Tonight I had to turn down a free ticket to the X96 Big Ass Show so I could spend tomorrow trying to complete the remodel on my upstairs bathroom. My brother-in-law won tickets to the show, and he asked me if I'd like to come, but I'd promised Traci that I'd work on the bathroom this weekend so that we could go camping next weekend. This had better be a good camping trip! :)

I wasn't quite ready to give up on summer, but with all this cold and dreary weather we've been having, I think it's time. I spent my lunch break yesterday winterizing and covering up the swamp cooler, and this weekend I plan on mowing the lawn for the last time this year. The one thing I like about this time of year is that I tend to get more hiking, bike riding, and geocaching done. All I can think about right now is all the places I can hike to without dying of heat exhaustion. Well, that and how much I can get accomplished in remodeling the bathroom in one day.

We had a scary incident with Michael's bus driver last week--it turned out not to be as big a deal as we first thought, but it was still pretty serious. Actually, we've had problems with the guy for a couple of weeks. A couple days after school started, the afternoon bus driver (there's a different driver in the morning) told Traci at the bus stop that he was going to start dropping Michael off a block past the usual bus stop, which is actually closer to our house, so we didn't mind. However, we didn't know that he wasn't allowed to deviate from his route whatsoever, and when a substitute bus driver was dropping kids off the following week, Michael didn't get off the bus at his designated stop because the regular driver had changed his stop without approval from his boss. Long story short, Michael was the last kid left on the bus that day, and they ended up dropping him off at our house, but we weren't exactly sure why. Later, we got a call from the woman who runs the bus garage explaining that it was Michael's fault for not getting off at his designated stop. I thought she meant the stop that the regular driver had specified, so I was a little confused. After hanging up and talking to Michael about it, I realized that it was actually the regular bus driver's fault for changing things up, so I called back the bus garage manager. When I explained things to her, she said she'd talk to the driver to make sure he followed the original route. Well, that only lasted one day, 'cause two days later he was back to dropping Michael off one block past his designated stop.

Then, on Wednesday, Traci was late leaving the park that she was helping to build, so she drove the truck straight to the bus stop to pick Michael up (since kindergarten parents are supposed to be there for pickup and dropoff of their kids). Well, she was standing on the corner at his regular stop, and after all the kids had gotten off, Michael was nowhere to be seen. She started approaching the open doors of the bus to ask the driver where Michael was, but the guy closed the door in her face and drove off! She panicked and didn't know what to do, so she called me. I told her to get in the truck and chase that asshole down, which is exactly what she did. She ended up catching up to him several blocks away and stopping in the middle of an intersection right in front of the bus so he couldn't drive away again. The bus driver said that Michael was on a different bus, and pointed in the direction that it should have been. Traci was more concerned with where Michael was, rather than why he wasn't there, so she took off in that direction, but never did find the bus. She ended up just coming home, and we were both pretty scared because we had no idea where our son was.

As soon as she got home, I was waiting in the front yard with the telephone, ready to call the bus garage and raise hell, but a school bus pulled up right then and dropped Michael off. I asked that driver why he was on her bus, and she said that she didn't know, but that Michael was supposed to ride her bus from now on. I asked Michael what happened, and he told me that his regular bus driver had actually gotten off the bus at school, found Michael, and told him to ride a different bus. He actually went out of his way to single Michael out, but the bus student that lives just up the street and rides the same route is apparently ok to ride on this guy's bus.

I was pretty confused and really pissed off, so I called the bus garage. The manager there was also confused and said that she didn't know anything about Michael switching buses, and said that she'd have a talk with the regular driver (which apparently would have been her third talk with him about this issue). I wasn't satisfied that she would even do anything because so far her "talking" to the driver had had no effect, so I called the school district superintendent directly and aired my complaints. He said he'd get to the bottom of it and call me back.

After waiting until today, I finally called the superintendent back. He said that the driver had been issued a formal written reprimand, and that any other misconduct on his part could result in termination. I'm pretty determined to get this asshole fired, so I'm just waiting for him to make another misstep toward Michael. I still haven't gotten to the bottom of why he singled Michael out, but playing psychological games with a 5-year-old and his parents is just fucked up. I still haven't met the bus driver, but if I ever see him I fully intend to let him know that if my son's safety is going to be left in his hands, then his own safety will be in mine.

Traci has gotten all gung-ho about volunteering to build the new park in town, and she's been there at least four hours every day this week. Today she's put in about nine hours already, and I'm still waiting for her to get home. I'm too lazy and selfish to volunteer (I can't even bother to maintain my own property), but it's been pretty cool to watch this park pop up out of nothing. Hahah, it's funny, as I was doing a Google search for some website about the park to link to, I ran across this website--amazing! Actually, I found Castle Country News pretty interesting because they report on more interesting stuff than the Sun Advocate, and they do it in a more timely manner.

I've been doing so much of nothing that it really shows here on my website. It's been nearly two weeks since I wrote anything, which doesn't bother me all that much. Work has been busy, and each day when I get off work I usually end up sitting around and completely wasting all the free time that I have. I did finally remove the windshield wiper motor from my car this afternoon, and the new one I ordered should be in tomorrow, so that'll be something else to keep me busy for a short while.

Weekends have been mostly uneventful, which is quite a change from the past few months. I don't have any more major plans until next month--two camping trips, and maybe a few nice long grueling hikes. Oh, and this weekend I might put a geocache on top of "Kenilworth Castle." I think if I make it up there that nobody will bother finding the cache for a very long time.