• You can take a friend for free to the Tracy Byrd Concert Oct. 10 at the University of North Florida’s Fine Arts Center. Tickets range from $10 for students to $28 and $44 for adults. If you purchase a ticket at face value by 5 p.m. Monday, you’ll get a second ticket at no charge. Byrd’s hits include “Keeper of the Stars,” which was the Academy of Country Music’s ‘Song of the Year’ in 1996. For details, call 620-2878 or visit www.unf.edu/fineartscenter.
• It’s pumpkin time again. The pumpkin patch has returned to Ortega, near the Ortega United Methodist Church, on Highway 17 to supply materials for jack o’ lanterns and pumpkin pies.
• Thursday’s Jacksonville Waterways Commission meeting could draw a good-sized crowd. Representatives from the Jacksonville Port Authority will be on hand to talk about the proposed cruise line terminal in Mayport village. The meeting is at 9 a.m. in City Council Chambers.
• People will steal anything these days: At least three vehicles were burglarized Wednesday in the parking garage on Bay Street between Main and Laura streets. Thieves didn’t make off with premium sound systems or GPS units, they were after the catalytic converters and probably were headed to a metal recycling facility. The pollution-control devices contain platinum, which closed at $1012.50 an ounce Wednesday. By comparison, gold closed at $866.25.
• Very early arrivers at the County Courthouse Thursday morning had to wait a few minutes to get in the door. About 6 a.m. two empty water bottles were spotted on the floor on the mezzanine level of the building, prompting a lockdown and investigation.