Sunday, 23 September 2001 | Contact and sunshine

I'm supposed to be working all day again today, but I figured it was worth it to sacrifice a couple of hours work for some sunshine and contact with things composed of molecules rather than pixels. So I stepped out of my house and into what felt something like America, something I guess I've been forced to notice in light of recent events. Martin and I took the old Cougar and drove to the farmer's market, windows down, the radio tuned to A Prairie Home Companion (turning to a new Garrison Keillor fix since Mr. Blue retired). We sampled local cherry tomatoes, apples, and cider, took pictures of the baskets of food and piles of gourds, and marveled at the enormous pumpkins and at the families decked out in unfortunate costumes of red, white, and blue.