Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong — Murphy’s Law
Run mad as often as you choose but do not faint …
Friends,
Today I attempted to get to the Temple Baptist Church on Nebraska Avenue (across the street from a forbidding Homeland Security compound), one of the OLLI places at AU (between the main and Tenley campuses) by public transportation. I did it within an hour and a half.
Unfortunately, the session was cancelled on account of the snow and ice. I missed the email message by 5 minutes. I had virtuously gone off early.
So then I thought I’d look on the bright side and was congratulating myself that at least I had successfully practiced going there in the way Jim and I used to do for me whenever I had a new place to go, when I discovered I was standing waiting for the shuttle bus back to the train on the wrong side of the street. Not to worry — or alas! There was no ominous menacing Mr Bates (he of a gothic Downton Abbey) standing near; rather a friendly busdriver (seeing it was cold) told me to hop aboard and I could go in a circle through the AU campus to the law building (further off) and back again this time on the right side of the street. I did see the library stop (I now have a library card).
Decades ago I patiently stood in the freezing cold waiting for a bus in Leeds, England, only to see the bus go by in the direction I wanted to go on the other side of the street. This was before I met the Admiral who was very good at knowing which side of the street to wait for vehicles on.
I did get there and back, talked to the director while there, have my class list, permission to put a syllabus on my website and tomorrow I should do better as to which sidewalk to wait on. Still, since I have to cross the street to where Homeland Security resides, with my luck I will probably be run over be run over by a laundry truck or tank or some car or bus. Worse luck yet I won’t die, but they will rush me to the hospital and save me — so I’ll be inundated, harassed, hounded by bills for years to come.
A friend suggested to me that next week if I don’t hear from the lawyer, I should phone him and if he’s gotten nothing new to say, then get a second opinion. She argued I should have the right to an explanation in writing. Caroline said call GEICO and they have given me a different phone number from the one I’ve phoned twice. I am not up to this today but will phone Friday. Another friend suggested my state representative. I’ll do that on Monday.
I do dislike taking cabs at high expense (or low) and have now phoned 4 places about hiring drivers: one of them told me in my case it makes more sense to hire a taxi. They do cost as much as Uber and more if you hire by the month. So I’m going to try to take buses and have bookmarked the bus schedules — shall I use a computer for simulated practicing? and how practice walking from where the bus/train leaves off to the place without a detailed visual map?
The DMV silence phone call and all that everyone tells me about going to jail if I drive continue to be a source of anxiety and distress, worry, it troubles my mind. I just can’t feel enough certainty my ability to drive will be returned to me — so the money I laid out for the car and now these cabs depresses and worries me.
I feel shattered and have been reading Austen’s Juvenilia where she thinks characters who claim to feel shattered are hilarious. I don’t.
Another Edward Gorey cat
Sylvia
Under the Sign of Sylvia II 
Ellen, I know how tiring mass transit can be. I’ve been in situations where it’s taken three buses, or a train and bus and walk, and am lucky that we now live in a small place where it’s easy to get around. In my twenties and thirties I spent hours and hours of my life on mass transit.
Standing on the wrong side of the street! So sad. But I know how can this can be. I didn’t have the faintest idea where I was recently on a bus that had been rerouted, and it was frightening to find myself somewhere I’d never been before.
Next time you’ll know.
Perhaps you could hire a student to drive you to and from your class? I know people who have cheaply hired drivers (often students) instead of cabs. But I’m so out of the loop that I have no idea where you’d find the ads for these.
Never mind Ellen. We’ve all stood waiting for a bus on the wrong side of the street in a strange locality. One feels foolish and irritated, but no one else knows, well not in your case, obviously. I did it in Victoria, London when I was about 17, only the conductor saved me from ending up in North London instead of Bromley, South of the river. At least you made it to your destination and now it will be easier next time.
Clare