The cold came in this weekend, but as I was watching the game, I noticed that at 5 p.m. it was still light outside. That makes me happy, as I can walk the dog later in the afternoon.

Happy Birthday to all who celebrated their day this past week. Big balloons go out to Autumn Donnelly, who celebrated Jan. 23; Hannah Batista, Jan. 25; Olive Dockery and Alexander Wallace, Jan. 27 and Julianna Hagerty, Mateus Perini, Audrey Polleys and Leila Torres, who all celebrate their day Jan. 29.

I write this column on Sunday or Monday, so I am still thinking about the historic week we had. We have a new president, and our first black and south Asian vice-president. Like many, I watched praying for a peaceful transition. Thankfully, it was; now we just wait and see what will happen with our country.

I don’t know where I was to miss the memorial service of 400 lights in memory of the victims of Covid-19. Thank goodness for YouTube, as I could watch it there. I also missed the local church bells that rang here, but I watched The Federated Church Sunday church service and they showed members of the church ringing the bells. Four different families rang the bell 10 times. It was very touching and a great tribute to those who lost their lives from this pandemic.

I could not help but think of my father, Jim, who was the custodian for the Stone Church in Vineyard Haven for many years. Every Sunday he would have to go to the church and climb up into the tower and ring the bells at 9:40 a.m. calling the children to Sunday school, then at 10:40 a.m. calling in the parishioners to service. He would pull on the rope and ring it four times then stop and then the Baptiste Church bells would ring four times. They would do this three times. I loved going up into the tower and watching him. He let me try to pull the rope, but it was very heavy. The window was to high up so you could not see out and I now wonder how much of the town you could see from up there.

When I was working at the bank, Tom Bassett invited Ralph and I to go in the tower of the Whaling Church when he had to change the time on the clock.  When we got to the top the view was so beautiful. You could see for miles. I tried taking pictures, but the photos did not do the view justice.

Have a great week and keep the home candles burning.