Michael, since you left the vineyard has survived That's good news, I guess. bitter battles over a mcdonalds (nope), new airport (yup), a second slip for the ferry in case the first one was damaged (yup), selectmen discovered monitoring and recording the cell phone calls of their opponents (probably still going on) ruinously high taxes in some towns, destroying old family holdings and pushing working people to the inland or, just as likely, the "off-land" (7 am on-island ferry is full of carharts, toolboxes, pickups), new ferry terminal, new agricultural society hall, death and rebirth of scottish bakehouse, and my waxed screens and rotting gutters.
There are still nude beaches in the town of chilmark, but lucy vincent beach has gotten so popular each town resident has to have, not only a sticker for their car which lists the license plate number, type of car and color of car, but also their own photo id pass (thus, you can't go totally nude) Exactly how big are these passes?; and those without photo id passes are prevented from wading ashore and just walking out through the parking lot (but ok if they are on a stretcher carried by emts Lowering standards in emergencies, are we?). Even so, it is a rare summer day when several arriving stickered/IDed chilmark residents are not turned away because parkinglot is full. Do they drive nekkid to the beach, in which case, don't their Nether Regions stick to the car seats? And if so, what do they do when they get home?
The Indians have gained tremendous power through tribal law, and essentially control gay head (careful, buddy, it is now Aquinnah, and don't say anything to the contrary or you will be in big trouble a la the quebec language police), leading to all sorts of astonishing contretemps Sounds like quebecois to me, Frenchy, like a tribal officer who discharged his firearm Hope his aim was off, along with his safety at a state trooper responding to a traffic accident Was it at least a bad accident?, and the town powers forgetting to collect their own property taxes for 2 years. Ooops. Everybody could make a mistake, ya know.
People do bemoan how crowded the vineyard is, but come out We'll be right over! What date were you thinking? We hear all the shrinks are there in August, or is that Provincetown? with me some high summer weekend afternoon to the rip along middle ground (where you can jump overboard and just barely touch the underwater mountain with your toes), or lovely silent little north william street, just one block west of noisy main street, and see for yourself how empty a busy place can be, as long as you're not looking to park your car or spend money on empty trinkets. I guess the sweatshirt reading "Martha's Vineyard Island" could be useful as corpse identification if you fell over from the party boat. Always looking at the bright side, aren't you? Me, too.
This morning: simultaneous moonset and sunrise. Our mutual friends at AOL tell me that this (tonight's?) full moon is called the Full Beaver Moon. You could look it up. But not because of it's color. The moon, a milky orange like a creamsicle against the brightening sky, sank towards the water in woods hole bight, the gap between the elizabeth islands and woods hole. The 54 year old Islander ferry, zigged just underneath the lower edge, the disk of the moon all shimmering in the freezing air just like a utah blacktop in the summer. "freezing air like a [U]tah blacktop in the summer?" Then the llower Screw the Quebecers; how about the Welsh llanguage police? edge went ca-flop, sucked down to the water's surface by refraction, becoming a sort of orange mushroom, like the footage of the bikini atoll a-test. Slowly, slowly, slowly, down, down, down, disappears just as the islander zags back across the spot.
The sunrise was, by comparison, a let down. Under the circumstances, not surprising.