Today is the first day of school. The 5th first day for Fish and the 1st first day for Mim. Both are ready and excited.

We practiced getting up, eating, and getting dressed early enough to catch the bus. The bus, that according to the schedule, would be arriving 20 minutes earlier than last year. Last night, showers were taken, lunches and snacks assembled, and backpacks packed. We were ready.

Mostly.

When we practiced our morning routine, we forgot to include applying sunblock, and THAT, can be a painstaking process.

Our bus driver is a wonderful man who is NOTHING if not prompt, so there was copious encouragement from mom to pick up the pace. We were a little later than I would have liked, but when we finally made it to the bus stop Grammy and Grandpa (who arrived ahead of us) assured us, the bus had not come.

So, we waited.

No bus. Hmmmm, this IS odd, but hey, it is the first day of school, we’ll roll with it.

5 minutes late, (unheard of on this bus route)

10 minutes late (wow, something’s wrong)

12 minutes late Fish has to go to the bathroom. Uh, are you sure? YES. Ok, we’ll ride the bus tomorrow, everybody up to the house. Mim wants to ride the bus, but I’m not keen on putting him on by himself the first day, if only because he’d tell the entire bus that his sister had to go POOP! (That is to say nothing of the fact that I just told the entire Internet).

When we get back to the house, I put him in the car and grab, my keys. Then, I try to find the schedule online, so we can jump the route and I can put them on at a later stop. Fish finishes before I can locate it, so we hop in the car and speed back down the driveway, where Grammy & Grandpa are still waiting.

No bus. We all laugh.

Last year the schedule had our pick up at 8:20. We sauntered down at 8:10 to find the bus pulling up to our driveway. The posted schedule was wrong. Clearly, the schedule is wrong again.

May as well relax, we’ve got 6 minutes to wait. Mr. C will be here at 8:13. At 8:12, I can hear the hum of the diesel, at 8:13, he’s stopped at the bottom of the drieway red lights flashing and, they are off!