# 62 - Penitencia Creek

This is how my car looked prior to 9:15am today. And I'd love to show you a picture of how it looked after that but well ... they towed it away before I could get my camera. No, it hasn't been repossessed. What happened is that a very large "car transport unit" which was in the act of transporting a car, decided he wanted to share my lane. These are some of the sounds you don't want to hear when you're driving up Highway 880 - BAM, THUNK, SCRAPE and then of course, the sound of your own voice screaming, "WTF?"

Upon realizing that someone had just plowed their truck into the side of my car, my normal Canadian reticence went flying out the window. I'm sure the last thing that Oscar Oliver Lee, a 6' African American from Oakland expected this morning was some crazed white woman racing along the side of the highway median screaming at the top of her lungs, "You ASSHOLE, why the HELL did you drive into the side of MY car?!?!?" His little eyes were the size of the Grand Slam breakfast plates at Denny's.

As O.O. Lee tells it, he had swerved to avoid rear ending the person in front of him. Apparently I was the lesser of two evils. This is not what I needed to hear, standing on the side of 880, while people slowed to see if there was any blood or perhaps mangled bodies lying about.

The long and short of this tragic tale - my little Nissan Altima was towed to the car hospital. Something about driving a car when the driver's side door doesn't close put me off. But dear reader, this is not the end of the saga that was my Monday.

Upon calling my insurance agent, I discovered that he had neglected to include rental car coverage on my policy. If I wanted a car, I would have to pay for it out of my own pocket and wait for reimbursement.

Enter the always reliable ...

Santa Clara County Light Rail and Transit System

I'm not a snob, I've ridden the bus before. In fact, before I moved to California at the age of 36 I'd never even HAD a driver's license. I was truly the Bus Queen. So I consulted the Transit System website and plotted my route home. Piece of cake - it would only take an hour. All I would have to do is hop on the Light Rail for a few blocks and then jump on the #62 bus.

So there I am, on the #62 bus and after a few blocks I'm thinking to myself, "This is an odd route to get to my house." A few blocks more and I start to wonder if the route planners actually had a map of San Jose when they worked out the route for ol' #62. But what do I know? I gave the transit system the benefit of the doubt and watched the world go by. Finally we came to the East Foothills.

Penitencia Creek

Next to this creek is the bus stop which marks the end of the route for #62. As you may have guessed, this is nowhere near my house. In fact, short of leaving the city of San Jose, you couldn't have gotten any further from my house.

After he had turned off the bus, my bus driver, Mr. Singh, looked in his rearview mirror at me and announced, "Last stop." I replied, "Does this mean I need to get off?" Mr Singh answered, "Well the bus doesn't go anywhere else." I explained to Mr. Singh where it was I had intended to go and he kindly pointed out that I wanted the #62 - Good Samaritan Hospital, not the #62 - Penitencia Creek. I imagine I was still looking a bit shell shocked from this morning as he very nicely agreed to waive the fee for the return trip.

Then he said, "But you must get off the bus while I have my 10 minute break. There is a lovely creek just over there, would you like me to show you?" To which I, being the highly intelligent person that I am responded, "But I don't want to miss the bus." Mr. Singh, again very kindly, pointed out that as he was the driver of the bus it was unlikely that it would leave without me and him. So Mr. Singh and I took a little stroll down to Penitencia Creek while he ate his orange and then he drove me home.

Thank goodness for ...

Enough about me, how about the people who entered the "Made In Canada" contest today. Through the wonder of technology, Kerry's answer made it to the blog first but Wendy's answer made it to my Inbox first. Therefore, I have no choice but to declare a tie.

For Wendy:

2 Balls of Phildar Auteuil - a lovely Belgian yarn

And for Kerry:

A cat with a dirty bum. Or dinner Friday night. Your choice.