scene from the bus stop

Waiting at the bus stop with Neighbor Girl and Neighbor Girl's Dad:

James, to kid across the street: Hey, Captain! Hi, Captain!

Me: James, why do you call that kid Captain?

James: The first time I met him, he just told me his name was Captain.

Neighbor Girl's Dad: And Tennille?

James: I can kneel! [drops to knees on the sidewalk]

Me and NGD: [cannot contain laughter]

It's my least favorite part of day, morning, even when I don't have to drag myself out of bed and down to the bus stop in the chilly autumn air, twenty minutes earlier than the scheduled time due to the unpredictability of the new bus driver. (Of course, it's the days we're out there twenty minutes early, in the rain, when she comes nearly on time, and the days we only make it out ten or fifteen minutes early, we barely catch the bus.)

But early mornings are made infinitely more bearable when you spend the worst part of it with a thirty-year-old guy who cracks pop culture jokes and starts singing "Substitutiary Locomotion" when you mention the kids have just watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Then it's actually a pretty good way to start the day.