It was the Autumnal Equinox a few minutes ago but we think we survived. We will see if there are a few seconds less light today, though the low-hanging clouds may provide some of the ambiguity to which we have become accustomed.

We have adopted a pink-ish tone to the morning that retains a certain honey-tone of alertness with just a tinge of crimson as a reminder that something just might go sideways. Hezbollah responded to their element of the crisis by firing 150 rockets into northern Israel. Their leadership is in a bit of a frazzle these days after the uniquely personal attacks on their pagers and radios, so they did the best they could. Now, the IDF jets are pounding even the deep targets. One of the explosions, amid the 400 or so reported, was so large as to spark comment as “a first use” of something more not described.

It would look a lot like general war, except it is still part of the proxy equation that leads back further north. How that will be resolved has the ambiguity associated with the election here, and voting new voting blocks to be appeased.

We took a poll and will vote early and in person as a small group next week after the Registrar gets organized and then participate in the carnival as spectators only.

Hezbollah has more than another hundred thousand rockets, so this is likely to continue for a while. The war up north is hot as well. Ukraine’s embattled President Zelenskyy has announced some development in his scheme to use borrowed rockets to attack the attackers of his land deep in theirs.

That is a “this week” issue. There are a stack of them!

We were handed the folder with the stickies all over it and the scrawl “October Surprise” on the tab on top. We normally mark the equinox with a solemn gesture at the sky to observe the equal division of our day at twelve light and twelve darker. It is what passes for an ‘epiphany’ in this time of artificially elevated anxiety, though not as dramatic the event it describes from older days in one of the same cities. But it has the same sort of spirit, you know?

Equinoxes are special. On this one in 1776, the British hanged Revolutionary War soldier Nathan Hale as a spy. He is a figure of some note for those of us who were in his trade. Yesterday was the anniversary of Benedict Arnold’s transition from hero to traitor. We are not sure we completely disagree with his decision to sell West Point to the British in exchange for a position in their army, but situations do change like our seasons in a regular order.

Or irregular. Steve is a pilot without a last name, unusual in some circumstances other than abbreviated journalistic cant. He was flying from Scottsbluff, NE to Oregon yesterday but had some irregular engine performance and had to land his plane. He looked at fields and decided the lanes of Interstate 25 near exit 37 north of Cheyenne were a better bet. He recovered safely, parked in the safety lane, conducted repairs, and re-launched without incident.

That is what we are hoping for here. The October surprise thing is surprising, you know?

We had been wondering what would follow the debate about the Debate. We had thought it might be about a government shut-down, but the steam appears to have come out of that balloon, since shutting down the government in the face of external and internal controversy verging on atomic conflict seems a little- you now, like kind of irresponsible.

Despite being declared the winner in the debate, the Vice President has absorbed some criticism for her practiced responses to fairly routine questions. Her interview with Oprah was convincing enough that we would considered voting for Oprah. She at least seems to be pretty well on top of what she is doing.

The other candidate dropped by the show Greg Gutfield does in the evening, which turned the alt-late night entree into the most watched program on television for the evening. Go figure- we can’t.

The sum? With the Equinox today, we are going to try to keep things balanced and equal in application. The amount of daylight will change slightly each day, diminishing toward the election and beyond when they assure us there will be more light. Odds are, that part may be true. We are hoping for gradual change rather than an abrupt flash.

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com