I said that was the last of the Magic Of Public Transportation (MOPT) posts, but when adventures happen, I feel the need to share.

So, where were we?

Ah, yes. Yesterday, when the roads were horrible and the weather was stinky and I was thrilled to climb on the bus and wend my way to the train station without fighting the madding crowds of cranky drivers.

But. Party Time didn't happen last night. I was bussing down to the train station to meet the R.C. when she called up and said she'd put her car into a ditch trying to get into the park-n-ride down by our place and that she'd be waiting 75 minutes for AAA to come and drag her out, after which she intended to go home and never leave again and by the way never talk to her about public transportation again because she wasn't having any of it.*

No, it's not RTD's fault that the weather was bad or that the park-n-ride stations were slippery (although one does wonder how I, personally, managed to commute to work past many of the city's major arteries and down one of the busiest highways in Denver without ever seeing a single snowplow or sand truck) but I maintain that it is their fault that they dug a hole for a planter and didn't mark the excavation. I don't think people ought to go around leaving sneaky and treacherous holes dug next to driving areas.

There are things what try men's souls and there are things what don't.

Me, I have zero patience for inefficient store clerks (which is aggravating, since my Super Power happens to be the uncanny knack for picking the check-out lane with the most neurotic, lazy, and/or twitchy clerk in the store) or for, really, standing in almost any kind of line. But a wait of ten or thirty minutes for a train or a bus doesn't faze me. I watch the people, stare at the sky, ponder passing clouds, or mentally re-landscape my surroundings. I'm always happy inside my own head.

But the R.C. has no kind of patience to wait for transportation. When she wants to go somewhere, she wants to go there now. So, you know, public transportation was already something of a tricky proposition for her.

And then I spent all day yesterday emailing her to convince her to park down by our place and ride public transport downtown so that she wouldn't have to drive in the bad weather. And she had an accident by following my advice. Sigh. (In my own defense, had I known how much icier it was down south where we live than it was at my office, I'd probably have voted to skip the party.)

So. One demerit for the MOPT.

Then. Not having a ride car and what with my ride being 4 miles away in a ditch, I realized I'd have to brave the perils of the city streets and pick up a bus to get myself home from the train station.

To refresh our memories, we're talking about the 5:25 bus, the one I have to circle a square mile of roadway to reach the bus stop for and yes I know that's bad grammar but stay with me, people.

Because I had the time, I circled the aforementioned mile of roadway and plopped myself down, ankle-deep in snow, at the unlit bus stop. And I waited.

Eventually (and right on schedule!) a bus appeared in the distance. I watched with disapproval as it changed lanes, moving away from me, and then turned left to go into the park-n-ride lot.

"That's my bus!" I thought, since the "27" on the front was clearly visible. "Why is it going in there? The website trip planner said it didn't go in there."

I'm looking around and pondering this when a passing car's headlights illuminate the bus stop sign next to me.

This stop, the sign said, will be permanently closed on November 19, 2006.

You remember how I was annoyed and thought it was stupid that I could get to the train station on a 27 bus, but I couldn't pick up a 27 bus from the train station to get home again?

Apparently I can. It's just that no one told the RTD trip planner about it.

So, I'm standing there thinking I'm going to have to retrace my steps (and I was right - there is no sidewalk on that road, or at least not one I could find in the snow) back to the train station and wait for the next bus, since there was no chance at all I could get back there in time to catch the bus I'd just seen.

Then the bus came back and in spite of the fact that I was being a moron, standing at a closed bus stop, it stopped for me. So, a demerit for RTD, but a point for the driver, making it a wash overall for MOPT.

I had to endure weird looks from the driver and the helpful advice of everyone riding, all of whom wanted to explain to me that there was a park-n-ride just out of sight on the other side of the road and that if I'd walk over there, that's where the bus was going to stop from now on, but I took it well, I think.

I do go on, don't I?

And I haven't even gotten to today's adventures yet, but since they largely involved me accidentally getting off the bus four blocks before the stop I needed and thus having to walk an extra mile, I don't know that I'd be able to work it up into a story. Not even if it was ten degrees out there.

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* I lost track of that part of the story, so let me complete it. She was rolling very slowly through a parking lot, so no personal injuries were sustained beyond the discomfort attendant upon standing in a 15 degree parking lot for an hour and a half.

AAA showed up, towed her out of the hole, and said they didn't think her car was too badly damaged. She drove it home last night and to work today. She's going to need a new bumper, but until she has it checked by the garage, she doesn't know if any structural or other damage was incurred.