Thanks tee time,
I'm using version 9e. I am shortening a clip by dragging the right edge to the left. The points within that event are the ones that get messed up when I post-ripple. All other envelope points before and after that clip behave themselves. I've tried adding points at the start and end of the clip, playing with the un-group button, locking and unlocking envelopes, but no go. I tried the same thing on a different clip and the points still moved to the left.

I don't see a way for "post-ripple" to work for you. It behaves as you outlined.

What I do is
"Option/Lock envelopes to events"
Turn Auto Ripple off.
Shorten the event (which leaves a gap but audio envelopes stay put).
Turn Auto Ripple on (effecting all tracks, markers and regions if necessary)
Grab the event to the right of the gap and drag it left to close the gap. Audio envelopes should behave.

OK, I guess I need some education here...
My impression was that a post-edit ripple had the same effect as auto-ripple (moving affected tracks) but that you used the "F" key instead of having it happen automatically. What am I missing?
And if xberk's method is the best way to handle my envelope issue, is that any different from "select events to end" and dragging to close the gap?
And I guess I still don't quite understand "affected tracks". Does that simply include other tracks that possess an event that is grouped with an event on the edited track?
I apologize if all this is explained in the manual, but i've read it and am still a bit confused.
Thanks for your help

My impression was that a post-edit ripple had the same effect as auto-ripple (moving affected tracks)

Seems you have found a case where the two types of ripples are not exactly alike in their behavior. I can see from reading the Vegas help that one would think they were exactly alike in behavior except for being applied automatically or manually. Your example shows they are not. I turn off auto ripple except when I need it. It comes in very very handy when you've got 20 tracks going and you want to insert (or delete) an entire edited section. I can't recall ever using "post ripple"

Another way to handle the "gaps" is as follows.
Double click on the gap, enable ripple, delete the hole. This seems to behave the way you are expecting it.

is that any different from "select events to end" and dragging to close the gap?
Yes. If Auto Ripple is not ON, then the events will move but not the envelopes.

And I guess I still don't quite understand "affected tracks".
Affected tracks are events, keyframes, and envelopes on tracks where you performed the edit. This would include anything grouped with the edited event.
What's nice here is that you can choose to Ripple ALL your tracks or just the one your working on (and its associated groups). Play around with this and
you will soon see how it can help to keep things straight.

One more thing that I do to avoid messing up a long edit. Work in sections. I try not to have a timeline longer than 5 minutes. This helps enormously in making sure I don't accidentally messing up things way down the line with a careless "ripple" ...

By using F as post edit ripple, you will only ripple the track you've just changed.
If you use Ctrl/Shift F instead, everything, all tracks, Markers etc will move.