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When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When life gives you crap, make crapade.

Well, lately, I've been getting a lot of crap and I'm bloody-well tired of it.

First off, during December, my job as a bus driver was forcing all drivers to take a minimum two-week unpaid vacation. When school is not in session, we go down to limited service (break service) and hours are very sparse. Instead of running 14 to 15 buses with anywhere from 3 to 5 shifts available every day, we go down to two shifts per day, with 3 buses on the road. Break service lasts for two-weeks, so if you are really unlucky, you get a four-week unpaid vacation.

What does this all mean? Save up! And so I took as much overtime as I could physically stand to work. Fifty-hours in a week driving a bus is incredibly taxing on one's body and mind. You must be alert the entire time because the safety of your passengers, of pedestrians, and of fellow motorists is at stake when you are barreling along in a 13-ton vehicle.

Bus driving is not my dream job. But when I have to work forty-hours in a week before I start getting a living-wage (overtime), saving money for vacation is hard.

I did get a few shifts during our couple weeks of break service, but not nearly enough to pay bills. Thankfully, familial contributions have greatly helped. But I am very tired of asking for money. I hate it. I don't want to do it. I never want to do it. But I must.

Working all the time, especially during the day, makes it incredibly hard to find a better job. That's how a person gets caught in dead-end jobs. After driving 12-hours in city traffic, the first thing I want to do when I get home is sleep, and then the next day, the cycle repeats. There is no time during the day to go job hunting. And, in the off chance that time does open up, you have been actively driving for so long that you become zombified once you are done. Even something as simple as e-mailing a résumé to a potential suitor employer becomes a monumental task.

Continuing with the series of crap, my wife gets a really bad sore throat, checks in the mirror and sees that there are sores. Since we don't have health insurance (Is there such a thing as corporate or government responsibility to workers or citizens?) we had to pay out of pocket to find out whether or not she had strep. Thankfully, the tests were negative, while our bank account remained just barely positive. Still cost us $200 or so.

Next in my series of crap, as part of operating a mass transit vehicle, one must have a physical performed periodically to ensure safe operation of the vehicle can be performed. Part of this physical involves a vision test. Each eye must have at least 20/40 vision in order to pass. My left eye failed. It had been 6 years since I last got a new pair of glasses. After a full month with very little work and savings being depleted, I did not have the money to get a new pair of glasses or have an eye exam. Not only that, but if I don't get my Department of Transportation medical card renewed by January 27th, I'm out of a job. Let me just say that a job that doesn't pay enough is better than no job when you have bills that must be paid by a certain date.

So, there goes $400 for new glasses.

Then last Thursday, our car fails to start and tapping on the starter doesn't work. All symptoms point to the starter being shot. We ended up needing our car to be towed to a mechanics and having the starter replaced. During the operation, it was discovered that the car (2002 Buick Century) still had its original battery and the minimal charge it was able to retain was probably what put such a strain on the starter to cause it to fail. We needed a new battery too.

There goes another $400 for a tow-truck's service, car starter, battery, and labor.

Next, Northern Illinois is receiving single-digit temperatures (Fahrenheit degrees), so prior to work every day, I go out and start the car to warm it up and to make scraping off the ice easier. The routine goes: start the car, turn on front defroster, turn on rear defroster, lock doors (we have two keys), then go back inside to finish preparing for work.

Today, however, when walking back out to the running car in the morning, we (my wife and I) heard a loud popping noise. Having no idea what it was, nor caring, we continued on our way and since the windows had failed to defrost any meaningful degree, I took about to take an ice scraper to the windows. When I started to scrap off the rear window, my hand and the ice-scraper, went through the glass. Apparently I was doing a really good job of clearing off the ice, because I could see straight in to my wife looking back with her mouth wide-open. I don't use profanity, and today was no exception, but if I did cuss, this morning it would have put a sailor to shame.

To replace the back glass in the car is going to cost another $600. I am not made out of money! At our current savings rate, it is going to take us a couple years to pay this crap off. Insurance isn't going to help much with the car since we have a $500-deductible.

This is all getting kind of ridiculous and if it wasn't all happening to me, I would be taking pity on the poor sap it was happening to. $1500 when you haven't had a paycheck over $100 in a month? Downright cruel.