Chappaquiddick island is still firmly attached to Martha’s Vineyard. The Trustees Of Reservations staff has determined that Norton Point is sufficiently stable to accommodate vehicle traffic. I have spoken to a few folks who “went by the beach.”

Chappy decided that we really didn’t need our storm door after all, so she enlisted the help of the wind and had it ripped completely off its hinges. A lot easier to get in and out of the house with groceries now.

As I write this, it is possible to drive a vehicle between Chappaquiddick island and Martha’s Vineyard island via dry land. By the time that you read this, that may not be true. Mother Nature seems indecisive about that stretch of beach.

Grass waits for no man. Typically by this time of year, I have the Cheetos bag open and am in full recline in my comfortable chair. But there is nothing typical about life on Chappy. The temperatures are now approaching the 70s, and all sorts of flora are making their comebacks, chief amongst them the grasses.

The next potluck at the Chappy Community Center is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 4. Dorothy and John Dropick will be the hosts, with appetizers beginning at 6 p.m. and dinner at 6:30. All are welcome. Please bring a dish for six.

Most weeks when I sit down to write this column, I make an honest attempt to include insights and observations outside the confines of my own small world. And most weeks I fail.

The next potluck at the Chappy Community Center is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 21. Judy Buss and Paul Cardello will be the hosts with appetizers beginning at 6 p.m. and dinner at 6:30. All are welcome. Bring a dish for six.

My Auntie Babs, Barbara Fynbo, passed recently. She was 93. The youngest child of my great-grandfather Frank Marshall, she never seemed young to me — probably because I entered into her life rather late in the game. But she also never seemed old to me. Babs was not an old lady, even in her nineties. Auntie Babs was a doer — she was always doing something: sewing curtains, fixing a grass mat rug, making a jumpsuit for Uncle Bob, crafting a wooden sleigh.

Beatrix Haven Houghton took her first breath of air at 8:13 p.m. on Sept. 14. Very considerate of her to not keep her parents up all night. She weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces and measured 19.75 inches long. Her mom Jocelyn Filley and dad Graham Houghton welcome her into a large extended family of many aunts, uncles and cousins. Haven is an ancestral name.

All this week, I’d been meaning to ask Peter Wells what the deal was with the excavation project by the Chappy slip. I’d also been meaning to write my column. Fortunately, I forgot to write this column longer than I forgot to ask Peter my question. Apparently, according to Peter, the bulkhead on the western side of the very slip needed replacing. But, as with most projects on Chappy, this project requires the completion of another project first: the removal of a Hummer-sized piece of concrete.