perhaps a variation on Murphy’s Law, that the second you decide to leave whatever structure you’re currently standing in to ride your bike home, it will start raining hard. This was definitely the case last night, and when the county sherrif’s SUV pulled to a stop next to me, I thought for sure it was going to be the icing on the cake – a wet, miserable cake. I had already been pulled over once for riding my bike at night without lights, and I got away with a warning. I actually felt bad because the cop was pretty nice and I, tired and just wanting to be home, was pretty shitty. Luckily, this time the sheriff’s truck turned down some dark street and I made it home, soaked but unticketed. I was relating this story to my roommate, and then, when I went down to the basement to my room, I found that my friend Chiara had left a rear bike light on my desk. She had seen me, or rather, not seen me riding home from a movie the other night without lights and felt like I could use the light because, as she found when she was hit by a car in the fall, if you’re riding without lights and get hit, your legal recourses are far more limited. Its a nice feeling, especially when you’re wet and cold and tired to feel like your friends are looking out for you, even if you’re not always looking out for yourself.