Stardate: -317839.38

I was just starting onto the bike path off West D St in Springfield last night, and something happened that I didn't expect: I was adjusting the headlight on my bike, and the top unscrewed and came off, falling onto the path and rolling, along with the two batteries that were inside.

As I braked to a stop, I realized that the only thing I could see in the darkness were a lot of leaves covering the ground. For a long moment, I was completely helpless and had no idea what to do.

You see, usually I have my other headlight with me, the one I wear on my head, but not on this night. It needed to have its batteries replaced, and I didn't want to take the time to do it, and rather than bringing both the light and the batteries with me, I just left them behind.

After a couple minutes spent futilely poking around in the darkness, I just hopped on my bike, rode home, grabbed my other headlight, replaced the batteries, and rode back out to the scene. It took about five minutes to find the loose pieces even with my bright headlight. Of course, the batteries were the same color as the leaves.

The delay was about 30 minutes. 30 minutes that I would have rather added to my sleep time last night. After this, I'll always keep my second light with me.