Today is Monday, September 30, 2024. Today is the last day in September and tomorrow is October 1. Boy, how fast the year is fading. I wrote that I would like to rename my blog starting tomorrow and I got one suggestion from my friend “Gene” to name it along the lines of “And So It Goes,” which is a song by Billy Joel, I discovered. “So It Goes” is a reference to a phrase popularized by Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse Five, written in 1969. I like “That’s the Way It Is,” which I now discover is a Celine Dion tune. Maybe “My Reflections of the Day” is an apt title. Let me think about it; I’ll unveil the new name when I can. Tomorrow is the much-anticipated vice presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance, but it conflicts with my gay men’s reading club and I do want to attend this meeting since I’ve missed two sessions already. I could tape the debate, but it’s definitely more fun watching it in real time.

So the big news other than the supercharged presidential campaign is the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene across six states, with the death toll currently at 128 people. A CNN update on the aftermath of the hurricane is provided today on my smartphone entitled “The latest on the aftermath of Hurricane Helene,” written by Mary Gilbert, Alisha Ebrahimji, and Rachel Ramirez.

So far, many more people remain missing and officials fear the death toll can rise. There are those who are unable to leave their location or unable to contact family where communications infrastructure is in shreds.

Hundreds of roads remain closed, especially in the Carolinas, hampering the delivery of badly needed supplies. And more than 2 million customers remain without power, according to poweroutage.us.

As if anyone needed this, there’s a medium chance a new storm could develop in the western Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico later this week. It’s too early to know where it’ll go from there, so anyone near the Gulf will need to monitor the forecast.

President Joe Biden will visit some of the affected communities later this week, “as soon as it will not disrupt emergency response operations,” the White House indicated.

As for North Carolina, there is no official number for how many people are unaccounted for in this state as of this afternoon, Governor Roy Cooper said.

Cooper emphasized search and rescue teams are still out on missions and once cell service gets restored, it will be easier to determine how many people are missing.

Buncombe County, where Asheville is located, also did not have a specific number of people missing, County Manager Avril Pinder said.

One of the frustrating realities of this massive storm is the total collapse of cellular communications in Canton and Haywood County, according to Canton’s mayor, Deb Smathers. Smathers bemoaned the fact that he cannot respond to constituents’ needs because of the spotty cellular service. The frustrated mayor said, “There are families living in turmoil because they can’t make a simple cell phone call 72 hours after this storm. We can’t communicate with crisis management to deliver supplies, because we don’t know what we have and what people need.”

Another big story coming out of the Middle East is the Israeli announcement that the military has begun a “limited ground operation” into Lebanon targeting Hezbollah. This operation comes days after Israel assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The escalation in the war has killed civilians, destroyed homes, and displaced 1 million people in Lebanon. Israeli officials promise that there will be no long-term occupation of Lebanon. So let’s see if this escalation doesn’t lead to a more prolonged conflict in yet another region in the Middle East.

Today I went all in with addressing my postcards for unregistered voters in Pennsylvania. Even though I went out for breakfast and met my usual “breakfast club,” I spent most of the afternoon writing out the postcards. As of this writing, I’ve finished writing 40 postcards. I have 30 more to go. I intend to finish before traveling to Cherry Hill to spend Rosh Hashanah with my friend “Harold” and his family. I’m sure I will be able to do that, after complaining that I didn’t have much time with which to complete them.

Today also marked the day that our car was repaired – finally – after our garage attendant, “Larry,” brought it into his brother’s body shop early in the morning. Thus I had to hang around most of the day since I expected a call sometime in the afternoon from Larry or the manager there, “Joey.” When I didn’t hear from the garage by 3:45 p.m., I called the garage to comprehend as to why the car wasn’t finished and why I wasn’t called yet. Joey told me that I would get a call from Larry very soon; actually, the car was first ready sometime after 5. OK; at least the shop didn’t take an extra day to complete it. When I knew exactly when the car was now back in the garage, I brought a check with me with the remainder of what was owed Larry: $850. We already gave Larry a check for $400 on Friday. Earlier, we were provided with a $950 estimate, but when I asked that the rear bumper be repaired on the passenger side as well, we were charged an extra fee. Which is understandable! All in all, we paid much, much less for the job than if we took it to another body shop. So I went back to the garage after 5, and was brought to where the car was parked by Larry, where I saw the results of the repair job. To my untrained eye, the car looked almost brand new. However, Larry urged me not to take the car out tomorrow, but to wait until Wednesday to first use it because of the new paint job on it.

So there you have it!

Again, I don’t think I’ll be here tomorrow to attend my reading group which is discussing All Down Darkness Wide by Sean Hewitt.

Stay safe and be well.