Shut up and drive!

It doesn’t happen every day, but it happens at least once a week. -- sometimes two times a week. I’m driving to work, or trying to anyway. He, or she, is talking instead of driving. This is distracted driving at its worst; so distracted is the driver that the vehicle is not even moving!

Nor am I.

No, I’m not talking about the stupid, irresponsible and dangerous driver who talks on a cell phone while driving. We all want them dead. I’m talking about a subclass of that irritant: the school bus driver who talks at almost every stop to the assorted mothers, fathers or nannies waiting with their darling children.

What’s to talk about? Get the gotdam kid on the bus and move out of the way for crissake! It’s bad enough that there are four stops between my house and the first intersection; its worse that the kids are often sitting in their parents car and don’t even make a move til the bus stops and opens its door – but then for the parent to walk leisurely to the driver so as to swap recipes or talk about last night’s episode of American Idol ?! WTF?!

Then there’s that issue of those four stops: two groups of two. Twice on my road the bus stops, the door opens, the kids move lazily forward, the parent babbles – and the bus moves on – to the NEXT driveway! I am not kidding. It is so damn irritating.

Little Johnny and precious Patty can’t walk thirty feet to the neighbor’s driveway. Heaven forbid!

When I was a kid I walked two blocks to the bus stop. Some kids walked further. An entire busload got on the bus, which then went straight to the school. We were willing and able to walk a few blocks without holding our parents hands. We were willing and able to wait without adult supervision for the bus to arrive. We were even willing and able to get off the bus in the afternoon and walk to our homes, unlock our doors and go inside.

All by ourselves. Imagine.

This looks a lot like my road; the only thing missing is the parent.