bus stop

I jumped through all the hoops and changed the bus stop for my kids.

It's surprising how satisfying this small decision is.  Last year the bus stopped a block and a half from our home. Not too far, but far enough that it was mildly inconvenient.  We couldn't sit in the house and wait for the bus.  And the bus is late occasionally, one day we waited for an hour.

As soon as I received the form in the mail announcing the old stop for this year, I knew I wanted to request the change.  There was really no reason that the stop was a block and a half away.  My kids are the only ones who meet there. I also discovered that there is a computer program that assigns kids to stops (which, to my mind, was a good reason to question why the stop was where it was.  I understand computer programs and their defects features - all too well).

The new stop is only one house away.  There are other kids that wait for the bus (for another school) across the street.  We can run to the bus (and have). 

The change process took three weeks.  If there's one thing that's dependable, it's that bureaucracies never change.  First, the school district refused to switch the stop because school hadn't started yet. Then, the operator claimed a new bus driver would be confused (in the first few weeks). 

Finally, and most illogical to my mind, although the stop was changed in the computer, the bus driver wasn't notified until a week later (after two missed morning stops). 

Although computers assign the stops, the process is still a paper one - with the bus driver receiving the stops on paper.  Yes, this is 2011.  Frankly, I don't know if this system has changed since the 1950s (the computer part has, obviously, but not the paper part).

Perhaps it's the pain of the switch, and the irritation of the red tape I had to go through.  It's simply empowering to make a change to one of the little things that drives you nuts.  It's sweet to watch it happen, and continue to save you time and energy.