October has zoomed by, or blown by. This whole past week has been leaves aswirl, good for drying laundry on the line, and for pushing me inside to face a summer’s worth of chores undone. Something about this time of year makes me want to clean out and organize. Of course, intentions are not achievements, but I have already made a good start emptying out and reorganizing the cupboard in the dining room and packing up bags of books for the book sale.
The problem with cleaning is that one thing leads to another, and another, and so on, making it easy to throw up my hands in frustration, to give up altogether. Now the whole bookcase in the living room needs to be re-organized because there is nowhere to put the books I re-organized from the sunroom. My art books are overflowing their shelves in my studio.
And that’s just one job. There are still vases and platters, summer clothes and winter clothes, dog toys, cat toys, flowerpots, components of long ago projects still undone, extra blankets, cake pans shaped like Valentine hearts or Easter lambs, the enormous Thanksgiving roasting pan, way more books, and files that haven’t been looked at since the clippings were filed in the first place. Stuff. Usable and necessary when you need it, but needing to be put away somewhere when you don’t.
Mike and I have had an ongoing conversation over our years together. I insist I would be better organized if I only had adequate storage to put everything away in its proper place. Mike is just as dogged that if I threw everything out there would be plenty of space for what little remained. He really means everything. And so it goes until I start wanting to organize again.
A few Happy Birthdays: to Millie Gault on October 27, Barbara Moment on October 29, Sandy Turner on November 7, and Lyn Hinds on November 9.
Fall is the time of year that the Capital Improvements Planning Committee begins meeting, and they need a new at-large member ASAP. Town Treasurer Kathy Logue described the committee’s job as reviewing and prioritizing the town’s five-year capital plan for projects over $25,000. She and Town Accountant Bruce Stone, appointees from town departments, and two members at-large from the community make up the membership. They begin meeting monthly this time of year through the winter to prepare for Annual Town Meeting. If you are interested, apply to Jen Rand in the Selectmen’s office, 508-696-1012, or townadmin@westtisbury-ma.gov. Call or email Kathy with any questions: 508-696-1018 or treasurer@westtisbury-ma.gov. Or stop in to town hall.
Valerie Sonnenthal, a MELT instructor, is hosting three ninety-minute workshops to introduce people to MELT bodywork, “simple self-care techniques you can use to make your body feel better and function more efficiently.” Workshops are $25 per class and are held in her studio on Peaked Hill. The first workshop is this Saturday, November 1, 10–11:30 am. Sessions two and three will be Sunday, November 9, 10-11:30 am and Monday, December 8, 5-6:30 pm. For more information, call Valerie at 508-645-9692 or look at her website peakedhillstudio.com.
Vineyard Montessori’s fundraiser, Truckin’ MV, is this Saturday, November 1, 11 am–1:30 pm, in the MVRHS parking lot. It is every gearhead’s dream of giant trucks and power equipment available to inspect and climb on to your heart’s content. $10/child or $25/family helps support the school and projects.
The West Tisbury Library is getting ready for its Annual Halloween Party. It will be this Friday, October 31, 3:30–5 pm. There will be a hayride, crafts, yummy treats, and everyone in the best costumes in town. Come and have fun. It’s all free and everyone is welcome.
Special programs at the library this week include West Tisbury poet laureate Justen Ahren’s free poetry workshop this Saturday morning, November 1, 11 am–1 pm, “Mining Poems for the Resonant Image.” On Monday evening, November 3, Carolina Cooney will lead the Graphic Novel Book Club in a discussion of Roz Chast’s book Can’t We Please Talk About Something More Pleasant: A Memoir. The discussion begins at 7 pm.
Don’t forget that the library is open now on Sunday afternoons, 1–5 pm, through the winter.
I just heard that Alan Cottle suffered multiple fractures when he fell off scaffolding this past Saturday. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
I have been reading Mill Pond Joe by Nelson Bryant, his reminiscences of life in West Tisbury since the 1930s. There are wonderful descriptions of the way the town looked, lots of stories about people and families well-known, Nelson’s hunting and fishing adventures, his life as a naturalist, and his career as a writer. There’s some personal biographical stuff, too, but mostly it’s Nelson’s love of nature over a lifetime that is his story. Mill Pond Joe was the name of the bedtime story hero he made up when his children were small. The stories are just as engaging to read for myself.
