It started out a warm and sunny afternoon. All of the buses were parked at the middle school waiting for the students to be released. The announcement came over the radio that there was a tornado warning and all drivers should go inside the building. We were there a while. All of our phones went off at the same time. The storm blew in. A couple of songs were played over the intercom. We waited. The assistant principal read a story to occupy the kids. We waited some more.
Over an hour later we loaded up the buses and headed out. The weather outside was back to being sunny and muggy. I was close to the end of my route when the sirens sounded again. I was at the last stop in my subdivision and I told the kids to hurry home. The two kids that live outside the subdivision and I took off in the bus and headed to the grade school.
One kid could see his mom waiting in her car at the end of his driveway as we turned into the school. Because there was nowhere to turn the bus around I told him he would have to stay with me. As I parked the bus they ran inside. Once inside, I let the first boy call his mom. As soon as the warning was lifted she said she would pick him up at the office. The second boy couldn't remember his mom's phone number. We hung out in the hallway with all the little ones. He played on his computer and I shot off a couple of quick texts to find out where my own boys were.
The younger kids were all lined up in the hallway curled up in little balls. It was hot. They were scared. It had already been an extra long day for all of them. One brilliant teacher went down the hallway handing out suckers. Sucker-juice goes a long way in a situation like this!
I managed to arrange for my last middle school kid to ride home with his little brother on his bus. Both boys liked that and it sped up my route by 15 minutes.
We were all finally on our way home.
I rolled up to my last stop at 6:00 PM. Over 2 hours later than normal. One mom said, "Well that's one way to get overtime!" I assured her that it was not my preferred method to get extra hours!
Over an hour later we loaded up the buses and headed out. The weather outside was back to being sunny and muggy. I was close to the end of my route when the sirens sounded again. I was at the last stop in my subdivision and I told the kids to hurry home. The two kids that live outside the subdivision and I took off in the bus and headed to the grade school.
One kid could see his mom waiting in her car at the end of his driveway as we turned into the school. Because there was nowhere to turn the bus around I told him he would have to stay with me. As I parked the bus they ran inside. Once inside, I let the first boy call his mom. As soon as the warning was lifted she said she would pick him up at the office. The second boy couldn't remember his mom's phone number. We hung out in the hallway with all the little ones. He played on his computer and I shot off a couple of quick texts to find out where my own boys were.
The younger kids were all lined up in the hallway curled up in little balls. It was hot. They were scared. It had already been an extra long day for all of them. One brilliant teacher went down the hallway handing out suckers. Sucker-juice goes a long way in a situation like this!
I managed to arrange for my last middle school kid to ride home with his little brother on his bus. Both boys liked that and it sped up my route by 15 minutes.
We were all finally on our way home.
I rolled up to my last stop at 6:00 PM. Over 2 hours later than normal. One mom said, "Well that's one way to get overtime!" I assured her that it was not my preferred method to get extra hours!
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