The County Fair is now 29 minutes from the new Socotra HQ out in McLean, so we missed some of the excitement just south of Route 50, east of the old complex at Big Pink. Since it takes nearly half an hour, we will leave in about an hour to be there when they open at ten.

Things will go on at the Thomas Jefferson Community Center until after dark tonight, though we’re unlikely to last that long. It means Deirdre only had to do some cursory breakfast and coffee, leaving us an hour to get there when things launch off on a thinner-than-usual breakfast spread.

This is much easier than what is happening out in the Hawaiian Archipelago. We talked yesterday about the 53rd episode in this series of eruptions at Kilauea, the fury of red magma shooting and oozing from the earth. Today, Tropical Storm LaLa—soon expected to intensify to hurricane strength—is bearing down on the Big Island and will have an impact later today, hopefully veering south of the islands as it moves northwest.

Hilo is bracing for a blow, and our hearts are with them.

We have three members of the Creative Section who lived on Oahu in November of 1982, when Hurricane Iwa passed just miles west of Kauai at just about highway maximum speed. They report there was severe property damage and a then-record quarter-billion dollars in losses. They had departed the blissful Islands for the Fifteen Minute Counties here in NoVA by the time Hurricane Iniki roared through in 1992 with even more chaos.

Our hearts and prayers are with everyone in the Islands as we relax on the fairground and enjoy the real live music, great food, rides and activities.

Miles decreed a general day of relaxation for the whole crew, since things are liable to be bouncing around in several directions as we roll through the weekend.

The conflict in the Gulf continues. Reports of trouble on Navy ships now deployed for nearly ten months without shore leave make a deployment resemble a County stretch for felonious activity. Vic claims he did something similar on Midway, but we laugh at him and say the kids out there today wouldn’t be jumping off the ship if they had weekends in Subic, Pattaya Beach, Perth or Mombasa.

“I had spent a good part of my life around the great machines of the Industrial Age. Midway had been commissioned while the Pacific War was still raging, and years later I arrived aboard her by Carrier Onboard Delivery while she was underway in the Sea of Japan. You could hear those machines, smell them and feel them vibrating through the soles of your shoes.”

He slid his tablet toward the big jug of Black Rifle coffee in the middle of the Conference Table. He leaned back in the ergonomic chair.

“Now, the machinery is disappearing. People walk through glittering glass towers with little white buds in their ears, fingers moving across sheets of glass, talking apparently to no one. Information arrives from somewhere beyond sight. Machines answer back.”

Miles nodded and Holly laughed. Vic leaned in and topped off his mug.

“It isn’t that the technology became less complicated. It became invisible.”

Deirdre made a wave toward the exit as she hefted a set of folding chairs.

“Off to the Fair! The only sensible word for it is magic. And I don’t have to cook!”

Copyright 2026 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com