Eric Bailey's

Well I have started driving the bus. Yesterday I did the little very controlled driving on a deserted strip of road. Today I drove where there was a possibility of other vehicles (there were other vehicles). There were all kinds of dangers around as I thought about all the things I need to remember when driving a bus dangers like parked cars that can suddenlly leap out in front of you and cause an accident (it is amazing how much inanimate objects that are uninhabited can move - ask Heimdahl). Somehow I survived without hitting anything, with doing pretting good on my corners (right turns better than left, but that will come with practice), and with crossing those evil, frightening, irritating, and horrible railroad tracks. A school bus must stop at all railway crossings. Open the door and the driver's window, look and listen for trains, close the door, look again and then go. Try that on your first trip where you cross one a little more often than you cross street (it is a weird part of town)!

I survived and I am feeling better with each time I get behind the wheel. Tomorrow I don't go in to drive, I wait till monday to start trying to build up my 20 hours of driving (I got 1 hour out of the 3 that I spent there as driving - the rest of the time was spent on pre-trip inspection - it is going to take me all day at this rate to check the bus pick up kids, drop off kids and then clean the bus). I have a lot of driving time to put in and I need to get the inspection down so that I can spend more time driving (it should take 30-45 minutes). It would also help if the bus I use doesn't have to get anything fixed. We discovered that this bus had the wrong kind of mirror on one side and had to get that replaced. Part of me wants to find and use the bus my kids ride so that I can see how good a job the driver who uses it is doing with safety and that sort of thing. I haven't even brought it up to anyone because I think it is just part of my evil, over-protective, scheming mind.

Tomorrow is back to the regular grind of writing sermons and preparing stuff for Sunday. In life your either behind the wheel or you look up and find the bus is bearing down on you.