No joke, I got a Beetle!

I woke up yesterday and Jamie was gone. It had been chilly because we left the windows open, but I remember a snuggly warm dog on one side and a snuggly warm husband on the other. When I awoke and he was missing, I felt a bit deprived. Sure, I would have a week off for Spring Break, but we hadn't both had a day off together in a long time. Our roommate said he thought Jamie was out running an errand. I thought it weird his bike was still here, and I got an answering shrug and a "he must have gotten a ride". I did remember a bit of a phone conversation to that effect... he can fix almost anything so it isn't unusual to have him off helping somebody with a little car or computer problem.

I waited impatiently for him to return. I ate breakfast, piddled around on the computer checking email... finally I texted him to see where he was. He walked in the door almost immediately after I had hit the Send button. He gave me a kiss in that distracted way he has when he's busy, and then asked me if I would mind helping him clean out the garage since I was up.

He has been working on replacing the clutch in our roommate's Jetta for several weeks now. I knew they had been almost done, so I was happy about that, but wasn't really looking forward to going and picking up greasy tools. I also couldn't find my shoes. One of my goals over Spring Break was to clean the wreck of a thing I called a closet, along with cleaning my sewing desk and finally getting all laundry clean and put away. I got tired of digging under clothes for my shoes, and just stuffed my feet into my slippers to go downstairs.

I was thinking, as we went down, that I should have actually found some real shoes. Likely there would be fluid on the floor that I might have to walk through. My slippers are nearly dead, but there was no sense in making them useless around the house... oh well. I remember Jamie pointed out a Beetle in our parking lot. We see them pretty often, but not usually near our building. I looked and said "aw" or somesuch. We got to the garage door, me trailing behind trying not to kick off my slippers, and Jamie tossed me the garage door opener.

The garage door didn't open.

I figured he hadn't hit the button hard enough, so I turned the little black plastic thing over, meaning to hit the button again. Jamie likes to tell this part. He says I just stared at it for a minute. I don't remember it. I remember him telling me it was MY Beetle.

Things are a bit fuzzy after that. I remember "oh my god" a lot, and "are you serious?" I remember jumping up and down and hugging him. I was afraid to touch it, but I recall hugging the car. I couldn't believe it. Jamie is the one who asked me if I wanted to sit in it. He is the one who prompted me to put the key in and start it. I think I might have just stood there like an idiot for hours staring at it.

I remember when he opened the door and I actually sat in it, I cried. Just a little. It was emotional overload, pure and simple. I was worried about my nose dripping on the car. Then I was distracted because I was meeting my car in my SLIPPERS. How embarrassing.

I didn't want to drive it first, not with the boys in the car. I get very nervous with people watching me drive and I didn't want anything to ruin my happy (I doubt it could have, now that I think on it). We celebrated with a lunch out at Texas Roadhouse. I sat in back and enjoyed it very much. I have to lean towards the middle to see around the front passenger, because there is curved Beetle wall to hit my head on if I try to look around them the other way.

My car is green, of course. The color is called Gecko Green. Earlier cars had Cyber Green, which I actually prefer, but it fades badly over time anyway. I'm happy it is green. The car is a manual too, and it has a sunroof. The only thing about it that is not what I want is that the seats are leather. I'd like to make seat covers for them. I would be worried about the doggies scratching it all up anyway. The seats are heated though, whoohoo!!

Today, I went with Jamie as he drove to work. I tootled around the parking lot, stalling it a few times. It is VERY fun to drive. First gear is tricky only because you can let off the clutch a good bit and the car will move a little on it's own, but after a certain point it stalls. I wasn't able to sense a stall and recover it at all. The engine is very quiet too. Shifting is absolutely easy and comfortable for me. Reverse is protected- you have to press down on the gearshift in order to move it over into reverse. I almost hurt myself with the brakes. The pedal only has to move a little bit to start slowing down the car, and it can do that in a hurry.

The sound system is AMAZING! Jamie didn't waste any time is creating a mix CD for me. It has a Disturbed cover on it, a violinist named Lindsey Sterling, and some Dubstep that Jamie likes a lot- mostly just instrumentals I think, but we haven't made it through all the songs yet.

The seats are incredibly adjustable. They'll go up and down in addition to the normal forward and back, and the seat back tilts normally. On the shoulder is what looks like a bracket to hold the seat belt. That is actually the lever that you lift up on to access the back seat. It makes the front seat both lift up and go forward. The seat belts in the front are on slide rods at the bottom- that is extremely convenient so that you aren't tripping over them at all when you climb out of the back seat.

I LOVE MY NEW CAR!!
And now, here are a BUNCH of pictures. Guess what else I did while I was in the Office Depot parking lot?

I can see sky!

A very decent zoomed in photo. This was shot from me in the back seat while we were going to lunch.

Swap the green shoes for slippers, and this is how Sagra and I met for the first time.

/HUG

First cargo! Leftovers from celebratory lunch.

Now the proper photoshoot.

This cluster is nifty! It lights up blue and red at night. I like how the speedometer is the biggest thing and how everything is round.

Center dash. Yes, that sound system says "Monsoon" on it! Squeee! There is even a tiny little audio input jack next to the glove box, I could put lots of music on my phone or something and play it from that.

Time and temperature! Also up there is the control knob for the sunroof. There are lights in the bottom of the review mirror.

Open the visor mirror and get a light too! How convenient.

Slight discoloration by the visor.

These pictures WERE all oriented properly, but I'm not about to try and fix it now. 

The sunroof!

And closed.

Between the front seats.

The armrest between front seats folds up.

And here it is folded down. It will actually go lower than horizontal too.

Pretty gearshift!

Sunroof: back opened.

Sunroof opened all the way.

This nifty crenelated bit of plastic keeps the wind from making all kinds of noise while you drive.

Yay cruise control!

Heated seats!!

The glove box has a special place just for the owner's manual. <3

The plastic is broken around the glove box latch.

And something is stuck up there by the book.

Door pockets.

And now, a walk-around.

Down low

Down low

Can you see? Only slight scuffs in the paint on the fenders.

Really cool running board texture.

Door switches.

The lever to move the front seats forward and access the backseat, or exit from it. 

The seat belt slide I mentioned.

Rear cup holder. It slides out so if the front armrest is up, you can still have a tall drink there.

No leaning towards the windows! BONK Sitting normally seems to be fine.

Very easy to get in and out with the front seat unlatched. It goes both forward and up to let you out.

Tons of room if I were to sit behind a me-sized driver. Still comfy behind a giant driver too, though.

Weird little buttons. The owner's manual told me that they are just markers- there is an anchor for a baby seat here between the cushions.

Broken plastic at the rear seat top. This is a latch to let it fold down.

 

Rear seat folded down, looking from inside.

There is a way to make it all the way flat... but I can't recall. Maybe this little pull tab?

(Consulting the owner's manual later reminded me that yes, the part you sit on swings up and forward into the foot-space, while the seat back swings down and lays flat where the sitting part used to be. The head rests should come off and now plug into the back of the sitting part which is now upright. I have to try that sometime.)

Because this looks silly.

Cute little anchors in the trunk floor. Maybe for a cargo net?

See that should be flat...

A button in the handle of the trunk lid. Turns out, that has a cord attached to it which you can yank on if you happen to be stuck inside, it will unlatch the trunk lid for you.

What?! They riveted that junk on there. How dare they?

Look! A flap to protect my little car from evil pump nozzles.

Again, these were oriented so you could read them, sorry they are crooked now.

Whew! Just dirt in the nifty texture.

Aw, but that is a chip in the paint on the bottom of the door. 

Still, An almost perfect little Beetle for me!

Nifty blinkers in the mirrors!

Cute little hood latch doesn't play hide and seek. There is no guessing required to figure out how to get it open.

The foam around the battery box is a little worn.

The windshield washer nozzle leaks a bit when you open the hood. Splish splash.

Cheese!

A small scuff on the dash,

and a few scratches on the steering wheel emblem.

I also have to re-tuck the headrest seam on the driver's side. 

YAY I HAVE A NEW CAR! 

Of course, my beetle needed a name. Did you know there are actually such things as frog beetles? Yes indeed, they are a beetle type with giant back legs that make it look like it would be an awesome jumper. Instead, those long legs just push it around better. The species vary a bit of course, but the Genus name of a frog beetle is Sagra.

And so, my Beetle's name is Sagra.

<3 Sagra!

I Love My Job

How many people can really say that, hmm?

I am proud to say that I am a school bus driver. I get paid to drive around like a little old lady, being safe, and playing (sort of) with children. I get to channel my inner child and talk about silly things like doggies and video games.

I get more holidays than you could want, every weekend off, and if that weren't enough, I get an entire summer of vacation every single year- plus a vacation at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and even one in springtime to balance it all out! Yet I think I make a decent wage, and I don't even have to slave away all day in a cubicle. If I DO want extra money I can always bid on field trips. Some of those can be really fun. Some, like basketball or other sports, means I get a couple hours to do some knitting or a small beadwork project AND I GET PAID FOR IT. How awesome is that?

You don't even have to do it by yourself if you don't want to- special needs buses are not the super-scary dramatic panicroom that I always feared. A lot of those kids are able to communicate and interact with you just like any other kid. I have to admit- I suck at driving electric wheelchairs! I also think a wheelchair lift has all the necessary attributes to qualify as A Toy- whether the thing works or not- manual operation is fun too!

Anyway, I have a new route, and I promised to go into details earlier, so here you go.

I now drive a baby bus! I get to open the door to let students on and off manually, the door is not pneumatic. On my side is a regular driver's door. It's weird. I'm supposed to be way up high and look out a big giant window over a row of control switches... or not. In this bus I have a (baby) control panel above my head. I originally thought that would be a problem because I'm short, but once I scoot the seat up I'm fine. My seat gets set one notch back from knees-touching-the-steering-column (which is I think the furthest forward anyway). I don't get any emergency window exits, but I DO get a rear door and roof hatch. When I put the column shifter into reverse, I get a back-up beeper, hooray! The vehicle is yellow with black stripes and I am  mostly content.

I need to mop the floor. It is a very light color and the dirt bugs me. Also, I have seat belts.
/twitch
I hate seat belts. They bang around. They rub the dirty floor and thus also are usually filthy. The kids look at you like you've got a third eyeball when you dare suggest that they actually touch one, much less buckle it around themselves. Then they grumble or something similar when they realize the bus isn't going to move until that buckle makes the clicking sound. /sigh

My bus doesn't like the cold. Actually, I just don't think it likes waking up at all. It snoozes through the night and then snoozes in the middle of the day- and it is very slow to wake up. Its freaking annoying, is what it is. Until the engine warms up, the bus sputters and heaves and seems to choke on its diesel. In a gasoline car I'd think the spark plugs weren't firing correctly, or maybe the fuel filter were clogged. I've described it to the mechanics, but no one seems alarmed by it, just mildly surprised. I think I'm going to write it up tomorrow anyway just to have them check it out. In the morning is the worst- I can push the accelerator and nothing happens- the bus seems to want to go, but it crawls forward, it can't go fast, it can't, it can't, and then ZOOM, it catches up with itself. "Og THAT"S how fast you want me to go?"At a steady 55mph (our district says we can go speed limit which means it could be more than 55 if that's the limit- wow!) the bus will sort of spit, where it has this sort of hiccup as it goes down the road. It's aggravating. Yes. I'm writing it up- my bus could be sick and maybe even just getting some inspection attention from the mechanics will make it feel better. Or then again, my bus just may not be a morning person.


My first day, actually my first morning, I got very sick of railroad crossings. I distinctly remember joyously proclaiming something along the lines of me happily holding up traffic at every railroad crossing.... yeah right. Luckily, the road changed almost immediately so it wasn't quite so ridiculous. Also, I discovered that a couple of the crossings, being located in or near an intersection controlled by traffic lights, were exempt so I didn't have to stop for those. Now I have a much more reasonable number of tracks to cross every day. It also helps that I figured out which direction does what for the window crank- which is wedged up right against because it has to be so far forward. I've learned to hook the knob between thumb and forefinger and just rotate the crank open-handed. Kind of like a kid making the motions for a choo-choo train chugging along- you know how the wheels are hooked together by that bar? Chugga-chugga chugga-chugga CHOO CHOO!

My kids are a tiny sprinkling of each age group. I get a few high schoolers, some middle schoolers, and elementary. The only ones I don't have are the itty-bitty guys, which is awesome. I dislike star seats (basically booster seats with a 5-point safety harness instead of only a lap belt) only because most of the buses here have awkward L brackets in the frame that makes getting underneath to unlatch the seat mandatory in order to install the things. A lot of my kids speak Spanish. It makes me very seriously consider taking classes somewhere in order to learn it. Overall, I have a small group (it's only a baby bus, after all) but with a lot of variety. I think its perfect.

And lastly, I simply must share a picture I took. Yesterday, one of our buses had to be towed. I happened to  fall in behind it on our way back to the bus lot, and it was the saddest thing I have ever seen in relation to buses. The poor broken bus was on the tow truck backwards, leaning forlornly to one side, with a giant slash of a mouth which was the trailer lights. :`-/ It put me in mind of a cartoon car, all broken and dejected making a sad face or crying- you know how animations can be. We got stuck at a light, so I whipped out my camera and took a picture. It would have been better at a straight-on angle, but oh well.

Poor bus. I felt so bad for it.

They don't deserve to have their rear ends stuck in the air going backwards down the road. How undignified.

Get well soon, bus!

Happy Hump Day! 

Spring Break is almost here!

Grocery Shopping the Fun Way

Over the weekend our doggies ran out of food. They had enough for dinner Sunday night, but nothing for breakfast. We humans were also dangerously low on toilet paper. These things weren't something that could be put off, so I decided that I needed to go grocery shopping on the way home from my morning bus route.

Jamie's old bike Vandal has been given to a coworker, but it still has the trailer hitch on it. Luckily, I had ordered a second hitch so that we could easily swap towing duties between us without having to break out the multitool every time. That gets tedious after a couple swaps. I had forgotten that I'd need to install the hitch, though, so I was almost late to work. It's not the best way to start the school week, but it could have been worse. Off I went hauling a bouncy empty trailer.

I wonder if passing drivers thought I was abusing a child in there. For some reason the chance that they might think so was hilarious to me. Maybe because I've chosen to drive dozens of children around safely for a living?

After work, I pedaled off to the store. The wind wasn't directly against me, but it was blowing steadily about as fast as I pedal on a bad day- so maybe 7-8 miles per hour. I went to King Soopers first- it was directly on the way home, so it was closer, while Sprouts was nearer Jamie's commute route home. I only really wanted milk from Sprouts, so most everything else would be purchased first.

Eggs are only a dollar! For 18 of them. I think that's a great deal, right? I got two. Jamie had also requested Diet Coke. Those were 3 for $12, so i went ahead and got three, why not? I also got the 46lb bag of dog food we always get. Making trips to get dog food is somehow abhorred by Jamie, I'm not sure why, hehe. So we get the jumbo package.

Dogfood on bottom, soda on top, eggs carefully AWAY from crushing danger in the perfect dimensions of my saddlebag (YES!). Off to Sprouts. Our last gallon of milk disappeared extremely quickly, so I bought two this time. Jamie also requested nuts from the bulk bins (the candy section of Sprouts, even you don't consider the chocolate-covered offerings). I wasn't craving anything, and the only free samples were the tiny oranges we had at home, so that's all I got there.

The trailer was very heavy. It's been quite a while since I hauled anything with that much weight. Grunt and Jackjack probably only weight 60lbs between them- 40 for Grunt and 20 for Jack. I wonder how close that load was in weight to the one Jamie hauled a little while ago? The wind fought me only a little bit, but I definitely felt any little uphill. It was funny, because slight downhills were equal and opposite- the trailer pushed me along very eagerly and it was a nice change of pace from the usual effort of pedaling. Flats were a piece of cake... once I got rolling. Getting started was interesting.

But, I made it home just fine, spinning along fairly easily in the first and easiest gear. I even brought the groceries up the stairs all myself after I took the puppies out. They were very happy for breakfast. As they both contentedly munched up kibbles, I checked email. A list of nearby Meetups had one for road bikers. Sitting there, I had the crazy urge to go right that second and hop on a road bike and go. Somewhere, anywhere, but far and FAST. It was very strange. I don't own a road bike. Plus, I had thought only moments ago that my legs would be paying dearly for that weighty trip. In fact, the commute to work was just fine, as was the ride home. I guess spinning along was an ok thing for them to do.

I didn't think to get pictures, sorry. Here are some icicles instead. The weekend's snow is clingy stubbornly, but the melt is happening regardless. Come on, Spring!

The sunlight made these glow so prettily.

Danger from above.

Now. Despite the success and relative ease of my morning shopping trip, I missed one crucial item on the list. Can you guess what it was?

?

?

?

Yup, the toilet paper!!

I don't like that bike rack. The lower bar is so high off the ground that it makes Zoomie lean rather precariously, don't you think?

Speaking of bike racks, I'm tired of getting ice pellets dropped on my head and down my neck from those stupid metal things on the tops of glass walls around here. I see those thing in the new schools all over the place. Are they sun shades? Well, they freaking collect snow and then hold it menacingly above you to rain icy frustrations in the form of ice pellets and drips of extremely cold water and did I mention ice? Enough! 

I moved the bike rack at work.

And that was my Monday, how was yours?