The Dangers of Waiting For the Bus

Ben's bus comes to pick him up in the morning at about 7:50, sometimes a little before, sometimes a little after. Some mornings we get there and have to wait for a few minutes. Other mornings, we're running a bit late, and just have about 30 seconds before the bus arrives. Today was one of the latter. I actually kind of like it when we time it like that, although it makes me a little nervous to think of what would have happened if we had been 2 minutes later.

Usually waiting for the bus is a pretty uneventful activity. The kids all just line up on the sidewalk and wait for the bus to arrive. There's typically no pushing or shoving or horsing around, even despite the fact that there are mostly boys waiting in line.

However, occasionally there are some dangers involved in waiting for the bus in the morning. Here is a picture from this morning to demonstrate:



Yes, in case you can't tell or aren't sure, those are mosquito bites on Alex's legs. In the 30 seconds we were waiting for the bus to get there, Alex got 5 bites on one leg and 2 on the other. It's a little amazing to think of, considering that Alex never sits still. You'd think the mosquitoes would have gone for someone who was standing still, who would have been a better target. But maybe Alex's blood was pumping faster and therefore more enticing. Whatever the case, they decided to go for him.

So you can see that waiting for the bus to come in the morning isn't without its thrill of danger. Who wouldn't love to take the risk of possibly being infected with West Nile Virus?

I do think that we'll make sure we all get some mosquito repellant on before we head out to the bus stop the next time we go.