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shooting at the mall
Sunday, February 13 2005
One of our Tillson friends called this afternoon and told me that he'd heard from a friend in Westchester that something rather violent had happened at the Hudson Valley Mall today. Two guys with assault rifles had walked into Best Buy and begun shooting. There wasn't any news beyond this, and I was stumped where to go for local news. The internet seemed pretty much useless, and even the local public radio station seemed reluctant to preempt Garrison Keeler. (And there was no sense in trying other radio networks, run as they are by distant robots.) Then I tried DirectTV's roster of "local channels" (a bizarre concept considering that the satellite our dish is pointed at is 26,250 miles directly above a spot in the Pacific Ocean 600 miles west of the Galapagos). None of them were preempting their shows either. I kind of wanted to know what had happened. Had anyone died? I go into that Best Buy every now and then; it's the main entrance I use for the mall.
Gretchen had been out hiking with CAS Kathy and the dogs, and when they showed up we tried the internet again. God bless Google News, they had the story, but only because it had been picked up by the Associated Press. There were injuries and at least one helicopter medevac, but no fatalities. That probably accounted for the complete absence of preemption.
This evening, in appreciation for recent animal sanctuary work (mostly Gretchen's) Kathy took Gretchen and me out to the Northern Spy Restaurant in High Falls. Kathy had her dog Murphy out in her truck, and he somehow managed to liberate himself and relocate to the Northern Spy's kitchen. Matters of the stomach factor highest in Murphy's hierarchy of desire.
Meanwhile I was wearing a pair of JC Penny blue jean overalls, a jokey gift from my brother in law. This was the first time I'd worn them away from home. I'm unexpectedly coming to the conclusion that I could get used to wearing them. Somehow, and I know this doesn't make sense, they make me look more like a hipster than a hayseed.
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