Just what we need: more stress

The day started well, it really did. Heidi's gotten up early the last couple of mornings so that I could get more sleep and it has made such a big difference for me! Heidi suffers insomnia as well as bipolar disorder so I try to get up at least an hour or so before T needs to get on the bus. Heidi went off to try and sleep and I settled down with T to wait for the bus.

In the past, the drivers have been great. Lately, though, we've been having conflict with the bus driver about our cars in the driveway. Now, the bus is supposed to stop at the foot of the drive to pick up and drop off T. I'd told this driver, as I did with past ones, that if there weren't any cars parked she was welcome to pull into the driveway. I guess this one came to expect an empty driveway because she began to complain when TB was laid off.

The first time she asked Kristin to tell TB not to park there ... not to park in his own spot! Another day she told Linda we needed to pull our cars forward to give her room to fit into the driveway. Today she told me if we weren't willing to park our cars on the street so she could pull in we'd have to cross the street to get on and off the bus. I could not believe my ears! She was pretty nasty about it, too, and so I called the bus depot and spoke to her supervisor.

The manager said drivers are not allowed to pull into driveways, period. She said she would talk to the driver and make sure she knew to drop T at the foot of the driveway and then make a u-turn to go back down the street. She assured me there'd be no retaliation.

This afternoon, the driver stopped in front of the house across the street. As it happened Heidi'd just arrived home from school and so she went to get T off the bus. The driver told her, someone had complained about her pulling in the driveway so from now on she was going to drop T across the street. Heidi offered to move her car to the street and then somehow she and TB were yelling at each other.

I couldn't believe it! I could the depot again and the supervisor was surprised that the driver hadn't followed her instructions. I said, that's it, I'm driving T to and from school from now on. The supervisor protested, saying she would talk to the driver again and I'm thinking, yeah? She already didn't listen to you once, this seems personal with her, why would she listen now? I said as long as that woman was driving I would not put T on the bus.

Heidi was still storming around having a great big fit and she wouldn't lisen to me. She just kept yelling that it wasn't safe for T to get off in the street and that TB was a bully and all kinds of stuff. It was like she was taking the bus driver's side without knowing all the facts! Then she left the house nearly in hysterics. She called me later and said she wasn't coming home because I never listen to her and only care about TB. I tried to explain to her that her moods affect her judgement and the things she says and that she's nasty to her brother and sister and me too. She didn't want to hear any of it, all of this is TB's fault according to her, but I did get her to agree to come back for her meds.

I am so stressed I am about to melt down myself!