I don’t often sit down at my computer early Saturday morning, but I forgot Monday is a
holiday and therefore this column was due Friday at 4 p.m. Consequently I am not sure it will get published this week. Hope so.

This note from Ashley Tibbetts gives us more information about the Halloween Celebration this year at the Southport Town Hall organized by the Southport Island Association. All are invited, wearing costumes or not. If you do don a costume, you can join in the costume fashion show! You can also participate in the chili cook-off and in a fun “trunk or treat” experience in lieu of organized door-to-door trick or treating (which we still encourage). The doors open at 5 p.m. on Oct. 31, Halloween night, with the fashion show beginning at 6. Update will be posted to the SIA's Facebook page, and if anyone has any questions they can reach out to southporthalloween@gmail.com or call Eden at 513-739-2422.

Before that event we can celebrate the fall season on Oct. 26 at the Southport Island Store where there will be a Fall Festival from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m.

It was great to see Jennifer Elderkin in the parking lot at St. Andrews Village, but not great to learn the reasons she has travelled here from her home in Australia. Her mother, June Elderkin, is in the Zimmerli Pavilion of St. Andrews Village receiving help to recover from sever back pain. Jennifer’s brother is also here as well as her husband, Jim, who has been working here this summer. You can send cards or drop by for a visit.

From Nick Hurd comes an account of the travels he and his family members are enjoying or have recently completed. “Daughter Jennifer Hurd Auber is traveling in Japan for the next few weeks while her daughter, Symmi, (after working in San Diego for a few years to save up for her dream trip) is in Bali for the next month or so taking yoga classes before she embarks on a extended backpacking trip around Asia. Joan and I spent most of September cruising in Croatia and traveling to London and Sicily. The latter was especially exciting as our fabulous travel agent retained a genealogist to go to my grandparents’ ancestral hilltop town to hopefully identify some long lost relatives. They worked on it during the spring and summer, but they said the people in this remote town were very provincial, few spoke English, and they generally were uncooperative. All disappointing, but at least we tried. We stayed in Palermo for four days where our agent planned fascinating personal tours and side trips. When our terrific driver/guide drove us to Salemi, we were surprised to learn that they had actually been successful, and I met cousins who shared my great-grandfather. They took me to the home where my grandfather was born, and they still owned an ancient building where the family’s soap works business was housed. All in all a memorable day.

"Naturally, we caught colds on the plane home which laid us up for most of last week. As we recovered we had another special treat - learning yesterday that Joan’s cousin, Geoffrey Hinton, had been awarded a Nobel prize for his work in identifying underpinnings in machine learning. He has been in the limelight for the past year being dubbed ‘The Father of Artificial Intelligence,’ warning of the dangers it might possess if not managed appropriately. Their great-great-grandfather, George Boole, is credited with defining the Binary System on which today’s computers operate so it’s fun to have various generations make important contributions. Hope we live long enough to see what our grandchildren might have to offer. The good news this morning is that our home in Vero Beach apparently successfully weathered hurricane Milton.”

Thanks, Nick!

I did not get to the flu shot opportunity at the Southport Town Hall last Thursday, but assume it went well. I received a notice saying there will be a drive by clinic at the Family Care Center on Friday, Oct. 18 from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. Perhaps those of us still needing a vaccination can get it there.

Southporter Betsy Thibault is looking for a job housesitting and/or pet sitting. You will see her brochures at the post office and the Southport General Store. Please call her at 207-315-6419 if you can offer such a job or have a lead to one.

Absentee ballots are still available until 5 p.m. Oct. 31 at the Southport Town Hall. If you are going to be out of town or cannot get to the town hall during voting hours, here is your chance to make your voice count.