Summertime Slowdown

In years past, I keenly anticipated the annual slowdown at the bus company after schools let out. A pretty fair amount of work in April, May and June typically is what's called SPAB runs; "School Pupil Activity Bus". Basically, extracurricular runs. That's in addition to our usual collection of other runs. So, after school's out for the summer, there's a drop. Couple that with the usual reduction in our general workbase (it's nice most places in July, August and September... why go to San Diego then?), and you see it's pretty quiet for work. Time was, I was exhausted and couldn't wait for this time of year. But now, it's different. Yes, I've had some pretty sweet paychecks, and it's been "comfortable" without being insane. But it wouldn't take too many 50-hour pay periods to drop me back below an 80-hour average. Not that it's imperative I average 80 hours, it's just kind of the bellwether in my profession. So, yes, I like the lazy days, but find that I'm crimped in what I can do with those times; don't want to deficit spend on a wholesale basis. One thing's for sure; there's very little I can do to directly impact that situation, other than continuing to do my job professionally. I certainly intend to do that.....

The Never-Ending Story

Hello from Stockton, once again.... and now the grad nite is over! But not before there was more drama. This time, it was #1) dealing with Disneyland's new (flawed) plan for accommodating hundreds of buses descending on them in one evening, and #2) the continuing issue with parking our buses here in Stockton. We arrived in Anaheim, Ca (home to Disneyland) on time, around 1900, from Stockton, after driving the 388 miles with high school students. Disneyland had a new "plan" this year, and all I can say is, "back to the drawing board"..... it didn't work very well. We were fortunate, being one of the first buses there. After about an hour of standing around, wondering when we were going to be released to drop our passengers, it happened, and we were able to get off to our motel rooms for a short night's sleep. Not so lucky were the buses who came later, who faced waits of up to 3 hours!! Bad news when they were looking at a bare minimum 8 hours off before needing to return. The result, predictably, was some schools had to wait in the parking lot until their drivers could legally return. NOT good!! Anyhow, we scooped up our students and headed north to Stockton. Got them dropped off at their school, and went to our hotel. Then the fiasco began. This is NOT a nice neighborhood. Get one block off the main drag, and it looks like the worst areas of Newark. Really, that bad. We had no place to park our buses, and decided early on that parking in that ghetto was NOT the answer. Eventually, we found "tolerable" circumstances, and went to our hotel. That's where I am now, although it's about bedtime. Tomorrow (if my bus is still there), it's back to San Diego, 480 miles of deadhead.

OK, it's a couple days after my last post. So, now where am I? How about Stockton, CA? OK, I know... that's like an improvement over Barstow?? Anyhow, something kinda different about the hotel I'm staying at... I've never seen this before.... the shower has no door or curtain! There's a partial glass "water repeller", but that's all. It's a pretty posh hotel (especially for Stockton), but I thought, "my, I'll bet there's been some pretty considerable water accidents from this arrangement". Anyhow, I'm up here to take a group of high school kids to Disneyland tomorrow night for a grad nite. I've never done a 1700+ mile grad nite before! After we drop the kids at Disneyland (365 miles south of where I am right now), we go to bed at a nearby hotel, get 8 hours off, come back to Disneyland, pick up the kids, drive 365 miles back north again, drop them off, go back to this hotel with no shower doors, get another 8 hours off, then deadhead the buses back 470 miles back to San Diego! 1700 miles in 72 hours or so, geez............. Anyhow, above are a few pix of my shower without a door or curtain.....

It Gets Better... (See Previous Post)

OK, yesterday was quite the experience; military moves are renowned for last-minute itinerary overhauls. But today takes the cake. I mean, do you remember what SNAFU stands for? How about FUBAR? This was truly a FUBAR! We stayed overnight in Barstow, tasked with traveling the 42 miles out to Fort Irwin in the afternoon, pick up troops, and deposit them at Ontario (CA) airport. Simple enough. Then deadhead home to San Diego. We arrive 1.5 hours early at Irwin. No troops. Nobody to help. Our dispatcher is working the problem from her end. Finally come to find out the soldier who typed up the transportation order REVERSED the pickup/destination! Meaning, we were about to be overdue for our pickup 3 hours' drive away! No resources available in the LA area to cover for this screw-up, either. So, we battled the TONS of traffic returning to LA at the end of the weekend, pick up up our personnel, and haul ass to Fort Irwin. Now, I'm back in my motel room, an additional night having become necessary by the circumstances. This experience shatters all previous military Snafus........

Barstow??

Well, this job's not *ALL* glamor.... once in a while, it's a JOB. Today (it's now 2330), started at 0200 when I awoke earlier than I had to (0430), and never really got back to sleep after that. Gave up at 0330 and got up and got going. Drove an empty bus (deadhead) to the old George Air Force Base, a relic of the Cold War that's been turned over to the California National Guard. I had a pickup of returning troops from Iraq, taking them to Fort Irwin, a huge, sprawling Army facility used for desert training. It's such a national treasure, the huge decisive edge U.S. troops enjoyed in the Persian Gulf War has often been attributed to the superior training and tactics developed largely at Fort Irwin. Yes, the M1A1 Abrams tanks had a tactical superiority over the Russian-made T-72 tanks, but the battlefield tactics honed at Irwin turned the contest into a rout. The Iraqis never had a chance. You may recall that there were more US casualties from "friendly fire" than from the Iraqi Army. Anyhow, I needed to be at what's now called the Southern California Logistics Base at 0900, arrived at 0830. About 0930, a Master Sergeant arrived, asked us what our assignment was, and informed us that our flight had been canceled. Not rescheduled, not late, canceled. OK, that's not unheard of with military transportation contracts, there's quite a bit of waste. I had a later run, along with one other fellow driver, but it was 10 hours away. So, we drove one bus to where our motel was, Barstow, CA, about 30 miles away, and got into our rooms, hurrah! We met up with several other drivers from my company, and re-spotted at 1920. Shortly after, we were informed that the troops that were supposed to have arrived earlier were, in fact, on this flight. Meaning, even though we'd been assured (with a signature as well) that the earlier flight was a no-go, and so we were all canceled from that trip, they now needed us to do 2 trips instead of one. My day was looking like it was going to end around 0130 or so, 23.5 hours after I'd awakened for the beginning. WOW! Nonetheless, after talking to Dispatch, we were all a "go" to do it. So, we drive out to Fort Irwin, about 1.5 hours away. There, another Master Sergeant approaches me and informs me that the issue's been straightened out, there was another company contracted for the run, and they were just late arriving. Wonderful, I'm thinking, I'm pretty beat anyway (I only got 1 hour of broken sleep at the motel). So, we're happy, leaving the base, when our on-duty dispatcher calls us. The OIC back at the Logistics Center called, and was demanding to know when the coaches would be returning to pick up his troops. Oh no! Are we reassigned again, and back to do another run? 10 minutes later he's calling back, the other buses finally showed up, and we've been relieved of duty. WOO-HOO!! I've now returned to the motel, fueled and parked the bus, and have had a glass of wine, making me ineligible to drive for the next 8 hours. Sounds good to me! Sometimes, this really is a JOB! Tomorrow, I return to Fort Irwin, to pick up troops and drop them at Ontario (CA) Airport. Then deadhead home. I wonder what military mysteries await me tomorrow.........