This posting will have lots of images, since because of the heat last time, few images could be posted. So now lots of visuals that tell their own stories, as a picture is worth a thousand words.

I'm missing my grandson Kingston, now age 11, who spent some months in this area about 3 years ago with his mother and sister, staying with his father, my son Jonathan, in W Va. But after 5 months, as winter set in, they all went back to Hawaii. Here is Kingston as he was then.

Last time, I mentioned my late son Andrew's birthday, Sept. 4. Here I am sitting by his gravestone in my backyard.

Below, late son Andrew and I appear together in my Confessions book.

Flowers have been blooming all over the neighborhood during this summer season. Here are some. (When does fall start? It certainly doesn't feel like fall yet.)

What is this?

A friend who was in NYC for a meeting in one of the twin towers on 9/11, but had turned back just in time, told me that she had “especially liked a program on MSNBC -- survivors and family members of victims interviewed in 2002 and again in 2021, the 20th anniversary. All had aged and changed. One man, whose wife was killed at the Pentagon, talked about his guilt at ending the search for his wife on 9/11 and going home to his kids, whom he'd rescued from Pentagon daycare that day. In the 2022 interview, he related that he'd moved his family to Shepherdstown, WV, because he’d feared another attack. He enrolled his young kids in the local public school there and had befriended a Muslim schoolteacher --insisting that his kids be in her classes. The dad showed pics of his adult kids--one just graduated from Harvard, the second was on her way to law school. A very nice story.”

Wash. Post, Police didn’t fully secure murder suspect who fled GWU Hospital, chief says A local murder suspect went on the lam.

Metropolitan Police Department Public Affairs Specialist Hannah Glasgow Emergency Alert. 30-year-old Christopher Haynes escaped custody at GW Hospital in 900 block of 23rd St NW at 3:38 p.m. He is described as a black male with shoulder-length dreadlocks, wearing a white suit with one red shoe. He is not handcuffed. He was in custody for homicide. UPDATE: Haynes was last seen with black handcuffs hanging from his right wrist wearing a black t-shirt and gray shorts. Do not engage, call 911.

ABC News, Escaped convict Danelo Cavalcante spotted with altered appearance, Pennsylvania police say The tower guard on duty when the prisoner escaped has been fired. The fugitive, age 34, has been sighted in the area with a shaven face and wearing a hoody but seems to have escaped the search perimeter. He is now armed with a rifle stolen from a home (so often firearms kept at home prove not protective, but dangerous). The man’s undocumented sister has been arrested. If escapee Cavalcante could somehow manage to cross over into Mexico and keep on heading south, he'd eventually reach his native Brazil, despite also being wanted for murder there. This guy is ruthless, focused, and very ingenious.

Flash update! Yahoo News, Pennsylvania manhunt: Police finally capture Danelo Cavalcante 2 weeks after prison escape Authorities said Danelo Cavalcante was subdued by a police dog before officers took him into custody.

Pennsylvania police were not about to let this guy go free so they threw everything but the kitchen sink at the search: massive manpower, helicopters, dogs.

Back on August 23, 2011, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake damaged the Washington Monument and shook me as I sat at my computer in my 3^rd-floor office. Old decorative perfume bottles fell off a nearby shelf and shattered. It felt and sounded to me like a giant stomping up the stairs and shaking the whole house. I held my breath and gripped the arms of my chair. I’ve also experienced earthquakes in Latin America. You feel suddenly shocked and helpless as everything begins to shake. Then the shaking stops, then starts up again. How long after it gets quiet do you feel safe? I feel calm now writing all this on the computer, but knowing that everything could start shaking again at any time. There is speculation now that the sky lit up just before the Morocco earthquake. Was that a momentary warning signal, something that may not always happen?

Wash. Post, Nearly 2,500 dead; officials accept some search-and-rescue aid Authorities and aid groups are still looking for survivors of the 6.8-magnitude quake that destroyed homes and shattered lives throughout the High Atlas Mountains.

After the deadly 6.8 earthquake that has hit Morocco, a man rushed home to find his wife and 3 sons all dead. Having traveled myself around that part of Morocco where the earthquake has struck, I can well envision the scene and the damage. Earthquakes, which strike without warning, don’t allow any time for escape or preparation. A fire or flood may permit a few minutes for escape, but an earthquake is something that is happening right now!

Reuters, Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupts for the third time this year

I’ve stood at night near the rim of that Hawaii volcano, my face flushed from the heat as a river of hot molten lava flowed out continuously down to the sea, erupting there in a huge cloud of steam.

This has come from a friend In Nigeria: “We have been told that the fuel subsidy has gone for good. But the hardship it has inflicted on the people is too much, as government has not put any sustainable cushioning policy/measures in place.”

Here above is a greeting that came in from a friend visiting Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Another friend living out west sent this reminder of how the west was settled.

Here are some neighborhood scenes, including an image of this controversial statue of Lincoln in our local park of the same name.

A lone frog was spotted in Rick Creek Park.

DC Central Kitchen students won a cooking contest.

Here below is a typical yard sale. I don't attend yard sales as I already have way too much

stuff, rather should hold a yard sale of my own.

Above, local artist Michelle Turner's latest house drawing. I don't know who the artist is below.

Here, a child's hair braids display another sort of artistry.

A baby shower cake announces the pending birth of a little girl.

Yum, another tasty cake is on sale locally.

Fake "bank" robocalls are becoming increasingly annoying, but seem impossible to block.

Wash. Post, Voice Deepfakes Are Coming for Your Bank Balance

Voice fakes were not involved with my own recent bank account theft; vast sums of money simply disappeared in silence.

BBC News, Cuba uncovers Russia-Ukraine war trafficking ring The Cuban foreign ministry says it has uncovered a human trafficking ring aimed at recruiting Cubans to fight for Russia in its war in Ukraine. It said that Cubans living in Russia and "even some in Cuba" had been "incorporated into the military forces taking part in the war in Ukraine".

I’ve known about some married fathers both in the US and Honduras having sex with other men on the side. Are they gay or straight or both? A male lover once told me he had fantasized about having a sex encounter with another man. No woman of my acquaintance has been openly “bi” but a few have written love letters to other women while remaining married to men. Is sexual/romantic attraction more fluid that we usually suppose? My own best friends have always been female, but I’ve never actually been physically or romantically attracted to any. Of course, I grew up in another era, when mores were much stricter than they are now.

During my long life, I’ve also had woman friends whose husbands carried on affairs while the wives remained oblivious—or were they really? Or mothers whose offspring engaged in shady activities, often involving thefts or drug use, of which the mothers seemed blissfully unaware. Keeping or ignoring everyday secrets may smooth over many human relationships. These observations make me wonder if there are some glaringly obvious aspects of my own relationships/friendships about which I remain blissfully ignorant?

Both our local Safeway and the nearby CVS Superstore have no carts whatsoever available for customers because too many have been stolen. A shopper laments this lack: “Staff is inattentive and act like you’re bothering them. No carts!! I have to limit what I buy because I can’t haul around all the things I need.” How costly would it be to put in an automatic system, available in some other DC store locations, whereby carts automatically stop at a perimeter and groceries are carried from there? Theft of grocery carts does not happen in the suburbs or small towns, only in the city where they may prove useful to those who steal them. There is also now inner-city rampant theft, as local package thieves have amply shown. Is that an expression of culture spurred on by the example of others, or due to feelings of relative deprivation on the part of black residents incentivizing them to engage in such behavior? I’m asking that question as someone with family members who identify as black (and don’t go around snatching packages).

“Pro-baby” or “pro-child” rather than “pro-life” sounds much better and identifies what actually is at stake. Pro-child should also involve moral and material support for babies already born.

NY Times, In Post-Roe America, Nikki Haley Seeks a New Path on Abortion for GOP

Haley stakes out broad areas of what she sees as national agreement, including a ban on “late term” abortions, encouraging adoption, providing contraception and not criminalizing women who have the procedure.

Next Shark, Nikki Haley is only GOP presidential candidate to decisively beat Joe Biden in new poll

What did I tell you? Women will vote for her. I might even vote for her myself, though never having voted before for a Republican. Of course, even though she would have a good chance of winning, it’s unlikely that the Republican Party will actually nominate her for the presidency, at best, only as vice president. If she were vp on a ticket with Trump or Ron DeSantis, that would not get my vote.

Most ads show fathers not only changing diapers and bathing babies, but now also in the kitchen helping kids learn to cook. Often these fathers are black. Does that happen in real life? Not so much. But the ads do get our attention.

Below, giant pandas at the National Zoo are due to return to China by year's end.

Wash. Post, The 3 soloists chosen for an orchestra performance? Barking dogs. The dogs bark on cue. My son, a dog lover, was amused by this report.

On the neighborhood website, a woman whose beloved dog has died is looking for another, “I am a better, happier, healthier human with a dog to love and care for.”

Another neighbor announced the death of his beloved pet dog, posting “with great sadness that my one true love, Captain Jack, entered into immorality.” [Did he mean immortality?]

Still another neighbor posted, “Hello friends, I want to share with you some very sad news...Yesterday afternoon my 4-legged son was run over and the doctors could not do anything anymore. Unfortunately, my baby died.”

Here below are some local missing pets, some now found by others. Cats that get out often and are climbers become lost more often than dogs.