My alarm clock is on my phone.  I've tried various other alarms, but seem to only have been able to really train myself to wake up to my ringtone (which, by the way, sounds like a phone ringing.  Not a pop song, not a midi attempt at some classical song, a phone's ring).  So, when it goes off at 10 during the week, I usually find a handful of text messages on there when I open it up to shut the alarm off.  It's usually Sara's twitter, she wakes up for work much earlier than I do and uses the site itself a fair bit more than I do.  Generally, I check them real quick so I don't forget to later, then fall back asleep until the next alarm goes off.

I know, I get crap about waking up at 10:30, as it tends to be, a fair bit.  Let me remind you that I work afternoon turn and don't have any kids to send to school or a wife to spend the morning with.  I'd wake up later if I didn't have to ride the bus to work.

Anyway, Sara's third message this morning mentioned, with some surprise, Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize.  In my foggy, mostly unawake mind, something about this just didn't seem to add up.  I decided I'd deal with it later.  So when I finally woke up enough, I went ahead and checked some news sources.

Barak Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.  I mean, that's cool, I guess, but....why?  Before I looked up the reason, I tried to think of what it could have been.  Ending the wars?  No, didn't do that.  Oh, the Guantanamo Bay thing!  I checked, he hasn't closed that, yet, either.  Uh...no, there's a separate prize for economics, I think, and the economy hasn't been fixed, anyway.  I really hoped it wasn't for him being the first black President.  I don't see how giving him a prize based on his skin tone is any different than doing so for any other skintone.  Please, for the sake of the credibility of the Nobel Prize Committee (who, I have to admit, my greatest goal in life would be to get their Physics prize, though Lord knows how I'll pull that off), tell me they didn't give him a prize based on his skintone.

And what did I find?  First, that the deadline for consideration for the prize was February 1.  So, either he did something amazing in his first week and a half, or it was about him getting elected, or it was something he did before becoming President.  Secondly, well...apparently, they don't have to say why they awarded the prize, because all I've found is speculation.  The top two contenders are him being the first black President and a politically motivated act of support for his view and goals.  But...the prize should be given to someone that has already bettered the world somehow, not someone that says they want to.  Almost everyone says they want to.  Was there really no one in the past few years that deserved it more, on those grounds?

One guy in the one Reuters article I was reading pointed out that this puts a fair amount of pressure on the rest of the country.  Now that he has the prize, and Sarkozy has stated that this marks "America's return to the hearts of the people of the world", he's basically getting global support for reelection before he's even managed to get any of his ideas working.  The problem is, last election, an awful lot of people voted for him on the grounds of bringing change and his skintone, and next election those same people will vote for him for the prize and the world's favor; and quite frankly, the only one of these that should be notable at all in a Presidential election is the prize, but he hasn't even earned it yet (I've commented before that there is some change that does need to come to this country, but to vote for the concept of change itself is a bad idea, as change is not inherently good.  And yes, I know some of my followers didn't vote on that grounds, but there are many in this country who did).

Look, I know how some people will react to that statement, so let me just address it now.  No, I don't much care about global opinion of my country or its leaders.  Fact is, we're not subject to you, and you're not subject to us.  We're separate countries, sovereign states.  I doubt you'd get too worked up if I started laying complaints about your Prime Minister or whatever.  Our leaders' first priority is to the well-being of this country, and right now, we have way too much on our plate to add trying to please everyone else at the same time.  I appreciate the comment, Sarkozy, but quite frankly, that wasn't my primary concern to begin with.  I just hope it wasn't Obama's, either.

I can’t seem to fall asleep.  I guess it’s my own fault, more or less.  I didn’t wake up until 4:30 this past afternoon.  I woke up to find a text from Melody, which surprised me as I kind of inherently assumed by the fact I was just waking up and the amount of light coming in the window that it was somewhere around 10.  Then I saw the timestamp on one of her texts and realized I was horribly mistaken.

I needed the rest, really.  But now I have to be up early, and have given up on sleep altogether for now.  I’ll sleep after church and before work.  That should hold me over for my shift, then I have all night and all morning to get caught up from that.

When I woke up, I was dizzy.  I didn’t know why, but it was pretty bad.  I know it wasn’t a hangover, I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol in two years and when I did I never got hangovers.  Always drink water before passing out, kids.  Being Irish doesn’t seem to have hurt, either.  I was dizzy, and confused, and couldn’t focus.  I couldn’t maintain a cohesive thought, and to be honest, it kind of scared me a bit.  So I got up and walked around, calling Melody so I wouldn’t have to keep trying to read that little screen, got some food and drink, felt a little bit better but not much, then laid down to relax and found the room spinning.  Then I passed out.

I woke up around 10, unsure of when I passed out but knowing it was after 8.  I felt worse than before, but it was still all mental.  There were no physical effects, no sickness or anything, just very dizzy and confused and unable to think straight.  I did have a little bit of trouble walking much, but that was more a balance thing than anything.  I managed to get myself together enough that I decided a walk should help.  Some fresh air, some activity, maybe that would do the trick.  I walked down to the store, and found it did reduce some of the effects a fair bit but left a dull headache in the place of the dizziness.

Hopefully, whatever this is, it’s short-lived.  On a related note, I did earlier find myself wondering if there’s a drug that does this, and if so, why anyone takes it.

The gist is this. If we want to see anything change in this country, we need to be willing to have proper communication. Lumping people into camps based on our own elitism isn’t going to do it. This doesn’t mean you blindly accept what anyone says, it simply means that you’re willing to use opposition to hammer out the details. Who knows, with some work, you might actually see something that resembles a good idea.

To that end, I started a new blog. It’s public and set up to receive contributions from multiple authors, and available at http://workablehealthcare.tumblr.com/ The goal of it is simple. If you want to discuss ways to fix the healthcare, join. If we get enough people to bounce ideas around, we might be able to lay out a good system. If we do that, we can use our collective influence to try and give it some attention. Posts that do not highlight an idea or concept that can help will be deleted. It is not a place to post horror stories, but solutions. To discuss the matter in a reasonable manner and try to come up with something good. I’m going to copy the post I made a while back to it to get it started, and let the conversation go from there. I want a collective effort here, people. You don’t even have to be in America. If you have some knowledge that will help, bring it in. I understand there will probably be some lively debate on ideas that get raised, and that’s good. We need to do that. Just be respectful and understand that, no matter how foolish you may find a person’s idea, they are ultimately after the same goal as you: seeing change that will be worth the effort.

If you would like to join, send me a message (on here, to n1ghtcrwler@gmail.com , or on AIM to d1rewlf) with your e-mail address so I can send you an invite.  I haven’t yet found a setting that lets people just join without an invite.  I’m working on it, though.

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So.  The Obama administration is, apparently, leaning toward removing the public option aspect of their healthcare reform bill in order to compromise enough to get the bill passed.  in case you were wondering, yes, the public option aspect was the government-paid part.  You know, the bit where you get your insurance through the government rather than through insurance companies.

Now, the article I’m focusing on at the moment has a lot moe information than the one I read earlier today, which doesn’t appear to be on the local paper’s website.  However, the one I read earlier mentioned the introduction of non-profit organizations handling health insurance to compete with the insurance companies, therefore creating the competition needed to drive prices down without the government getting directly involved.

On the other hand, you have stories like this one that suggest that the administration isn’t backing away from the option as much as they may seem.  Or…well, sort of.  It seems like kind of a toss-up at this point, which shouldn’t be surprised as this was all started by a short answer Obama gave in Colorado recently that was, at best, vague about intentions.  Basically, he mentioned the public option as a ‘whether we have it or not’ thing, and pointed out that it wasn’t the entirety of health care reform.  Which, to be honest, I don’t have any argument with.  I’ve been saying for a while now that it couldn’t be the entirety of health care reform because, although the insurance companies certainly are a problem, they’re not the problem.

Of course, the reform bill, whether it includes a public option or not, is still focused on the insurance industry and not on the risk market that controls those industries.  I’ve pointed out before that the reason insurance companies behave the way they do is that they run entirely on risk.  It’s a question of whether or not they will lose money by insuring you.  In the case of people with notable preexisting conditions, I have to admit, there is a certain bit of ground to assume they may.  Does this mean I agree with their actions?  No.  But, I do understand that they are a business and they cannot lose too much money before they cease to exist entirely.  Which is why I’ve raised the suggestion that the way to fix the problem is to reduce the risk.  Competition will only do so much - it may make the companies more willing to stretch themselves out a bit, but if the risk remains unchanged than they will only do so much.  They only can do so much.

The reason I don’t support the public option is really a simple matter.  The reason being used to support the public option is that the insurance companies need competition, which is true.  However, in order to be competition, it must go both ways.  That is, the insurance companies and the government-run program would need to be in a position where they can actually compete with each other.  One-sided ‘competition’ is not competition, it’s a blow-out.  If a high school football team (use whichever meaning for ‘football’ you wish, it’ll still apply) dominates in its area, you may suggest that they need more competition to be worth watching.  You would not, however, put them against a professional team.  It may be more difficult for the high school team, certainly, but it’s not a competition unless the high school team is the most amazing such to exist and the professional team is an embarassment.  No matter who you put into the insurance industry, it still operates on risk - except there is no risk for the government agency.  They won’t lose any money, no matter how much you cost to care for.  Government agencies in this country have long shown a willingness to take money from elsewhere when needed, to spend well more than they have, and in some circumstances, to actually create money to pay for their endeavors.  And I haven’t even had to bring taxes into that equation.  Would the market be tougher for the insurance companies?  Certainly.  Would it be a competition?  Not in any sense of the word.

It is mathematically impossible for the insurance industry to survive long under this system.  Now, some of you may be cool with having the government be the only option outside of paying from your own pocket.  I don’t, personally.  I still maintain that it’s not their job and I don’t believe they will do any better of a job of it than the insurance companies are now.  But I have to ask, why take the long route?  If that’s what you want, then push for it.  Under the public option, it’s ultimately what we’ll have, anyway.  “Oh, but there are a lot of people who will choose the insurance companies instead.”  No, there are some people.  They are not enough to keep the industry running, and any attempts to use them for it would result in rates so high that most of the people who would be willing to go that route simply wouldn’t be able to afford it, anyway.  “Oh, well, lots of people can’t afford insurance now.”  Well, a lot more can than you may thing, I know they always cite it as 50 million people having no insurance, but that’s a far cry from saying 50 million people can’t afford insurance.  I don’t have insurance.  Can I afford insurance?  I dunno, I’ve not bothered finding out.  Judge all you want, but I’m one of those 50 million, and quite frankly, a lot of the things you’re saying about me aren’t entirely accurate.  And it’s never just one in these situations.  Are there people in that 50 million who can be accurately described under these horror stories?  Of course there are.  50,000,000 is a big number.  I suspect you could say just about anything and find some poster children among those 50 million.

The core of the problem remains untouched.  We need to lower health costs.  This reduces risk and encourages competition in the insurance industry, which combine to form alternate business practices from what we’re seeing now and lower costs for insurance.  You can fix this whole issue without ever creating a government agency to step into the ring.  Hell, you can fix it without ever even paying attention to the insurance companies.  They will adjust as the market demands.  That’s how they stay in business.  Obama looks to be willing to compromise.  Quite frankly, this makes me happy, suggests that ultimately his goal is to get something done rather than get his own agenda through.  That may or may not be accurate overall, but it’s a step.  And now that he has that image being formed, we have reason not to back down, but to push for something that will get the job done, whether it agrees with his original submission or not.  We need to get the job done.  And like him or not, the President seems like he might be willing to listen.  We need to give him something to listen to.

The moon is beautiful tonight.  I can see its surface so much clearer than usual.  I stood and stared at it, wishing I had a telescope.  Or binoculars, or anything, really.  Anything more than my glasses.  I considered taking my glasses apart and just holding the lenses, just the right distance apart.  Galileo's first telescope was made from eyeglass lenses.  Probably a higher prescription than mine, though.  And not all scratched up, from the time they fell on the floor at the pizza shop and got stepped on by my stepmom.  She didn't know they were there, luckily, they're very tough.

America is at a bit of a crossroads, and I don't even know how many people really grasp why.  The reason, near as I can tell, is that we have reached a point where we need to determine a more stable national identity.  In comparison to an average human life, we're at about the point where we need to move out and get a job.  It's not a perfect analogy.

Consider this.  When the nation was first founded, its identity was simply a group of colonies that came together for a common goal and now needed to decide what to do next.  This phase lasted more or less, in differing terms, until shortly after the Civil War, at which point we stopped looking at each other as a collection of states and started looking at ourselves as a single nation with subdivisions.  At this point, we had done most of our rapid growth in size, but hadn't really bothered much with the world stage.  We were still getting comfortable on our land, which was changing as it grew.  At this point, we started interacting more with our neighbors.  We had been involved with trade and, to a much more limited degree, diplomacy with other nations, but it was here that we really started trying to forge a place for ourselves.  We were focused on our immediate surroundings, though, such as the native american nations in the west and Mexico.

This phase roughly cooresponds to our teenage years.  A focus on our immediate surroundings and overshadowing those we viewed as our peers, starting to give way to a desire to become a notable force in the larger world.  We started to, at first hesitantly, get involved in the affairs of other nations.  We didn't enter either World War until we'd been attacked personally (although, the first one, it probably wasn't actually aimed at Americans so much as limiting trade with Britain, but that's neither here nor there).  We did have the advantage that we were young and strong, and used that advantage, but it would be arrogant to claim that we personally won both wars.  But, having gotten a taste of victory on such a scale, we became less hesitant to become involved in them again.  And so you had Korea and Vietnam, which we still weren't all about getting into but clearly showed a higher willingness to do so than we had previously.  But both of these had all the problems of a rivalry with Russia, like two strong football players contending for the starting role.  We both amassed allies, tried to undercut each other, were brutal about it at times, and overall didn't really accomplish all that much in the big scheme of things.

We had established ourselves, or so we like to think, as the last great superpower.  We were the big guy on campus.  But that can only last so long.  For all of it, what we really had to show for it wasn't actually much more than we had to start out with: we were still young and strong, we had passed a few tests, but we still hadn't established for ourselves a really lasting role.  The former great empires of the world looked at us and said, "Yeah, I remember when we were like that.  The good old days."  And now what?  The American empire is fast fading.  We're in debt to China, we're fighting small countries to protect our interests and aren't doing particularly well at it.  I'm all for defending us from people who would try to bring us down, but that doesn't mean everything we do under that banner is right.  But that's not the point of this post, so moving on.

We're not at a place where we're coming to see the effects of some of our choices.  We have a lot to fix and a lot to learn.  We have to adjust our identity to something that is both sustainable and worthwhile.  We find ourselves conflicted between two major drives.  On one side, you have the people pointing to Europe and saying, "These things work there, we should do that."  On the other hand, you have people saying, "We're not Europe, and we don't want to be."  And both are right, to a degree.  Like any wise young person, if we want to accomplish anything here we must be willing to learn from our elders.  We must be willing to look at things that have worked there and things that haven't and learn why.  But we are not those countries.  What works there may not work quite as well here.  We need to find a way to apply those lessons in a way that will work for America.  I'm glad Britain has such an effective healthcare system, good for them: that does not mean that our government or our people will respond to it the same way.  We are our own nation, and need our own solutions, but it would be foolish and doomed to failure if we aren't willing to look for advice from nations that have already been here and decide what parts of it we can make best use of.  We are not in the exact same situation as they were, and the exact same solution will not solve it.  This does not mean they have nothing to offer us, though.

In short: not good.

Turns out, they still haven't received the transcript from IADT that I requested almost a month ago and they said would be there in a week.  Without that, they can't even really go through looking over my application.  But, we went ahead and talked about it anyway, and it turns out that my transcript from BC3 is probably going to hurt me bad.  Why?  Because I didn't take enough classes per semester.

So I explained that, like my paperwork states, I wasn't able to take many classes because I was paying out of pocket and had to balance out the amount I went to school and worked in such a way that I could pay my bills and pay for college while still getting as many classes as I could.  Well, that's not good enough, it appears, because 'lots of people have personal issues that impact their schooling'.

She told me to see what was up with the IADT transcript and maybe I'll get in, but recommended that I either sign up for a community college around here and go for a couple semesters full time so I can transfer later, or take some Continuing Education courses at UMass which would go toward my degree but don't get financial aid and cost about $1000 per class, and I would probably still need five of them in a semester to even catch their notice.  Oh, and the closest community colleges are out of bicycle range, especially come Winter.

I mean, ultimately, it's m own fault for being such a bum right when I got out of high school, but this is starting to really piss me off.  As if I wasn't in enough of a mess already, this past week has pretty much gone consistantly downhill from when I got more hours at Friendly's and had my interview at Wal*Mart last Thursday.  Those were good, but I'm starting to wonder if they'll turn out to have been good enough.

I called the hotline for transcript information at IADT, which is an automated message that goes straight to a voicemail if you go through the steps to try and find a real person.  Let's hope it doesn't take them another month to call me back.

So, lately, my car's been having this issue where it doesn't want to shift out of first gear on time, so it ends up revving too high.  This causes the engine to overheat if it continues long enough, which will in turn do a lot of damage to the engine.  So, over the past week, I'd been working on it, and checking everything, and by Thursday it was running nice and smooth again.  Just as a side note: things like this are why I prefer standard transmission to automatic.  I like having that control over what my car is doing.  I mean, it's a 20 year old engine that sat for a while there and has a little over 124,000 miles on it, so I know it's not going to run perfectly without a large overhaul anyway, but it's been going rather well for me overall for the past year or so I've had it, and I've gotten the full 1200 I paid for it out of it, you know?  But I like the idea of keeping it running as well as it can as long as it can.

Anyway, so I went to visit Melody, over by Boston, on Friday.  I pulled over to check my tire pressure and take another look at my engine and make sure it was doing okay and all, and noticed that I had forgotten to put the cap back on the coolant overflow tank and had accidentally shut it in the hood.  So I stopped at Napa to pick up a new one, and the only one they had was a general GM one, but since my car is an Oldsmobile that worked out just fine.  What I didn't really notice at the time was that the one that came with my car had little vents in it to release pressure and the new one didn't.

And off I went.  I got almost to the greater Boston area before my car started having problems again.  It started to overheat, so I pulled over and checked it.  Took the cap off the tank a bit to let it cool off, and waited.  I figured I was close enough now, might as well get to Melody's and let it rest there for a bit, but I'd realizd the flaw with the cap and punched a couple holes in it, so once it was cooled down I got going again.  A little while later, it starts overheating again.  So, once again, I pulled over and shut it off, and went up to check the coolant.  The tank was bulging a bit, so I very carefully
 tok a rag and removed the cap, only to have the boiling coolant explode out all over me and my car.  So here I am, shaking it off on the side of the road and swearing like I never have before.  My glasses kept it out of my eyes, thankfully, but I got a little burn under my beard and some more on my hand, but they were managable.  The tank itself hadn't been damaged in the process, though.  So I checked the cap and found that the holes had closed back up, so I threw the cap into my trunk and figured I'd figure out where to get a better one later.  After adding some coolant to replace what was slowly drying on my shirt and letting the car cool down, I proceeded to Melody's.

Had a really good visit, but she was rather concerned about me driving ack in the middle of the night because she was worried that something might happen to the car and I'd be stranded in the middle of nowhere at like 3 in the morning.  So I crashed on her couch, with my phone alarm set for early so I could get back in time to wash my uniform and get to work at 5 on Saturday.  We hung out a bit in the morning, and off I went.

Now, my car had been having the most issu on the interstate, so I realized that I needed to take the back route, up 27 to 9 to 20, which would get me back toward Amherst where I could pick up the main road in.  But the car was giving me trouble here and there along the way, and I had to stop a few times to check it andseee what I could do about getting it home.  I figured, as long as I got it home, I'd be fine because I could just leave it at the apartment and fix whatever was going on.  I called work and told them what was going on, just in case, and kept on going.  I stopped for gas somewhere or another, I don't know what town it was in, and ended up passing through this really nice looking little town.  There, however, my car started making this rattling sound that was very familiar from when my engine blew a few years back.

But, it wasn't really the sound that it had blew, so much as that it would without getting some work done to it rather soon.  Since I had no idea where I was, but knew I had to be getting close, decided it was best to get it home.  It decided otherwise and died on me.  So I drifted off to the side of the road, popped the hood, and found that there was smoke coming out of everything.  The coolant was a very muddy color, the type of color that suggested that it had found a way to mix with the oil.  That, my friends, is how to kill an engine quick.

So I sent a message to Melody telling her what was going on, because she'd asked me to, and called work to tell them what was going on, because I knew I was at least going to be late, and called my roommate to se about a ride home, but he was at work.  While I was on the phone with him, a police car pulled up.

I talkd for a bit about what was going on with the one cop, while the other one was calling a tow truck and, as it turns out, running my plates.  Which brought to his attention that my registration is expired.  So the tow truck shows up, and we're talking about my options.  I knew that my bank account was low and that I only had $10 in cash, and no AAA.  So the tow guy tells me that he can take it to his lot and hold it until I can pay to pick it up, which is a $90 towing fee and about $20 daily lot occupation fee; or he can take it to his lot and I can scrap it, which is just the towing fee; or, because Amherst was 45 minutes away, he could waive the mileage fee systm and charge me a flat $150 to get it back to the apartment, but I'd have to pay him as soon as we got there.  So I gave him the keys to put it in neutral and put it up on his truck, because the cops were telling me that he had to take it either way, and made some calls.  My one roommate told me he could lend me the $150, but he didn't know how to get it to me since he was still at work, and my other roommate wasn't answering his phone.  I later learned that he was on a walk and had forgotten to take it with him.  So then the cops walk back up to me and tell me that they have good news and bad news, and asked which I wanted first.

"Let's go with the bad, I'm kind of on a roll," I said.

"Well, he has to take the car to his lot, because of the expired registration it turns out we can't let you take possession of it until the registration is updated."

"Fair enough."

"On the plus side, I kind of feel bad for you, so I'm just giving you a warning instead of the $100 ticket."

So I thanked him and grabbed my jacket and apron and hat out of my car, and they ofered to give me a ride to the town line near an exit off 90 where it would be easy for someone picking me up to find me, at a Subway where I'd at least have somewhere to sit.  So away we went.  We talked for a bit on the way there, and I thanked them again, got my warning, grabbed my stuff, and they drove off.  I knew that I didn't have anyone else to call for a ride, so I called Melody to give her an update and started walking.  About a block away, my phone started informing me that the battery was low.  So I got off the phone, called work to tell them that I was walking and had no idea how long it would take to get to town, they said it was cool, they'd found a way around it, and I shut off my phone.  And off I went, in 80 degree weather, walking home from Palmer which was apparently a half hour away from my house by way of state highways, according to Melody's recollection of driving here last week.

An hour or so later, I came upon a fruit stand.  The lady there offered me an apple for my walk, and I asked how much it was because I knew that I needed what little money I have to start figuring out what to do.  She gave it to me for free, so I thanked her and walked on, eating my apple because I hadn't eaten much of anything yet that day and knew I would need the energy.  I was heading north on 181 by this point, and knew I needed to pick up 202 to cut west on 9 to get back to Amherst.  a little while later, I'd finished my drink and found a 7/11, where I bought a Powerade and got a plastic bag off them to hold my stuff so it wasn't just slung over my shoulder.

Three hours into my walk, I came across a nature trail cutting off the the northwest.  I didn't know how long it was or where it came out, but I knew it was the direction I wanted to go, so I took it.  Turns out it was pretty long, full of bugs, and the sun was low enough and the trees were large enough that there were some areas that were already getting dark, which didn't really bother me but made me consider what time it was.  The trail let out on a little country road without any lines.  It actually crossed the road, but I decided to follow the road instead and started heading north again.  Which brought me intoBelcherville Center, which I had assumed I'd already left Belcherville , but apparently it's freaking huge.  I had been going the right way, and I got confirmation of that when I saw that route 9 to Amherst was right ahead of me about a mile.

When I got to 9, I was getting a bit worn down.  I hadn't stopped walking now for about 4 hours, and needed something to eat.  I had checked an ATM and found that there was three bucks in my account, so I limited myself to that as I figured I might need the cash if I found a bus stop or something.  I considered McDonald's as I passed it, knowing they have a dollar menu, but decided that I probably wouldn't get much of anything useful to me at the moment out of it.  Then I spotted aDunkin Donuts and decided on some hash browns.  I went in and ordered some, only to learn that they were out.  So I went to leave, and the guy asked if I wanted anything else, and I told him I'd been walking for a while and needed something for fuel, and as much as I like donuts they weren't really my thing at the moment.  So he asked if I wanted aflatbread sandwich, so I told him I only had three bucks, and he said not to worry about it and gave me the employee discount.  I got the turkey/bacon/cheddr one.

Now, I don't usually eat cheese, and especially not cheddar.  Maybe it was just how hungry I was, maybe there's something to that sandwich, I dunno, but it was surprisingly good.  So, I sat down and ate that, and rolled out again.

By now, night had fallen, and it turns out that 9 has no streetlights or sidewalks and almost no shoulder when you leave Belcherville until you get to Amherst.  I was wearing a black shirt and dark pants, and realized that it would probably be the death of me.  But, my shirt had a giant white spider logo on the front (it's a Venom shirt, for you Spider-Man fans out there), so I turned it around so the logo would face traffic and held my phone down to my side.  It's one of those LG Shines, so the screen is very reflective, so I used that to hopefully reflect the headlights off of cars and show them I was there.  I don't know which helped more, but no one hit me, so that's cool.  About 10, I turned my phone on and talked to my roommate, who was just getting out of work and coming to pick me up.  By now, it was starting to rain, so I had pulled mytrenchcoat out of my bag and was holding it over my head.

Chris found me about a half hour later, and as soon as he opened the door I heard some Neutral Milk Hotel paying and commented that it was a good song.  He was surprised I knew it, and off we went back to the apartment, where I promptly changed out of my wet clothes, calld Melody to let her know I'd made it home safe, and grabbed a drink and shortly thereafter passed out.  My feet were sore, I had some chaffing going on, but was overall just happy to be home.