I'm about a month and a half into my second year of driving my big yellow school bus. A number of things have stabilized to make my life easier. First, this is no longer my first year, so while I'm still finding new things, there are fewer of them and that helps keep me from being surprised. Second is the fact that I have my own assigned route this year. I'm only driving in the mornings, but it's always the same route and I got used to it pretty quickly. I was going to drive afternoons as well, but I'm doing some part-time computer work with a friend and so I let go of my afternoon route. This actually worked out well, because one of the other drivers really wanted it.

I drove a route for summer school this year and that helped get some of the students used to me. They now get quite excited to see me when I'm picking them up at their stops. Some of my students are quite rowdy, but I'm used to telling them to settle down, so I always win the battle of wills that ensues. It doesn't hurt that I can write them up and get them progressively punished, all the way up to their bus riding privileges being revoked.

This year, Peter is in kindergarten, so he doesn't ride the bus with me nearly as often. My wife drops him at school in the morning and I pick him up from the school on the days when she works. Sometimes, I drive in the afternoons to help out when a driver needs a day off and then Peter will generally ride with me.

I continue to enjoy driving my big yellow school bus and while I appreciate the part-time computer work I'm doing, for a little extra income injection, I can't imagine not driving a school bus route.