Every weekday, I drive the yellow bus off 405 south and stop at the SW Couch and 15th light. There is usually a panhandler there with his cardboard sign asking for help. This time the panhandler had a dog. At first I thought the dog was a stuffed dog, but then I saw the dog turn his head. The odd thing is the dog is wearing a hat and sunglasses.
I’m driving back to the yard this morning and I see down the road what looks like a semi speeding toward me in my lane:
It gets closer and my foot is covering the brake.
EEK!
Thank goodness it was being towed!
Here’s a picture of a school bus in Japan:
School bus in India:
I had a wonderful time Saturday morning. I drove the big bus to the Doubletree across the street from the Lloyd Center and picked up a bus load of mostly older men and women with an Estonian background. Do you know where the country of Estonia is? I was hired to take them to the Grotto where they attended a church service and the choir sang to them in Estonian. I asked one passenger, “How do I say Good Morning in Estonian?” One man taught me to say, “Dara Homnikut!” (spelled phonetically)*. You should have seen the surprised looks on their faces as they boarded the bus when I smiled and said, “Dara Homnikut.” They smiled and said, “Dara Homnikut!”
When we returned to the Doubletree, I said, again phonetically, “Tanon Vaka.” or just “Tanon.”* Thank you! People like to hear you try their language and are more than happy to help you learn new words in their language. What a fun day. I drove home with a smile.
Here’s the location of Estonia, a former member of the USSR and now a member of the Euro group:
*spelled Tere Hommikust, Tänan väga
Traveling by car in the Forest Heights area has become a little less easy with the closure of NW Thompson Road between Cornell and Skyline. I heard from some students that ride my bus that some of the road subsided into the canyon that parallels the road. I stopped yesterday to take a look. Here’s what I found:
It appears that the road was getting ready to fall away. Cracks appeared that could take a car over the side if the road gave way. Thompson Rd. has been closed at least for two weeks and it may stay closed for some time yet.
Can you picture this bus going up NW German Town Rd?
Two school buses weren’t the cause, but my guess: they were following too close.
We are in Las Vegas today for the Las Vegas World furniture Market. We’ll be here for two more days. There is a shuttle pick up running every 15 minutes that stops at every major hotel and takes attendees to the World Market site. This morning we had a choice of a small van with wheel chair access or a big flat front tour bus. The driver for the tour bus looked okay and when we got on I said, “You’ll get us there safely!” He patted me on the arm to say, “No worries my man.”
We had two more stops to make, the Wynn and the Trump Tower, and I was complimenting the bus driver in my mind for negotiating all the narrow, winding driveways to each hotel. It would be very hard to drive the curves and not run over the curbs with the back wheels.
Then we were on the freeway and I noticed he was following a semi that carries new cars a little too closely. Sure enough the tractor trailer’s brake lights go on and our driver hits the brakes, but plows into the rear end of the trailer. That’s a sickening feeling to know you are going to crash. All of the passengers were thrown against the seat backs and our knees suffered bruises. Both vehicles involved pulled to the side of the road. Our driver nonchalantly asks if everyone is okay and proceeds to get his paperwork to exchange information with the other driver. He never did walk the inside of the bus to see if we were all right.
When he tries to open the door, the door is sprung and it won’t open. Here we were stuck on the side of the highway, front door jammed, no rear exit, just emergency windows.
One passenger asks the driver if he has a first aid kit and he tells her he doesn’t have one on board. Finally, another bus comes to transfer the passengers, along with the fire department to take off two injured women and the police to get all our names and contact information.
So many rules broken and such poor training of the driver. It all started with the driver violating the basic rule: following too closely; not leaving six seconds between him and the car in front. Right then, I was really proud of the training we get at First Student to drive safely and if a crash happens to respond to the needs of our passengers, your children. We always carry a first aid kit and we are trained to provide First Aid.
Back in May, 2009 in a Tales from the Yellow Bus post, I questioned the “the hue and cry over the endangered salmon and the movement to take out dams” with evidence that there doesn’t appear recently to be any decline in the salmonid population. The evidence was right in front of us in the printed literature handed out by the Fish and Game employees. One example was this info:
The Oregonian on July 4th, 2010 confirmed what I wrote in 2009 in an article titled Record Columbia River sockeye run is a bounty for Northwest fishermen.
Fishery managers have difficulty estimating the Columbia sockeye run and this year predicted the count at Bonneville Dam would be 125,000 fish. But 30,374 sockeye passed through June 23, the most in a single day since the dam was built in 1938. Two days later the estimate for the year doubled, to 250,000 sockeye. On Saturday, the run reached 329,579 fish.
The article points out that there are lots of reasons for the sockeye rebound, but to me it appears cyclical. Can anyone see if solar cycles match the rise and fall of fish runs?
Ten days ago on Friday June 4th, Kyron Horman wasn’t on the school bus from Skyline Elementary when it stopped at his stop. I drive from the open lot at the top of NW Germantown Road and NW Skyline Boulevard to NW Kaiser Road. Right onto NW Brooks to the intersection at NW Skyline where Kyron’s school is located. At the intersection I turn left to NW Cornelius Pass Rd and left again at NW Kaiser. It’s a two-lane road, big circle, and I didn’t envy the searchers.
As I go north on NW Kaiser past the barn built in 1906, the road rolls through alfalfa fields, past the horse barn up the hill past another barn and RV that burned to the ground, past the vineyards and the enormous white bull, past the grass that comes up to your waist, past the blackberries now in full bloom promising an abundant crop that will fill some fine homemade pies. I drive past gated Tuscan-like homes and cattle grazing on new grass. When I turn up NW Brooks, I see the road rolling upward bordering organic fields and open fields that may contain a herd of Elk from time to time.
At the top at the intersection there are many, many vehicles parked on the road side. Cars that brought searchers to this area and news room vans with their satellite dishes aimed at the sky promising to tell us the latest local news of Kyron. How can these searchers possibly negotiate the blackberry fields and the heavy growth along the little creeks filled with the rain that didn’t quit? How can they possibly search the ramshackle barns and out buildings, homes and garages on private land that might hide the community’s son?
Twice a day I traveled those roads picking up students for Lincoln High and returning them to their homes in the late afternoon. Every day I searched those fields and woods and underbrush as I drove. Every day I expected to see Kyron Horman stumble onto the road, all wet and scratched and cold and flag down my bus, but it never happened.
