Writer’s Rant for 1/20/24
After retirement from my professional career, I got bored (before I began writing). So, I looked for part time jobs to occupy my time. I’ve had a few of them these past five years, including bus driver. First, I got my passenger CDL and drove a school bus here in Wake County. As I wanted to spend more time at my beach place, I transferred to a different county on the coast. It was an OK gig for awhile. The kids were fine. But it didn’t take long for me to think how ridiculous it was for someone retired to have to get up at 5 AM to drive a couple of hours, go home, then back out again at 1 PM and not get home until after 5. So I decided to get a job driving a tour bus. It didn’t last long. These buses are much bigger than school buses, the people much ruder, and the job was stressful. You would think these huge buses would have backup cameras. No, they don’t. When I moved south years ago, my wife told me that it was common for high school students to drive school bus routes. Other natives to the state have confirmed this. My fellow yankees who have moved south found this incredulous, especially in today’s litigious society. Ironically, although students no longer drive the buses and CDL’s are required, we hear more and more about bus accidents. Obviously, the population has increased significantly and the highways are a bit more crowded then they used to be. This morning my daughter texted me that my 15 y.o. granddaughter’s school bus had just crashed into the neighbor’s trash cans, nearly taken out a power pole and the fire department was there. Since my 15 y.o. granddaughter had just finished driver training a couple of weeks ago, I quipped “I told you she is too young to drive a school bus.” It got a chuckle.
