It is 4:50 on the Friday of graduation weekend. A father stands outside the campus bookstore with a phone in one hand and a bag of sweatshirts in the other. The hotel he booked by the airport is forty minutes away, and his daughter has just told him the family
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On the second Saturday in October, a family of five drives fifty minutes to a family-run apple orchard. They found it the night before on a phone. The listing showed a hayride photo, a five-star review about the cider doughnuts, and hours that said the orchard
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At the October board meeting of a small county animal shelter, the treasurer asks a fair question. "We pay for the website, the newsletter, and the ads for adoption Saturdays. Is any of it doing anything?"
The executive director has two numbers in front of he
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On the second Saturday in July, a family-run canoe and kayak outfitter on a spring-fed river does everything a small tourism business hopes for. Every boat is out by ten. The phone keeps ringing. The parking lot is full of cars from three states.
It is also t
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The first cold night of the year arrives on a Tuesday in October. By six in the morning, thermostats all over town are asking furnaces to do something they haven't done since April. Some of those furnaces won't start.
At a family-run heating and cooling compa
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