Lilly Sway

Yesterday was a rainy day there were yellow raincoats running all around the elementary school the rain came down in sheets but thankfully the sun was still shining very strong until I got to the area where my children wait for me to pull up for them but as it was finally my turn the rain only came down harder, after loading them up and trying to exit the school grounds we noticed a neighbor’s car had broken down, we stopped and asked if someone was coming for them, she said that her husband was stuck on the other side of town in traffic so we offered them a ride home we then all piled up in our vehicle and headed to her street, she looked in the mirror to see what her children were laughing at, her makeup was running so she had raccoon eyes as her son called them and we all had a big life. After dropping them off we continued along with a smile as we got back on our regular route to the middle school the rain continued to pour, as we approached the school we saw no raincoats, that’s right not here, it would simply not be acceptable to carry one, thank goodness umbrellas are still okI made my daughters take one ( some how they were still soaking wet). When I finally made my way through traffic towards them as I opened the door I could see that they were with 5 other teens, before I could say anything they all jumped in they were soaked to the bone, the rain clouds had covered the beautiful sun which meant driving in it was dangerous enough and having kids trying to dodge cars while running across the big 4 lane street was out of the question in all good conscience it was really hectic traffic on a regular day much less on a day like today, so I did not protest and we went along our way laughing as we left wet teens here and there. I finally closed in on my particular neighborhood street but only made it half way my son called me and said that he had caught a ride to his nearby campus for afternoon classes, the professor had not come in because of the flooding in his area so classes were cancelled and his ride had already left the parking lot which left him in need of a ride home, as we pulled onto the campus my daughters jumped into the front seat, before I could ask them what they were doing I saw my son standing in the rain with two of his friends I pulled up beside them rolled the window down and asked if someone was in need of a ride they all laughed. A little rain can bring many people your way you could find yourself in a good mood after driving in it all day so the next time the weather tries to block out the sunshine make your own even if it is in a crowded vehicle full of wet people, well today is looking like more rain is coming our way. Taxi any one?

Food for the Mind

Lilly’s Way

Today I would like to bring the most disturbing thing that I have observed in the past few months to your attention. I have been working from home lately and for the most part it is great. The cost of doing so is that you are easily accessible to anyone and all of their emergencies. People don’t feel qualms calling someone that is home all day and that doesn’t really work. It can be a very annoying assumption that makes me angry. But sometimes you are set in the right place at the right time for good reason. As I carried on with my usual run of the mill day, back and forth to the local post office, the school runs and so on I’ve had the misfortune of running across the neighborhood buses and their drivers on a day to day basis. I was used to taking the larger, more accessible road to leave my neighborhood after dropping my children off to their different schools. I used to only pass by a bus already parked at the schools or on the four-lane highway. I was shocked at the indifference that some of the drivers so candidly display to the rules of the road. I’m not a person who can tolerate the endangerment of one child, much less the 40 or so children that are on each bus everyday. I must let you know (from experience) that the constant barrage of children can be nerve-racking everyday. However, the saying is: “if the kitchen is to hot for you, then get out”. I became more and more aware as the month turned into two. Most of the bus drivers that I observed never stopped at a stop sign and these supposed tested and trained drivers did not even use their equipment properly, like when they are about to unload children at a stop they are supposed to warn you by flashing their lights the color red, and releasing the stop sign and they unload while an arm extends from the front of the bus to insure the crossing children’s safety while in full view. I guess these particular drivers just thought they had to pass their test, and not practice what they had learned at bus driving school. I have to say that you may think that I’m just nit picking at a couple of common mistakes, but I have stayed silent on this subject for two months and have just tried to ignore the ongoing disregard not just of road rules but of children’s safety. In all of good consciousness I could not take it for granted that you think that your children are in safe hands when they mount that big yellow bus. I grant you that all bus drivers are not in the habit of jeopardizing your children, but if you think that the bus is a safe haven, while you go off to work, well then you must live in a world of denial. What would I have you do? Well, that is entirely up to you, but I have completed my obligation and I realize that there are bus drivers who take their job seriously so I only reported the one bus driver that constantly had a phone in her ear while she drove past the stop signs and went barreling through the neighborhood like a bully with no end in sight. If she had been struck by another car she surely would have screamed foul and she would have gotten away with her accident. Most people who entrust their children to these drivers would rather think that an individual who drives alone must have been in a hurry and be responsible for an accident that children were hurt in. I saw this lady run stop sign after stop sign and honk at other cars if she thought they were trying to cross before her. I was further upset by the fact that she used her horn frequently when caught behind a car that stopped at a stop sign. I overheard the same bus driver telling another bus driver that she almost did not make it on time because a dummy actually stopped at a stop when there were no cars to stop for, when her friend said “girl you better watch out for people who may have seen you, they’ll call it in on you, like they did me”. She just laughed and said “Yeah, let ‘em call. Nobody wants my job, nobody wants brats in their car. That’s why I have this job. No one else is going to do it, so just let them call, I don’t care”. I called the bus barn and had a condescending manager tell me that one cannot just call the bus barn and say that bus # so and so on a particular route did a bad thing because he said and I quote “I assure you, that all of our bus drivers are trained to drive defensively and cautiously and if there is a complaint you will have to come out to the bus barn and fill out the proper forms.” Yes, the proper forms. I had to chew on that one. I did encounter the drivers on a day to day basis and I thought that maybe it was a fluke and that they were just getting used to the route. No, that was not going to satisfy me, surely other people have to have seen this type of driving. I began to ask the moms in the car-rider line and everyone I talked to had seen or experienced the same bad driving. When I asked if they complained the answer was the same “that’s why I do the car rider line”. They all seemed to know how the bus drivers were abusing the road but not one of those people would go and report it. I reported it and stated that the reason was the driver with the phone in her hand while driving and I finally did go and fill out the forms but now the thing has turned into as the manager said “a big mess”. I’m really sorry that there are so many things wrong with this big yellow program, but when will someone stand up and say “Hey! This is wrong”. Why is it so hard to do right by our children? Taking it for granted that someone else is going to care for them as you would is not right. I‘m one of the parents who sits in the car-rider line and goes through traffic everyday to receive my children. I manage to sacrifice so many comforts along the way: like sleeping in, having “me time” but I have learned what is really important. I realize that most of us have to work, but our schools are already overcrowded, the system has so many requirements that our teachers are pushed to the brink and they have the most important job to do. They have to insure the prosperity of our society as a whole by giving our children the knowledge to succeed. After parents entrust children for 7 hours to be enlightened and help them to understand what is required of them in life, why would we just let some crazy bus driver snatch all of that beauty and eagerness away from us? They have an obligation to keep our children out of harms way. I refuse to just stand and watch. I feel compelled to try to wake you up. I was asked by the bus barn manager which route it was that my children wait for their bus on, and what bus they regularly get on. When I said that they were car riders, he said how was it that the bus driver’s actions affected me on a day to day basis. For those of you who don’t get it, I don’t use the school district bus service. I said to him that I just happen to think that all children should be safe, and that should be important to everyone whether you ride the big yellow or not.

Food for the Mind

Lilly’s Way

lillysway

I have sat and watched my two boys who are in grade school bicker and battle over just about anything, and it is of no surprise boys just are that way, I had 5 brothers and 8 uncles so I have seen it most of my life, but the other thing that I have grown to love about my boys, my brothers, my uncles, and my brothers in law is that no matter how bad the argument, they just seem to get over it and are usually the best of friends shortly afterwards. I was watching my sons argue over a certain game they are allowed to play only 1 hour and only if homework is finished first, we always set a timer and they usually play until the very last moment but the older of the two had become a little bored half way through the game and a fierce battle erupted the younger one sighting that if his brother felt that way about the game he should have had forethought enough to mention it before they were halfway into the game, starting a new game with only a half hour left was a waste of his time and no sooner said than a big battle was on, there were name calling ( like ignorant, dummy, and the one I here most often stupid), rolling bodies came right after the names and then I sent them to their room I heard a big thump , they share a room so they were not in there together but a moment and they had already picked up where they had left off I had a thought, when I entered the room and told them that they had 5 minutes to decide which of them would move to their older brothers room, he had left for college and that they should let me know which one would stay in the room they already occupied, I also informed them that this could not go on. I did not give them a chance to say a word and left them in there, I then shut the door behind me. (I must confess I sort of shut it loudly). 5 minutes came and went, and an hour had gone by still not a peep from that room. If you are a mother you always think the worst so I began imagining all these bad things that could have gone on. I went to their room and heard laughing when I opened the door I saw them playing a game of checkers absorbing the picture of perfection while trying to ignore it, they just said hi mom did you need something I shut the door and opened it again not once but twice had I entered the Twilight Zone? Were these the same two boys? So I just said who is moving out they looked at each other and the younger of the two said mom I can’t leave this room and the older replied the same before I could intervene my youngest said with the saddest face mom I love this guy I have lived with him all of my life and he is my best friend and that’s forever, so if one of us has to move we decided we are both going. And mom I’m begging you please don’t take my brother away from me we decided that we just won’t play that game anymore. I was left speechless and then I quietly shut the door and went and found my old family album I looked at all my brothers and uncles and remembered all of the fierce battles they fought, I remembered when they went away to the armed forces and that they did not all come back, I knew that they most assuredly had the same kind of brotherly love that my boys had shown me today. I did not make them move and I know that there are more battles to come, but for now all is quiet on the front.

Food for the Mind

Lilly’s Way

lillysway