One piece of civic business before the weekend fun: Thursday, August 6 is Election Day — state and federal primaries, polls open 8 in the morning to 8 at night. Check your precinct with the Knox County Election Commission if you've moved. Conveniently, the polls close half an hour after curtain at Ijams Park, so the truly efficient can vote on the way to Agincourt.

★And next Thursday

The other civic date on the horizon: the roughly 220-unit apartment plan for the old Kerbela Shriners Temple site goes back before the Administrative Review Committee on August 13, agenda item 44, with staff recommendations due to post about a week out. We'll have the full picture in the next episode.

The country dancing at Kern's is officially a habit now: the Ho'down Social returns Friday night, eight to eleven, this time with Cowtown Studios calling the two-steps and line dances — and it's the first date of a new every-other-Friday series that runs into December. No partner required, boots encouraged, beginners the whole point.

★The rest of the bill

Friday's warm-up act is a treat for the classic-rock faithful: The Big Pink plays the music of The Band from five to eight, which means you can go from "The Weight" straight into a line dance. Saturday brings Milkshake Fatty's jazzy instrumental takes on pop songs, six to nine, and Sunday afternoon Chase Countiss plays covers and originals from one to four. Friday also keeps the standing half-price wine bottles at Eggspectation from three o'clock on — the quiet-table option while the boots stomp outside.

A note of neighborhood pride disguised as bad news: Friday's guided evening paddle on the river is sold out. The boats fill faster every week, which tells you something about this place — if a sunset kayak is on your list, grab the next date on the Ijams Park calendar the day it posts. Saturday is friendlier to procrastinators: free storytelling at the Nature Playscape from ten to noon, no registration, just kids and a good book under the trees.

★The gentle Sunday

Sunday might be the softest slate Ijams Park runs all year: a sound bath meditation at ten — bring a mat and get washed in singing bowls — a stained-glass workshop at eleven where you leave with a heart, black bear, or moth suncatcher of your own making (eighty dollars, materials included, ages fourteen up), and Self Care Sunday yoga in the trees at 11:30. Do all three and you'll float home.

★Circle next Saturday

And a look-ahead worth inking in: the Hummingbird Festival lands Saturday, August 15, with live bird-banding sessions from seven to one — the closest most of us will ever get to a bird that weighs less than a nickel. More on that in the next episode.

Earl's on the waterfront runs the full ladder this weekend, a different rung every day: ten-dollar Patrón mango margaritas Thursday and nine-dollar spicy pineapple ritas Friday, both four to six with a dollar off liquor, beer, and wine; then the weekend opens up — eight-dollar house margaritas all day Saturday, and seven-dollar mimosas and Bloody Marys all day Sunday. Plan the weekend by rung.

★Sunday, for the dogs

And over on Sevier Avenue, Alliance Brewing hosts Bow Wow Bingo Sunday at two — bingo with the proceeds going to the dogs, per Inside of Knoxville's planner, with an RSVP requested. A beer, a bingo card, and a good cause within walking distance of the river: that's a Sunday.