Coffee, broccoli, carrots, a pile of red onions

“What’s going on?” Nate asked when I entered the little grocery store he manages.

The grocery’s just down the block from my house. It was early Monday morning, and Nate was in the vegetable section, tending to the broccoli and carrots.

“I’m escaping,” I answered him.

“From what?” he asked, broccoli in hand.

I had just left the coffee shop two businesses down from the grocery store.

“Loud talkers,” I told him.

Nate laughed.

In the coffee shop

I often write my column in that Olympia coffee shop. I get a cup of coffee, sit at one of the corner tables, plug in my earbuds, turn on the music and typ...