Eric Bailey's

Well, I guess I should post again since the week is almost over. I said that I thought this week would be terrible, but for the first half of the week I did not really have time to dwell on the sadness of being out of football. Instead I had to be ready to drive bus Monday morning for training. When I drive bus I have to be up, so I was not depressed while training, but I was not moving particularly fast (especially since the hot tub was not working at that point). I did my check of the bus to make sure it was in working condition before I could take it out on the road for training, but the bus did not make it through my check. One of the brake lights was not working. It seems like there is always something to report on a bus that I am looking at. We after I finished my check we took out a different bus, one that was checked by thr driver earlier in the day. I learned about "pick-ups" and "drop offs". It sounds easy but there are a lot of things to remember that need to become second nature. There also needs to be homework done ahead of time when driving an actual route so that you know when to stop and when to fix a route sheet. It's complicated.

Tuesday I drove the bus again, but this time we skipped practicing the "circle check" so that I could get more hours in driving. I think we did about 3 hours. It was good. We drove an old route and talked about situations that might occur while you are droping off or picking up students. This route is one they like for training because there is a place where you have to turn around in a drive way. Before school pick up the students before turning around, and after school you drop off the students after turning around, that way no one gets run over.

Wednesday was a different kind of fun. I attended (at the Valhalla Inn) the Safety Session that the bus people put on for their employees once in a while (they have these things and you have to attend 5 of them). I sat at a table with people that I didn't know, but I met one of them earlier that week (he drove the bus for my kids last year). I visited and learned some about the various people sitting there and also learned some about the job that I hadn't asked yet. There were a couple of guys who were spares (they fill in for other drivers) and they have been pretty busy so it sounds like the bus company is kind of short staffed right now. I will probably get a regular route, but I am not sure what kind of money that will pull in for me since it sounds like the different routes pay different amounts.

Tuesday I had a meeting with the elders and Thursday I went to work at completing some of the things I needed to do. Wednesday I sent out an email about our small groups and very slowly replies have been trickling in. I don't think I will have the groups set up by this Sunday at this rate.

Thursday night was an ejoyable small group. I had prepared a devotional, then in the afternoon I was struck by an article I read in MacLean's so I was going to improvise a discussion based on that, but I brought my original devotional just in case people showed up that would make the MacLean's discussion uncomfortable (more than it would normally be), and when I saw that we had a new person at the meeting, decided to go a head with original devotional. We actually had some good discussion and the new person who has been coming out to church the last couple of weeks joined in and seemed to enjoy herself.

Today I have more work to do to get ready for Sunday, but at least I don't have to preach. Hey, I don't have to teach this Sunday either! Maybe this weekend won't be so bad after all.