At Precision Motors in Caldwell...

Kathryn Bigelow's riveting movie, The Hurt Locker, about a U.S. Army bomb squad in Iraq, has the verisimilitude of a documentary. The title is bomb squad slang for the world of pain the soldiers will be in if they fail to "clear" one of the roadside improvised explosive devices they spend their days tracking down and disarming.

Somewhat closer to home, I visited another, much milder kind of hurt locker...

My aches and pains are nothing compared to those this man unkinks in my 20-year-old BMW, whose 189,000 miles dwarf even the large number of annums on my odometer.

for leaving my camera at home during a quick stop at my mechanic's place in Caldwell to drop off my car. All I had with me was my brand new iPhone.

Click "read the rest of this post" to see full picture.

It wasn't waving as I passed by the other day, at the intersection of Bloomfield Avenue, Fairfield Avenue, and Clinton Road in Caldwell. The air was so calm and humid, the flag wasn't even wavering.

But it will, and soon enough to remind us the fourth arrives in four days.