Today was a settle-in day. I woke up to brilliant sunshine and a perfectly clear sky. I saw through my little window that the tide had come in but started to reverse out. The white foam looked like industrial waste was collecting on the sides of the inlet, a dull yellow foam that can’t be natural. The view was beautiful, the harbor, the little sail boats bobbing in the water, the low morning sun making a big deal about the white boats washing them clean as the day began a new.
My 1st excursion was to breakfast, my least healthiest meal of the day; eggs, sausage and potatoes. The walk back was interesting through the little Vinalhaven community with the silver gas cans and oil tanks attached to the houses like feeding guppies.
All seems odd as I realized it was Monday morning and I would have normally had about a zillion meetings today if I were working.
Island life is hard, there’s working people scraping by and in the winter it gets worse but there’s a reason they stay all year. It’s just a beautiful place, simple in lifestyle; there’s no cell phones, restaurants don’t have TV’s blasting and even Internet is sparse. I meet people who’ve never sent a text or checked email. Artists who live in a one room studio with not much than their art to sustain them.
Why? 
That’s Why.
At the end of the day, they love where they live. Fall days, cool days, tourists gone, time to enjoy the island without everyone else for a while. A week from now, I’ll be gone with the last of the tourists and then the island settles in for a typically brutal winter and some spectacularly natural beauty.
End of Day. Today.
