Looking for Sun, A Road Run and A Campaign Begun

Missing: The sun.

Last seen: Over Rockville sometime Sunday afternoon.

If found please return to the sky so that we all can get on with September.

What can I say? No “Happy Friday, Rockville!” today. The time for niceties is over. We need to tell Mother Nature we’re not happy. (The second appearance for that clip in the history of “The Rundown,” I believe. Maybe I need anger management classes.)

The rain fits the mood this week. Not a lot of happy news.

President Obama took to TV last night to talk about jobs, how there aren’t enough and what he plans to do about it.

Sept. 11 is Sunday. A lot has happened in the decade since the attacks. But, as with everyone else old enough to remember where he or she were that day, there are triggers that take me right back like it was yesterday. We’ll have coverage of some of the ways people are marking the day in the days to come.

Even with the soggy weather the Nats still found a way to lose on Thursday afternoon before the real heavy rain came. On an up note, the O’s won. Beat the Yankees. Only 30 games back now.

Here’s the “cue The Shirelles” edition of “The Rundown”:

• Looking for a way to brighten the weekend—even without the sun? Try a new restaurant.
• The county’s Community Service Week is Oct. 16-22. Information sessions about how to get involved are being held over the next two weeks around the county including from 11 a.m. to noon Saturday at .
• If it’s not the rain it’s the runners. (We like runners. Rain, not so much.) As far as road closures due to the rain went this week, Rockville .
  Residents should be on the lookout for runners on the roads near Town Center and along Veirs Mill Road early Sunday.
  Montgomery County Road Runners are sponsoring the 6th annual Parks Half-Marathon on Sunday morning from Rockville to Bethesda. The race starts at 7 a.m. on South Stonestreet Avenue near Town Center and will use the right-hand lane on Veirs Mill Road for two miles before turning off onto the Rock Creek Trail.
  With cooler temperatures here, the Road Runners are sponsoring a number of other road races in and around Rockville in the weeks to come.
• Today is the filing deadline for candidates for Rockville mayor and council.
  Signs of the campaign season are popping up around town, including a kickoff announcement for Councilman Bridget Donnell Newton’s reelection bid at 6:30 this evening in front of 225 North Washington Street, the site of the proposed grocery at Rockville Town Square.
  Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio will hold a campaign kickoff meeting at 7 p.m. at the home of Claire Whitaker at 205 Evans Street. For more information, call Tim Fahey at 202-276-3263.
  Meanwhile, our friends at Rockville Central recently noticed this sign of the season in a former auto dealership building on Rockville Pike.
• Need to register to vote in the city election? The city’s Human Rights Commission is hosting a voter registration drive from noon to 2 p.m. tomorrow at .
• The Rockville City Council returns from its summer recess on Monday. The agenda includes an annexation public hearing and discussions on school construction, congressional redistricting and citizens’ boards and commissions.
• . I happily found free parking in the Town Square garage earlier this week as Federal Realty converts to its new parking system. (But I was a bit sad to see that the large signs depicting the Glenview Mansion and other city landmarks had been removed.)
  With a new parking system where you can get two hours free with a purchase and validation from a Town Square business and pay upon exit, I’m less likely to get a parking ticket in the garage.
  But if you do get a ticket, the city is offering a new way to pay online.
• The weather is wreaking havoc on the high school sports schedule, as head football coach Kevin Bernot expressed in a tweet shortly before 10 p.m. on Thursday: 
  @coachbernot Feel bad for our JV players and coaches, PB game postponed last Sat. And this weeks game on hold as well. They're itching to play!!
  Meanwhile, this week’s varsity game has been moved to 7 p.m. on Monday at . The Rams varsity fell to Paint Branch 39-6 in last week’s season opener.
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Correction: An earlier version of this article gave the wrong day for the Parks Half-Marathon. The race is Sunday. This version corrects the date in the third bullet point. Rockville Patch regrets the error.