My shift comes to an end, and I’m getting ready to hand the reins over to Matthew, the third “M” in the 3M Corporation [NO. -Legal Dept.] Tri-M-virate that is the DB7 blogging crew (Mia, Mike, and Matthew).

Our first day was, aside from some technical hiccups with the chat, an unalloyed success.

It took only a few hours to hit the 20k milestone — more quickly, I might add, than in any previous year! Way to go everyone.

The talented Kris Straub called in via the magic of Skype to answer questions and share what’s been going on in his world lately.

The crew took on the daunting task of 10 Challenges in 10 Minutes. In that rather short window — only 600 seconds! — the bussers showcased a panoply of talents, including some interpretive dance on the saga of Rob Ford — very avant garde. Did they actually get to 10? Hard to say; I lost count to tell the truth. But I’m leaning towards yes because there was just so much going on! 

Following that, we topped $22,805. So what? Well, those who have watched in previous years may know the significance of that seemingly arbitrary number: it’s a Desert Buck, or, the entire sum we raised in the inaugural Desert Bus! This year, we did it not only on the first day, but with the early-to-bed mid-November sun still high in the sky.

MC117, a Desert Bus fan and bard of surpassing skill, floored everyone at the Moonbase and watching around the world with “Bus Stop,” his beat-perfect parody of Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop.” MC117 is the nom-de-guerre of Jeremy Williams, parodist and rhyme-slinger who has opened for Desert Bus friends The Doubleclicks. We hope that Euterpe, muse of music, inspires him again before we finish busing!

Our second viewer contest challenged fans to draw Highwayman, a superhero of James’ creation, engaging in battle with arch-foe the Roundabout. Our winner, K. V1NN4, wowed everyone with a sensational full-colour image, and thereby earned a hand-drawn ink-and-paper Sleigh of the Wicked piece by Inkwell Looter.

James put his superb busmanship on show, and scored our first point of 2013, and we smashed through 30k well ahead of last year’s benchmarks, and poised for the most successful undertaking to date.