The Bane of My Existence

Yes, that's right, it's the school bus. Today was supposed to be the second day of school for my two eldest girls. Grades 1-6 started yesterday with a half day, Maddie starts kindergarten next week on her fifth birthday. I was looking forward to this. I was so excited! Yesterday we took the kids in, but today was the big "get on the bus adventure."

It was scheduled to arrive at 7:20 this morning so I got the kids out there by 7:15. I figured I could run out in my shorts and shirt and sandals and be ok, even though it was a little chilly and damp this morning. We hit the end of our driveway and were assaulted by MOSQUITOS! Now they are pretty uncommon up here, at 7200 feet elevation in the desert southwest, but this year with all this crazy rain they are EVERYWHERE! I am covered in bites.

We battled them for 20 minutes, and the bus never showed up. I finally relented, told the girls I would drive them in, but first had to call the school and the bus company and let them have it. Well the school was great, gave me the number to the bus company, and I called them. IDIOTS. These people are total idiots. I told them the bus never showed up, and the stop address, and they asked for my kids' names. Gave them that information too. The lady says, "Ok hang on, I am going to radio that bus and see what happened." She is gone for a few minutes and then comes back and says, "Oh the driver said she just passed your place and is getting ready to turn off your street onto A-99." I figured we could catch her if we ran out, but the idiot on the phone wouldn't tell her to even wait a minute, she was long gone when we got there. The idiot, when pressed for a time to expect the bus to arrive from now on, told me to expect it between 7:25 and 7:35 (even though today it was 7:40.)

Now, normally at this time of year that is not a big deal, but those mosquitos were insane today. However, usually by early October and through April it is very cold up here in the mornings, and there could be snow. It looks like it may be a very wet winter here. We may be out there in some pretty severe weather for long stretches of time. I won't let my kids go out alone, because the driveway curves and I cannot see them standing out there.

Oh and my Plan B for Peace fell through, when my husband called to tell me he had inadvertently taken the keys to the van with him to work. The kids are presently raiding their lunch boxes for the snacks.

Plus I probably have West Nile now.

Idiots.