Bill Griffith (of Zippy the Pinhead fame) was doing a signing at a nearby comic store. We walked down a bike path to get there but there's construction in the way-- huge 8-foot cores of earth have been taken out of the ground. It's early in the morning, before anyone's working.
At the store, finally, there are muppet figurine vases and a variety of flowers to put in them. C wants an Oscar the Grouch and some purple flowers. After the signing, we step out and the construction work has begun-- the machine that does the coring has been brought... but it's huge, it towers above the distant hills, miles long and miles tall.