another episode of "you can't make this stuff up"

yesterday i took a group on a tour of some installations in oak ridge. hold that thought for a moment.
when i got back to my office yesterday after a local trip, my boss told me he was pulling me off of a trip he had me set up to do.
it was a simple trip-a local high school track team going to nashville for a meet, an overnight (i was looking forward to because it meant i might spend time with my daughter) and then back home saturday. simple enough. i have made dozens of them.
when he told me, i asked why. he told me i was no longer qualified. thinking a pink slip was coming, i asked why. he told me that the knox county school system now requires all bus drivers be fingerprinted, a background check (another) a new photo id and a drug test (another). i had to laugh.
we, as a company and me personally, are approved department of defense contractors. i have had the high honor and privilege of transporting troops all over from fort polk, la to quantico va. i have been on many military bases and in some restricted areas. as i said, i am qualified. the group i drove to oak ridge, went to y-12, ornl and several other very sensitive areas. if you cross the wrong line, their orders are literally "shoot to kill". i even drove up to the building where our nations supply of uranium is stored. when we got there, i had to surrender my camera, my cellphone and my pepper spray. and yes, another background check. i don't know if when a background check is done, all other inquiries show up like a credit report. if it did, it had to have been several pages long. of course, i passed.
it hit me when greg said i was no longer qualified how ironic it was that i can go on military installations, see where the u.s. government stores its uranium, but i am not "qualified" to drive a high school track team.
like i said, you can't make this stuff up!!!
until next time...