This morning, when my son’s bus was over 10 minutes late to pick him up on a windy, rainy generally unpleasant morning, I called the bus barn. They told me there had been a traffic delay, and indeed as I spoke to the dispatcher the bus appeared down at the corner. So the morning wended its way on, and at noon I went to have lunch with my son at school. In the course of conversation, a little girl who rides his bus with him told me the nature of the delay.
Cows. More precisely, two cows, each with a calf in tow. They were standing in the middle of the road, placidly ignoring all blandishments to remove themselves to the verge or their pasture. So the driver had to call the dispatcher, who in turn called around to find one of the local farmers to remove the creatures and allow the bus to proceed. I’m told the woman who came out and led the bovine adventurers away was just a neighbor who had a fenced field she could put them in until the owner came home.
The bus managed to run on time through the snows of winter, sometimes coming directly behind the county snowplow. It wasn’t so much as a minute late. But the county has no provision for the hazards of spring – or at least none for wandering cows in the road.