School Bus Epidemic

A crowded city bus I was riding on the other day drew to a stop at a red light. Also at the light, the next lane over, was a school bus filled with students from Plymouth on some sort of field trip to the Big City.

All down the length of the bus curious faces stared out little square windows at tall glass buildings, traffic and the men dodging rush hour traffic to sell single roses to commuters. One child focused instead on our bus and slowly made a goofy face out the window at us. Someone on my bus noticed this and laughed which made the young student laugh in turn.. His laughter caused the pair of girls sitting in the next seat forward on the school bus to notice the face he was making and focused their attention on our bus also. They started making faces. In a matter of seconds the entire school bus was making faces at the passengers of our bus, most of whom were studiously ignoring the display but grinning despite themselves.

Only one student did not participate... immune to the epidemic. Instead he simply flipped us all the bird as the light turned green and the buses separated, leaving one to wonder what the next 'epidemic' might have been if the light had been longer.

I love that the science I'm learning in the classroom can be demonstrated by such a simple situation as students making faces on a bus.

Red Light Moment: Tractor v. Truck

An amusing moment from my ride home today...

Stopped at a red light at a 4 lane intersection.  We were in the far left "turn only" lane behind one other car.  In the lane immediately to the right of that car was a tractor/loader/backhoe combo and to the right of him was an electric company truck.  

Sitting minding our own business when we realize that the tractor and the truck are reving their engines and squeaking forward in the attitude of drag racers waiting for the light to go green at the start of the strip.  At first I could not believe this because it made no sense in my brain... but sure enough, after continued observation they were definitely jockeying for position.

We cracked up... There is something extremely amusing in watching a piece of excavating equipment and a small box truck engage in the rush hour equivalent of "mine's bigger than yours".  The guy in the car immediately behind the tractor didn't look like he was quite as amused as a 2 ton backhoe rocked back and forth 4 feet from his windshield amidst the sound of high RPM engine noise...  but I can forgive him for that.

The light turned green...  Predictably the box truck blew away the tractor, which, lets face it, isn't exactly built for 0-60... ever...   and we were off again back into the commute.  How often can you say you watched a box truck win a drag race though?