Nantucket 2012—3

Nantucket 2012—3

The grandchildren are here adapting instantly to the ferry and island life overlooking the Atlantic. My wife grilled steaks last night as we dined al fresco. The sunset was obscured by clouds, alas. Chateauneuf-du-Pape 1996 on the ocean!

It’s now early morning, and the usual fog and drizzle engulf us. The few trees look like the last stand of a unit being wiped out by an unflagging enemy, leaning into the wind, attempting to hold out. But reinforcements are not on the horizon.

The ocean is roiling and I can see the breakers beyond the dune grass. The gulls have flight clearance, and I’m imagining that quite a bit of breakfast is being churned up for them. Yesterday, two young, exhibitionist lovers on the beach went to frolic in the surf, and two gulls meticulously landed and cleaned out all their food. I watched this from 50 yards away, as the two raced back from the breakers, the guy firing an imaginary rifle at the birds, who left at the very last minute, crumbs in beaks.

Island life: A contractor of some kind in a ’95 pickup yelled that I hadn’t given him enough room to turn at an intersection I had cleared, so he pulled around me and hit the back of my car, then took off like a maniac. We recorded the position on our GPS, two women in a jeep stopped as witnesses, and the police came within 90 seconds! Fearing the worst, I found only a tiny scratch on my bumper, meaning the noise we heard was damage to his truck!

The officer took down the information—we had the license plate, and where do you run to on an island—and then asked me to sit in the driver’s seat of his patrol car where, as if on Rookie Blue, he had the guy’s picture and truck on his computer. “Is that the guy?” asked officer Sullivan, who could be in any TV police drama.

He called me later to tell me they apprehended the guy, he apologized, and is being charged with leaving the scene of an accident. My gratitude and admiration are hereby extended to the Nantucket police department, who have been extremely impressive on the couple of occasions we’ve dealt with them over 17 years here.

I have a significant writing schedule planned, which is always completed before 8 am, and a lot of reading (“Summerland” [Elin Hilderbrand] is a very popular, new novel that takes place on Nantucket!).

© Alan Weiss 2012. All rights reserved.