October 30, 2020-

I have a day off, and am using it to take care of several loose ends- not the least of which was returning the classroom key that I had pocketed yesterday morning, and promptly forgot.

It is a crisp, mild morning, here in Prescott-with a forecast that the weather will remain so, through next Friday-after which cold, but still dry, weather will predominate.

A woman, who I could fairly call the Angel of Manhattan, passed on, early this morning. She was the mother of a cherished friend and colleague here, and I had the honour of meeting her twice, on her visits to Prescott. She was an intensely active worker in New York Public Schools, during her working years, and treated all her charges as her own children-which is the idea, when one works with kids. In the end, she was graced by her biological children at her side, and went to her Lord, in her sleep.

People in Izmir, Turkey and Samos, Greece were not so graced. The earthquake and subsequent tsunami that ravaged the southeast Aegean, earlier today, left 12 dead and nearly 400 injured in Turkey, with 2 dead and scores of others injured in Samos. This occurred around the same time as the latest in a series of “minor” quakes took place west of New Delhi and in India’s northeast. There were no reports of casualties, from the Indian tremors. Nonetheless, changes of season tend to bring an uptick in serious earthquakes and the actual tsunami that occurred in the Aegean harkens back to the horrific event of December 26, 2004- when the entire Indian Ocean basin was ravaged.

The last two days of October find me feeling like the coming month, leading up to my eighth decade, will be especially purpose-driven. All the plans I described in an earlier post seem to be still on, with the addition of possible jury duty, from Tuesday-Friday of next week. It would be my first such experience, as all previous summonses have ended up being canceled, at the last minute. Stay tuned.