I was not excited about driving the Kidney Shaker. It is old and smelly and dirty. Really dirty. Until yesterday it hadn't been used since sometime last spring. The buses spend the summer at their summer estate, a large meadow beside the maintenance shop. They get dusty and moldy standing there in the rain and the hot South Carolina sun. Kidney Shaker was nasty dirty.

It also has a slow governor on it. The thing will only go 45 mph, rattling and shaking in protest with every rev. It gets even louder when it idles. My route takes me way out to the bottom of our county, and I drive Henry at 55mph when we get out of town. KS is slowing me down!

I was in a bit of a funk about the bus when I picked up my last bundle of kids yesterday afternoon. They were a bit freaked about getting in this ancient rust bucket. I mentioned that it was a very old bus, and one of the little boys said "Cool! It's an antique!" All the kids were excited about that, and so was I! What a great attitude. Since then I have (mostly) had fun driving the antique bus. I can't say my kidneys have enjoyed it, though.

Henry

I finally found a good name for my bus. One of my students helped me think it through, and we've decided to call him Henry. All the special-needs buses are numbered with the prefix "H". I think it used to stand for "handicapped," but since that's a no-no word now, we say "special needs." However, the H remains on the buses. So of course the bus name must begin with H. This is my third year driving Henry but the first time I've found a name that fits him.

Old Henry is having trouble with his wheelchair lift. Something in the hydraulic system I suspect. When I fold out the lift it begins to slowly descend on its own before I can use the up/down switch. Earlier this week one student almost rolled his chair onto the lift when it had dropped almost 2 inches below the level of the bus floor. I turned in a maintenence request Thursday morning, and Henry was gone Thursday afternoon. That's when I got the Kidney Shaker.

Stay tuned for more about the Kidney Shaker!