The revenge of the Bio-Eco friendly commute

OK so I once blogged about my failure at using the Chicago area's great public transportation system.  Since then I have used it multiple times to varyng degrees of success and failure but this week I had a new and altogether horrible experience due primarily to my own stupidity.  My car needs new brakes bad.  And Im talking hear the gears grinding bad.  I am putting it off until a friend can help me with it though, because it is an old car and i don't want to put a lot of money into it.  So yesterday it was a nice morning, I decided to rest the car and bike/train to to work.  I figure it's better for me and the environment and my car.  So I head out from the house about 5 minutes later than I planned, which is really the key to most of my past commuting failures.  I run through an ATM so that I have cash on hand just in case and get to the train station a little early,  Long line for tickets so Im kind of getting nervous but I make it through and get back outside with my bike, lined up to get  on with a ton of other commuters, thinking, "yeah, I'm urban. How you like me now?"  well I'm suburban, at least.  Train pulls up and Im waiting in line when a conductor calls out "No bikes on this train, get the next one."  Now I have a split second to decide, do I wait a hour for the next train so I can keep my bike with me and ride from the adjoining train station to work, or do I leave the bike and hop this train, walk to work from the next station which will take an hour.  I chain the bike hastily (a little too hastily it turns out, but thats foreshadowing) and I jump on the train. Im sitting there reading, drinking my thermos of coffee for a few minutes when I realize we haven't stopped in the next town over.  That sinking feeling starts to come over me and I gather my stuff and walk in-between cars to the exit.  There I watch as the train slowly passes b the station that I need to exit at.  Crap with a capital C! I find a conductor in the next car and say "I needed to exit at Downers Grove"  to which he replies "This is the express, We don't stop until Chicago.  Go sit down and We'll figure it out we have plenty of time."  So I go sit down, call into work and explain the situation, luckily I have a very understanding boss, and stew about what an idiot I am that the train schedule continues to baffle me.  The conductor shows up with a train schedule and more good news.  "The next train out of Chicago doesn't leave for an hour and twenty minutes after we get there.  That'll be $2.50 to pay for ride from Downers to Chicago"  So I have an hour to enjoy the Cinna-bun in it's natural habitat, a transportation terminal.  Then I get to ride back out to the suburbs on a non-express train,  This one makes ALL the stops, then walk to work making me 3 hours late.  Lots of good natured ribbing about me pursuing a new career as a hobo followed.  We all laughed and I sat down at my computer, which would not turn on.  Computer is broke, IT guys on vacation so I have to use other peoples computers while they are doing other things.  After work, I start to walk to meet up with Nicole, and it starts to rain.  Et tu Zeus?  I wait for her in an Arbys.  Afterwards comes the icing on the cake, cherry in the sundae moment of my bad day.  I drive up to the train station, and my bike is not there.  Screw the Naperville train station, Screw commuting, Screw health, Screw the environment, today I drove to work.