I’ve seen better days

I woke up at 3 am panicking because I was convinced I overslept.  I could not get back to sleep.  When that happens I already know what kind of day I’m going to have.   Extra strong morning tea did nothing to take the tinge of fog off my periphery.  I hate that feeling. I am driving a bus load of not only my own kids, but everyone else’s precious little children too.  And yes that precious part was meant to read  with some sarcasm, because today was not a good day for my little friends. They were in full on a$$ mode today.  Some days are just like that.  Some days are made worse when you’re tired.  I’m not sure if it was one thing or the other, but nobody had it together today, and it set the tone for my entire day.  Yes, I know a positive attitude can change things. Blah blah blah.  Yes, I know that when I’m tired the whole world seems darker and I need to get more sleep. Tell my stupid brain that at 3 am.    Sorry. Small side tangent there.  So today wasn’t one of my finer days.  And as a result, I have a meeting in the morning where video will be pulled and there will be children who will probably be kicked off of the bus.  Normally I handle my own problems on the bus, but today- I wasn’t in the mood.  And frankly my way of handling them would have gotten me certain prison time, so I am leaving it to the video watching expert of the world - my boss.  I also  texted him rather than call for fear I would totally lose it.  The school is short handed this year.  For crap sakes they are handling one special Ed room with a virtual teacher.  Tell me that’s going to work?  One special Ed teacher ended up quitting this week. They have a para that is leaving.  I saw a news story this week blaming the children’s behavior on Covid.  I call BS.  It  sits squarely on the parents.  The ones who would rather run around  and act like they are teenagers  than hang with their kids.  The ones who would rather play on their phone than give their children consequences for their behavior.  The ones who think the schools are in charge of insuring the kids basic needs for food and love are met.   The ones who think it is funny for their kids to behave like little demon trolls.  Those parents.  Half the behaviors I see could be easily controlled with one single person in their lives who holds them accountable.   Gee, I don’t know why teachers are walking out.  I suppose I don’t have time for this tangent and you probably don’t want to read it anyway.   But for the love of all that a holy when will we start making people be responsible for their kids?   I say your kid needs a para all day for behavior issues?  You now have a job at the school as a para. Your kid can’t follow basic safety rules on a bus?  Congratulations you get to drive them to school yourself.  Your kid needs a special lunch?  You get to pack it.  Your kid has some medical condition you refuse to medicate them for?  They don’t get to attend school - you get to homeschool them.  And yea I firmly believe that every child has the right to an education, but I also firmly believe that unless something changes nobody will be getting an education, because we are spending all our time/resources/energy/abilities just simply trying to get the kids to be responsible for their own behaviors.  To respond when you talk to them.  To act like civilized human beings.  Ok enough of that.  Today wasn’t good. Tomorrow will be better.  

Getting to see these 2 little girls sure does make any day better though.  I love them.   

Cameron made me laugh a little. He said this is a picture he and his co-workers took to commemorate the only time this year they got out of a staff meeting on time.  I thought it was funny. Apparently his boss wasn’t really amused.  

I do have a couple of stories.  The first one - needs a small throwback review.  Remember 2 summers ago, on the night before Preston started his junior year, when he went to the lake with his friends, and his car was stolen?  Then subsequently totaled when it was crashed into a tree?   Yea.  That guy was ordered to pay Preston back for the car almost 2 years ago.  That never happened. Now we were notified that he had a hearing for revocation of his probation.  (Dude screwed up). So yesterday, I ran down to his hearing.  They had the hearing early.  Because of course they did.  He has now committed a felony in Franklin county, as well as in Shawnee county.  Added to his felonies for the night of Preston’s car drama, and he is a very naughty boy.  And a really bad criminal. The judge locked him up.  Buddy boy is going away for quite some time.  That doesn’t help Preston get paid, but the judge also ordered restitution. Which means Preston will be  given some or all of the money he makes in prison.  The court clerk told me it comes out to around 40 cents an hour, so I hope he is there a very, very long time, because at  that salary it  is going to take a while to get enough scraped up.   Preston seemed happy with the outcome.  It’s truly out of our hands. We could go to civil court, but he’s already ordered to pay it, and any money he gets they will garnish.  The problem is unless he’s in prison working there, I seriously doubt he will ever have an actual job.  Civil court would be a waste of time and money I think.  

Secondly another car drama story.  Early this year we helped Quincy buy a little Subaru.  Quincy loves her car and has taken meticulous care of it.  A couple weeks ago, the transmission stated  shifting weird. Andrew and Preston put a new solenoid in there, but it didn’t help.  The guy we bought it from has his mechanic work on it, but that too failed.  She has been driving my Nissan, which isn’t a big deal because this time of the year I mostly drive around in buses, but she hates borrowing and especially hates the gas mileage it gets.   Enter a friend Quincy has.  Her friend Joe’s parents helped him get a new car.  They told Quincy they would sell her his old car for a very, very cheap price.  Almost unbelievably cheap.  The car is not the prettiest thing,  but it is by far not the worst car either.  Heck, it’s not even the worst car she has owned!     So she bought a little car to get by until she can decide what to do with the Subaru.  She is leaning towards fixing it, as Mr. Clawson (the vineyard boss) and Colin have offered to help.  I think it might be a good experience for her to learn some stuff about mechanics, but also it may take a while, so I am very thankful to Joe’s parents for helping her out.  I did text to thank them and Joe’s mom told me that she just loves Quincy and is so thankful for her being friends with her son.   She called Quincy a good influence.    I checked to make sure she had the right Quincy. Kidding. Only kidding.  Quincy is reformed  now - no more trouble and she saves her craziness for home.  Also for the record, no they are not dating. Just really good friends. 

When I have one of them days, I look forward to coming home and verbally abusing Jim.  Just kidding.  But he does tend to let me vent my frustrations and lends a sympathetic ear.  He also occasionally offers

to “take care of” people for me - which I don’t take him up on.  I can handle my own garbage - no need for him to also go to prison. Tonight, he had some sort of craziness in a planning and zoning issue and isn’t home yet.  Instead of me venting to him, I spent time fishing leaves from the pool and hanging out in the barn.  Life is always better in the barn.  (And healthier than making life better in the bar).   Harper and Saige are very helpful and I appreciate it!   We got everything finished, and are vegging  in our pj’s.  At least the end of the day feels better!   Here’s to sleeping, nicer attitudes, bus kick off sheets, ponies and barbecue bowls.