Whole bunches of stuff to write, and neither the time nor the inclination to do it. Instead, I want to (a) work (b) sleep (c) clean the house. After that, I think it goes something like (d) find a place to plant my cucumbers (e) play Halo 2 online until my thumbs are numb.
redmed is off in Michigan, visiting grandparents. I’ll be joining her on Friday for the wedding. Between now and then, OS X and I need to have a really long set of conversations about boot time software startup, and remote configurations. Speaking of Apple, you all heard that the new apples will be built with Intel chips, right? I don’t even need to mention that. Go check out Slashdork for uninformed commentary.
On to the weekend: Here is my story about On Friday, we took the “fast ferry” over to “The Vineyard” as it’s known in these parts. For an extra $10 (round trip, each), we took our bicycles. This was a wicked good idea, and I highly recommend it.
The Vineyard has a different feel from other islands and beaches I’ve visited. It’s old, very very old (on the American scale … not the European). Most of the towns were founded in the 1600’s. It’s not impovrished, nor is it shooting up and out in all directions with construction and tourism. It seems to have achieved a happy state (tons of old money laying around, cute small buildings, and nice people) and stayed there. I can see why people like it so much.
We took a lighthouse tour out at the easternmost point of the island. We learned, along the way, about the piping plover. This is a highly endangered little critter (estimated at around 800 pairs left in the wild, most of which live on the vineyard). The “awwwww” moment came when the ranger described why they close off the beach to motor vehicles at hatching time. Turns out that the newly hatched plovers are little fuzzballs about 1/2″ in diameter, and they like shallow depressions for the shelter they afford. In short, they love to hide in tire tracks. We saw a couple of adults, but no hatchlings.
There is a section in Oak Bluffs (the town where we stayed, with the ferry docks) which used to be a big meeting site for Methodists. They replaced the central tent with a pavilion, and (more interestingly) the people who kept pitching their tents in the same spot year after year put up little cottages. These “gingerbread houses” are highly decorated and brightly painted, and they are arranged in rings around the pavilion. It’s just a big bucket of awesome.
On the last day we were there, we rented a car (taxi fare = $45 each way, car rental = $50, bus = impractical timing) and made our way to Gay Head Cliffs. Yes yes, both words have moved on since they were attached to the cliffs. The cliffs are about 200′ tall, and they’re made of clay. It’s geologically interesting. The strata are horizontal. It reminded me more of mesas than of anything else. We walked down the long boardwalk to the beach, and around the cliffs to the beaches below the lighthouse. Lo and behold, it was naked time all around us. Maybe 15 or 20 nude sunbathers / swimmers were down there hanging out (heh heh) in pairs or small groups. Mostly guys, but a couple of women too. All very relaxed and casual. There’s nothing quite like surprise nudity, really.
Oh yeah, and ospreys were hunting from the cliffs to the ocean and back as we walked. That was cool.
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