Deflating News

Budget: ~$100

As I prepared to walk out of the house today, I did a double-take. The back tire on my bike was flat again. I hadn't been riding it and it had safely been sitting in the house.

It was Pumpkin, the cat, for whom the new name "Satan" was already being considered. I was actually genuinely impressed. With the kevlar, that tire, loaded with hundreds of pounds and hitting potholes at nearly highway speeds, had held up just fine. But it was no match for that cat.

I won't repair it until I leave—otherwise the cat would just pop it again—by which point it will likely have so many punctures that it will be useless to patch and I'll have to just put in a new tube.

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In other news, I already hate Springfield. It's a dangerous place, and as of yet, I have not found any redeeming factors, though that may just be because the people I'm living with are busy with finals so I'm just showing myself around. But usually, I can find the fun places, and they seem to be absent here.

There's a company here that collects all the felons off the street and gives them jobs and takes a cut of their checks. (This happens a lot in other cities too and I generally like it, since they take care of the whole job search for everyone.) So far as I could tell, that's the only easy way to get a short-term job here. I called them up yesterday and they said they only take "applications" on Tuesdays, 8-12. I showed up at 10:30 today and was told they only take applications 9-10. I wonder if they would have told me something different if I'd shown up at 8 or 9.

I've been told by others to get out of Springfield ASAP. Believe me, that's exactly what I'd like to do. However, it won't stop raining, and my next step after leaving here is to cross a mountain range. The rest of this week is rain east of the mountains, and thunderstorms west of them. So I'm stuck until something like Sunday.

Hopefully there will be better cities ahead.