There is plenty of stuff we could launch off on this morning. We have the noisy echoes of the big Electrical Storm that blew through Fairfax after midnight and bounced off the tall buildings for more than an hour, rousing nearly everyone to watch the show from the Conference Room.

We kept the power on through the night but things just went dead in the dawn, so there could be a slower start than usual this morning, and the power to the freezers and breakfast machines is a sudden uncertainty. But we have to get to the laboring to get prepared for the Labor Day holiday, the fifth or sixth big celebration of this magical summer.

They say another band of those gray-black cloud towers will be back this afternoon in a swatch linking Detroit and Fairfax under the same shadows.

So, in addition to a watchful eye on the skies to the NW, we need to get organized for the big labors that will start right after 9/11. Word this morning is that digging will start to erect the big Arc de Triumph over in the circle by the right turn our runners used to take to cross the Potomac on the daily run from the Pentagon north to Memorial Bridge and across to the National Mall.

The Trump administration said Thursday that excavation work will start over the next two weeks on the site where it plans to build the towering, triumphal structure. It is supposed to look like this:

The arch is one of several projects President Donald Trump is pursuing, including renaming and renovating the Kennedy Center, building a new White House ballroom, refurbishing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and rebuilding a golf course in East Potomac Park.

The Arch has people agitated, of course, as do all the others. But we took a poll of the Socotra House Creative Section who are likely to be interred within site of the thing, and at least think it will be useful to find the
Columbarium!

Copyright 2026 Vic Socotra
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