It is a fantastic September day here in New York, perfect weather if you ask me. I've always had a hard time with fall, school starting, winter coming, that stint I spent in a turkish prison started in fall. But, I do love sunny fall days.

While nurturing my distain for school, a friend and I would skip on these fine September days, and head to the the nearby deli and attempt to swipe a few quarts of beer, most of the time unsuccessfully. We'd buy sandwiches and chips, and hike down to the local sump*. We'd spend the afternoon drinking warm beer, throwing rocks at bottles, beening each other with dirt bombs, and just plain old relaxing in the sun. The school councilors would lecture me about skipping school, and warned me that I was missing out on the important experiences of school/youth , and someday I'd regret it. Oddly enough, I never regretted a minute I spent in the sump or skipping school, and I am this close to skipping out early today to drink beer down by the hudson (don't tell Meg).

* In Long Island the rain runoff from the roads is drained into large basins that we called sumps. Most of the time they remained empty of water, and were a great place for kids to ride dirtbikes, light huge bonfires, or drink stolen quarts of beer.