October 6, 2008: A year ago today I flew back from Philadelphia, having spent an exorbitant amount of money to see my first show on the Magic tour, my first show since my dad passed a month earlier. The E Street Band had its full original line-up, and played in an arena named for the mighty Wachovia Bank. It was 80 degrees outside, pool weather. The market crash had not yet begun, and the election was still more than a year off. Fast forward to a somewhat cool Michigan day, coming on the heels of the first two days of the fall frost. My back was a bit sore after a couple hours working the fruit trees on Saturday and then the round trip to Columbus yesterday, and the cool weather wasn't much helping. In contrast to the perfect warm fall Sunday in Columbus, Monday shaped up to be cool and damp in Michigan. And the show itself wouldn't be much easier to make: in order to arrange it, I had to move one meeting forward, do another one on the phone, drive 25 miles one way ...
