The first Chappy Community Center potluck dinner is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 18 from 6 to 8 p.m. If you would like to be a host, please contact the center at 508-627-8222 or put your name in the little black potluck book at the next potluck. Potlucks will continue on the first and third Wednesdays of the month except for the second dinner in December which will be Christmas Eve. Good news from the center is that Yoga with Bridget on Fridays has been extended through Sept. 27.

Summer seemed to end abruptly this year. The harbor looks particularly empty after a very busy Labor Day weekend. The harbormaster reported that his office had over a hundred more requests for overnight rental moorings than could be provided. There were three weddings and a couple of big parties on Chappy over the weekend which kept the ferry busy. Lucky for all that the weather was so perfect. I have been forewarned by excited parents of at least one Chappy wedding or reception for each of the remaining weekends in September.

With the historical height of hurricane season upon us, watching the first one baffle the computer models and meteorologists has reminded me that there is a whole lot going on in the atmosphere. I have noticed over many years of watching hurricane forecasts intently that among the two dozen computer-generated path predictions, at least one of them will show the eye of the storm passing right over the Islands.

Monday night I went to the grocery store at 9 p.m. and unlike any previous night since Memorial Day, I recognized almost every one of the other shoppers. Driving home, I was the only vehicle on the road. As I run into people who are by their profession working 14-hour days during the summer, we congratulate each other on surviving yet another hectic summer on the Vineyard. But we also noted that we would miss certain things as well. I half-jokingly bemoaned the sad fact that Dairy Queen will be curtailing their hours soon. The person I was talking with said that I was the second person today to say that. Sometimes it’s the small things that mean the most.

For more than a third of a century, David Lecoq and John Smith have been tending to the spring launching and fall hauling of boats at North Wharf. For the past week, from morning until dusk, the two have been plucking motorboats and sailboats from the mooring field and maneuvering them into the berth beneath the travel lift. During all of the thousands of voyages that I have seen them make together in that old blue Boston Whaler, they are always engaged in conversation. They are one of the constants on the Edgartown waterfront.