5 Things You Need to Know Today: November 12

1. It's the Monday Veterans Day Holiday. So don't leave the kids at school this morning or take the trash out to the curb today.

2. There is only one thing to do today: Take a noon time road trip to Lynn's Manning Field to see the Belmont High School Girls' Soccer team take on Wilmington in the MIAA Division II North sectional championships. The match starts at 12:30 p.m. This is the second visit to the championships in three years for the girls (they beat Danvers, 1-0, on penalty kicks in 2010). Wilmington fans will there in force – I hear they bring a band to away playoff games – as the community without a town center and an older public library than Belmont's is only a hop, skip and jump from "the city of sin." Get out and support the Marauders. 

3. Leafs are still being collected by the town but have them ready for pick-up in the proper manner. 

4. The Belmont Council on Aging wants the more than one-in-six Belmont residents entering or in their golden age that Medicare’s open enrollment period ends Dec. 7. Medicare drug and extra coverage plans change annually so this is the time to decide on your coverage for 2013. You can get free, unbiased information and help with the process from trained SHINE counselors on Nov. 14, 15, 16, 21, 28, 29 and 30 starting at 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. at the Beech Street Center; just call 617-993-2970 for an appointment.

5. One hundred years ago today, the frozen bodies of explorer Robert Scott and four of his men are found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica by fellow explorers. They starved to death in March just a few miles from a supply depot. In January 1912, Scott attempt to be the first person to reach to South Pole failed as Norwegian Roald Amundsen got there a month earlier.