.
Our timing for arriving at the Grade School for PM came out just about right. Not having that kid out at the sandpit on Sante Fe gives us just enough time for a comfortable route.
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