A meteor of considerable duration and brightness is known as a fireball; a fireball that breaks apart with an explosion is a bolide. And what I was really searching for out there in the dark streets - the last damned place I could ever find it - was a way to make myself a part of people again emotionally, while still retaining my freedom intellectually. Perhaps a billion meteoroids a day enter the atmosphere, their speeds ranging from 10 to 45 miles per second. For me it means everything.