It's 4:45 and the end of the first day of school. The phones have quieted down. Most students are home and the buses are returning to the yard. The two days before school starts and the first few days of the start of the new school year are always tense and exhausting. Parents are frustrated, anxious, tired and demanding. Supervisors are trying to multi-task themselves and keep the buses rolling in the right directions. Drivers are working in 99 degree temperatures with excited, exhausted children, trying to drive safely and get everyone home. And somehow everything works out.

We transport 75,000 students every day. My region is responsible for 11,000 of those students. I have one telephone. Ergo, it's pretty busy.

I'm always amazed when I walk into an office in another business and see people doing crossword puzzles or paying their bills or making personal phone calls. We are always so busy here that often I eat lunch at my computer and use the keyboard one-handed. Thank god for mouses (mice?)! Well, at least it's not boring--there's no time to slow down to be bored.

Sometimes I go home after a day like today and I rush into the front hallway and buzz into the kitchen and out the back door to the patio and ... stop to wonder why I'm moving so fast. Just that the afterburner is still hot.