Good Morning John, It's Friday September 21st. For some reason they cut out the beginning of that sentence so I had to add it on later. Sorry. And I'm sitting outside of Missoula's beautiful City Hall. It's a kind of field trip. I like to go down to City Hall every once in a while, specifically when I get tickets.

That's right, I got a ticket. I got a ticket for not stopping at a stop sign when I was on my bicycle, and I'm not saying that that was a smart move or anything, but I am saying that it is really annoying that I have to go downtown and sit in Courtroom 1 and listen to people get lectures about DUIs and drug busts and that kind of stuff when I didn't stop at a stop sign on my bike.

They said it was gonna be eighty-one dollars, but then they decided it would only be ten, so that was nice, um, but a little bit a waste of time... in my opinion. Couldn't they guy have just said give me ten dollars? and then I would have just given him ten dollars, and then it would have been a little bit more like highway robbery, but also a lot more convenient. I was gonna take a lot more B-roll inside the of the City Hall, but it turns out that there are a lot of college-aged young women that probably don't want YouTube to know that they had a DUI.

But honestly, it was upsetting for more than just the inconvenient aspect--I mean yeah it sucked, I had to wait there for an hour and a half so the judge could tell me, 'You do know, that it is illegal to not stop at a stop sign on your bike?' And I could be like, 'Yeah, I have a ticket to prove that to me. I know, because I got a ticket. Because a cop pulled me over with a WOOP WOOP WOOP! So yes, I know it was illegal.' But it was also kind of uncomfortable because I walked up there and he was like, 'Ten dollars, please!', but everybody else in that courtroom was about to find out how many hundreds or thousands of dollars they were going to be fined for their various infractions of drunk and disorderly conduct, or driving under the influence, or underage drinking--most of the things had to do with drinking actually.

I have never been in a courtroom, um, for something I did before. To be there amongst people who were there for stuff that actually mattered, and then to walk up and be like, 'Yes, I will give you ten dollars," seemed like I was intruding on a serious world with a not-serious thing.

Anyway, on a completely different note, APPPPLLEEEESSS! This Monday, Katherine and I went and picked apples. This is something you get to do for free in Missoula, because there are so many apple trees in the rattle snake valley that need to be picked, or else they will be attacked by bears and the bears will get shot or hit by cars, and that's bad. So you have to pick all these apples. So Katherine and I got called out to "volunteer", and we got to pick apples. And we also got to take a bunch home. So we have cider, and a big box of apples--some of them look pretty bad, but some of them look very good--and of course, APPLE PIE! Katherine made three delicious-looking apple pies, and so far it has been somewhat difficult to not eat them. But I will get to eat them soon, so it is OK.

You might think that you pick apples. I was under the impression that you pick apples. But if you're in a hurry, as we were, you just grab the tree and you shake it, and shake it and the apples just fall off, and then you pick up the apples off the ground. For the higher limbs, you go on a ladder with a stick, and you hook the limb with the stick, and then you shake the stick, and then you fall of the back of the ladder... Or very nearly. So that was very fun.

But if any of you have a gleaning program where you live, that's what that means; gleaning means free fruit. Free apples, free apricots, free plums, free pluots. Pluot. Pluot is a good word. Free.They, they just come out of the tree. And they're there and (makes chewing sounds) you eat them and it is delicious. And the people that have them in their yard, they don't want them. They're like, "Get these out of my yard so that the bear doesn't eat my dog." Hmm. What a world.

John, we are going to see They Might Be Giants on Sunday, and I'm going to try and smuggle this video camera right here in, to there, and get a little bit of footage. But it's possible that they won't let the camera in, so I'm sorry, no guarantees.

John, I will see you on Monday.