Nantucket Notes
Notes from Nantucket:
- There are fewer rabbits this year. There used be dozens scampering around the lawn all day, now I only see one or two.
- There is an osprey that has taken up residence, often sitting 30 feet up on top of the flagpole. I’m assuming a causal relationship with the rabbit disappearance.
- A deer ran alongside my car, on the bike path, for about a hundred yards, and I clocked him at 40 MPH before he leaped a fence and disappeared.
- Nantucket pocketbooks are the ugliest fashion accessories I’ve yet seen on grown women.
- The church we attend here was begun in 1896 and a bishop came out to celebrate the 120th anniversary at a Mass we attended.
- The female lifeguards wear bikinis.
- The money here is staggering, but the attempts to show great frugality in spending are hypocritical and ridiculous.
- Great white sharks travel considerable distances to feast on the seals that gather between here and Martha’s Vineyard. I usually see one or two seals a day off the breakers, but this year only one all the first week.
- Bicyclists, here with their own bike paths all over the island, remain the most arrogant, aggrieved, aggressive drivers on the road. I don’t know why some of them wear helmets when there’s nothing in there to protect.
- The insistence on retaining and not improving the cobblestone streets has gone beyond quaint to dangerous.
- The sunsets here are extraordinary.
- Elin Hildebrand’s novels about Nantucket are great beach reads.
- I don’t believe there’s a traffic light on the island, and my seven-speed car rarely escapes fourth gear. (Especially when my wife is watching.)
- I’ve encountered a hell of a lot of people here who were born on third base and think they’ve hit a triple.
- I’ve been to over 60 countries, and there are few things better than arising early, watching the surf, gulls hanging overhead, robins mining for worms, salt water in the air, and reflecting on your life.
© Alan Weiss 2016
