(Big Pink’s Old School Pool before the project begins next week).

There is a lot we could get to in this edition of The Daily, now that things are pretty much buttoned up from the summer. Old Jim, Chanteuse Mary and Camus the Wonder Hound are driving to Las Vegas this morning.

The Pope of the Holy See is addressing the Congress of the United States as I peck at the keyboard. I am not a member of his church, but applaud his energy, if not all of his issues. I am going to stay away from all of them this morning.

The region has been nuts since the Holy Father touched down at Joint Base Andrews and rode in his little Fiat 500 into town, surrounded by a hulking cordon of up-armored Secret Service SUVs.

I could talk about the impending visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping. I have a lot of issues with China these days, not the least of which is my anemic 401Kand was morbidly interested to read that the Office of Personnel Mis-management announced that the large-scale breach of its servers resulted in the theft of 5.6 million sets of fingerprints, rather than the 1.1 million previously thought to have been “lifted,” if I may be permitted the term.

The total number of individuals affected by the two breaches announced last summer remains the same, at 21.5 million. The smart money says Xi’s people were responsible, and scooping up the SF-86 security clearance applications (along with air travel data bases) was a bonanza for the PRC’s intelligence services.

With the two data streams, they can identify travel by Intelligence Community people, cleared people with Chinese ancestry, and potential exploits for all sorts of counterintelligence mischief.

To reassure those of us affected, OPM also helpfully included in the announcement that “the ability to misuse fingerprint data is limited.”

That may be true, but in the search for biometric means to authentic personal information, I have my doubts.

Anyway, there is one last thing to close out the season. I wandered out of the unit yesterday to check the temperature. Cool but not cold, pleasant, really, and the pool beckoned as seductively as a Hong Kong honey pot trap. It was deceptively normal, though quiet:

(Yesterday, from my patio).

I walked around the fence snapping shots. I could have gone down to the desk and got a key to something else that works in the lock on the pool gate, but didn’t want to get in trouble with Leo the Engineer.

(Yesterday- just as it is supposed to be).

Just a few moments ago I heard some scraping outside the unit and went to investigate. Peter and the Building Porters were just finishing up removing the last of the pool deck furniture out.

(This morning).

They will start draining the pool today and tomorrow.

Major demolition starts Monday. It is going to be a major pain for those of us who live next to the chaos. But I have always thrived in that sort of environment, and if they actually fix the pipes buried deep under the concrete, maybe the heater will actually work and the shimmering blue water will not be so painfully cold next season.

I guess we will see, won’t we? What could go wrong with the low-bidding contractor?

Copyright 2015 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303