The Local Author Book Fair takes over the Norman P. Murray Community Center, 24932 Veterans Way in Mission Viejo, 5–8 p.m. Free, no registration, all ages. Local writers plus a few USA Today bestsellers — Ellie Hall, Gigi Blume, Greta Boris, Melanie Jacobson — talking about their books and selling them. It's the only real Friday-night thing on any of the three calendars, and it's a good one.

Football, with a warning. Tesoro hosts El Modena at 7, and that one is actually at home — 1 Tesoro Creek Rd, Las Flores. Santa Margarita is "home" against Highland at 7, but home means Saddleback College, 28000 Marguerite Pkwy in Mission Viejo — not the RSM campus. Tickets run $13.60 adult, $6 senior, $4 for kids 5–14, your phone is the ticket, there's a parking fee, and the gate turns away insulated and refillable bottles (sealed plastic only). Mission Viejo is up at Folsom and Trabuco Hills is in Ventura — both away, both a haul.

Zero Trash meets at 9:45 a.m. outside Cinépolis in RSM, 30632 Santa Margarita Pkwy, and picks up from 10 to noon. Free, first Saturday of the month, anyone can show up.

The Mission Viejo Farmers Market & Crafts runs 9 to 1 at the North Paseo, 25282 Marguerite Pkwy. The library adds Stories and Signs at 10:30 — a storytime for ages 2 to 6 built around American Sign Language. Free.

The last waterslide Saturday of the year. Montanoso (25800 Montanoso Dr) and Sierra (26887 Recodo Ln) run the slide Saturdays only, noon to 4, Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend — and this is the last Saturday in that window. Rec swim opens at noon either way.

Saturday night: Fitz and the Tantrums, plus fireworks, at Lake Mission Viejo— 7 p.m. at North Beach, 61 Candles opening, fireworks right after at about 9:15. Access, clearly: members and their invited guests only. Members need their physical Lake ID to get in. Guests have to be registered ahead of time ([email protected]), passes are $20 a head, up to four per household, and guests have to walk in with the member. There's no public ticket. If you're not a member and don't know one, this one isn't open to you — but you'll hear it.

The Ladera Ranch Certified Farmers Market sets up at Daisy St. and Avendale Blvd., 9 to 1, more than fifty vendors. Open to everybody, year-round, no resident card.

Quiet otherwise — the Mission Viejo Library runs a free Computer Basics 101 session at 10 a.m., and that's about it.

Thin week. Nothing new opened its doors, but two are close.

Pasta Viva — 27670 Santa Margarita Pkwy, Mission Viejo. The Irvine pasta shop is building out a second location: pasta made in house from flour imported from Italy, focaccia sandwiches, and a meatball plate they call the Gladiator. The target is late summer, which is now. No date yet.

Wholesome Choice — 24021 Marguerite Pkwy, in the old Orchard Supply Hardware. A big specialty grocer with Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Asian, European and Latin American aisles; it would be their third in the county. September was the stated target and September is here, but there's still no announced day.

It's Labor Day, and the answer is more closed than you'd think.

Closed all day. Mission Viejo and RSM city halls. All three libraries — Mission Viejo's, which the city runs, and the RSM and Ladera Ranch branches, which the county runs. If you were counting on the library for a cool, free, three-hour Monday, plan again.

Open. RSM's Central Park splash pad, 30842 La Miranda — 10 to 5, free, no card, ages 2 to 12 with an adult along. It runs daily through Sunday, Sept. 27, so there are about three weeks left on it.

Trash slides a day. Waste Management in Mission Viejo and CR&R in RSM and Ladera both observe Labor Day, so if your pickup day is Monday or later, everything shifts back one for that week.

Pools: call first. Montanoso and Sierra normally open rec swim at noon, but holiday hours weren't posted as of Wednesday. 949-859-4348 — option 2 for Montanoso, option 3 for Sierra.

O'Neill Regional Park, 30892 Trabuco Canyon Rd — about fifteen minutes past RSM, so we'll call it an honorary fourth town.

Everyone points at the 23 miles of trail, and they're good. But the real reason to go on a hot holiday Monday is the canyon floor: coast live oak and sycamore packed thick enough that it's a different climate down there. Picnic tables, a playground, horseshoe pits, restrooms, and enough shade to spend four hours without thinking about it.

Open 7 a.m. to sunset. Parking is $3 on weekdays and $5 on weekends, and holidays can run higher. Public — no membership, no card.

Repair Café OC is back Saturday, Sept. 12, 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Sycamore A at the Murray Center — free, walk-in, bring the wobbly bike or the lamp that stopped working. And RSM's Patriot Day commemoration is Friday, Sept. 11, 5:30–6:30 p.m. at Civic Plaza. Free, no registration.

Three-day weekend, one question: are you going somewhere, or are you staying gloriously put? Hit reply and tell us — we read every one.

And if a neighbor would like this, forward it. That's still how OSO grows.

— OSO