Last night, as I was heading home in the rental chariot, the radio quit working. Just … dead. Nothing on the LCD at all. No sound out of the speakers. The rest of the car was running okay, though, so I kept on driving it.

I got to a stop sign and stopped, and the car just … died. Nothing. I tried to re-start it, and it was like the starter had been pulled from the car. A passer-by–a nice black man, going against all hearsay that there are problems with race relations in the northern parts of Madison County–helped to push me off to the side. I called Todd, who was home, and asked him to come get me if he could. I got back in the car and, on a lark, tried to start it. It worked, so I called Todd and told him I’d keep on coming.

As I drove the last mile home, I called the rental company. They said, “Can you come bring it in?” When I consider that it was 5:30 p.m., I was halfway across the county, and they closed at 6:00, I said, “I’ll just come in tomorrow morning.” I did, but when I woke up this morning, I had a phone call from the boss-man … so this little post is made from work. Who knows how late I’ll be here today? Oh well, they pay me to be here …