Bitchin' about the bus - AGAIN

I nearly somersaulted down the stairs to take this picture. That is my driveway. That is my tree. That is my garbage can. And that is the bus. THE BUS. The one my children can't ride, but whose drivers practice so often in front of my house that I really should invite them in for coffee.

So close, so close but yet so far.

Wanted: One aerial photo

One of the windows and the heater in Scott's car haven't worked correctly in a long time. So we finally decided to get them fixed. Don't know the cost yet, but the sorrowful look the man at the counter gave me tells me I'm going to gasp and say bad words. (On a side note, the repair shop is named Woody's. How could you not take your business there? Much cooler than Mr. Fix It or Joe's Repair Shop.)
But this post really isn't about getting the car fixed. It's about the trek Riley would walk daily unless I pay for bus service or drive him myself. Remember this post?
Woody's is about half a mile (roughly) from Riley's school. So after I dropped off the car this morning I walked home. Wanted to see how long it would take. 33 minutes door to door. Had I started at Riley's school, it would have been another 7 to 10 minutes. So say about 40 minutes.
When I got home I called the transportation company to find out why the house across the street (which is closer to the school than ours) qualifies for free busing and ours doesn't. The houses behind mine all qualify as well. According to their "highly accurate" GPS, which is the final determination of who rides free and who doesn't, our house measures in at 1.99 miles. The other house - which is closer to the school both to the north and the west - comes in at 2.01 miles. No review, no exception. (By the way, neither of these houses qualified last year.)
What ever happened to common sense? I guess if the "highly accurate" GPS says it's so, it must be. Too bad for me. Just another thing to be aggrevated about.

Carrying around a small child

Most days when he comes home from school Riley drops his backpack in the middle of the kitchen floor. Why not? Where else would it go?

So today, for the eighth bajillion time, I picked it up. And my arm muscles actually groaned. It felt like he had a concrete block or two in there. I was a cat in a former life, so of course I looked inside. A few books and an organizer. Hmmm. I tossed that baby on the scale. 24 pounds. Can you imagine him carrying that home the 1.99 miles school officials say is between my driveway and theirs?

That's right, 1.99 miles - or a tenth of a mile less than needed for free bus service. However, our neighbor across the street whose driveway is about 10 steps closer to the school than ours qualifies for free busing. Figure that one out.

But I digress like always. Somewhere I have a point. But I'll have to figure that out tomorrow. Do you know how hard it is to blog and help with homework at the same time?