Don’t bother looking for Delores Stevens this weekend. Starting Friday, she’ll be in rehearsal from morning to night, breaking only for meals and sleep.

She’ll be working on her piano part for Four Soliloquies, a piece of music commissioned by the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society to celebrates its 40th anniversary on the Island, and to honor the pianist, cellist and clarinetist that made up the Montagnana Trio, the musicians that launched the society now four decades ago.

Early summer has come to the Vineyard. The days are warm, the nights cool, and our pristine, breathtaking beaches beckon.

Nevertheless, we have decided to take a spur-of-the-moment trip to Sri Lanka. We will be gone most of the summer, and will miss our Vineyard idyll, but adventure calls!

Therefore, we would like to offer our home to you on a rental basis, and hope at least one among you has not yet made your summer plans.

Editor’s Note: A small piece of history came down this week when a portion of an old house near the intersection of Old County and West Tisbury-Edgartown Road was torn down. The sagging buildig on the east end of the house was a familiar sight to all who drive that road. The building was formerly a general store that sold hand-cranked ice cream. The following piece was published in the Gazette in the summer of 1996.

UNSPEAKABLE TRAGEDY

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

I weep. For 30 years I have held my tongue, not wanting to be an Ibsenian “Enemy of the People.” Two weeks ago I was crossing the Look street intersection and saw a family — with an infant in one of those little carts! — struggling up the hill, unaware of the near-death experiences that await them, not just on that section of State Road, but riding to Gay Head or even just Lambert’s Cove Road. I can still feel the pit in my stomach.

Early Summer Tragedy

Between 1987 and 2004 there were five fatal bicycle accidents on the Vineyard, according to Gazette records. On Tuesday this week one more was added to the archives and today’s edition is unmistakably colored by sadness as it carries the news of the death of Dina Dececca, age forty, who died in a horrific accident on State Road in Vineyard Haven while riding her bicycle on a day trip to the Island early Tuesday afternoon.

The residents of the Vineyard have long wondered why we have to wait five to six hours to be seen and treated in the emergency room at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. There has never been an answer given by the hospital, and that is frustrating. Another question that we have asked is why it costs roughly $800 to walk into the emergency room, and then have to pay $42.50 for a bandage or another $9.50 for a single aspirin.

It has been a scorcher of a week.

When it is this hot, go ahead and complain. Play the blame game, too. Global warming, perhaps, or maybe just fault the giant yellow ball in the sky. The sun would be the appropriate scapegoat.

The sun is easiest to blame when you consider that it is the original source of the vast majority of all the light, heat and energy for our planet (the heat we obtain from underground is negligible by comparison).

A 40-year-old woman cyclist from Melrose was killed in Vineyard Haven on Tuesday afternoon when she was struck by a tractor trailer owned by the E.C. Cottle Lumber Co., state police have confirmed.

Simon Bollin has given buying locally a whole new meaning. For him, it’s not about where the food comes from or how it’s grown, but what it used to be harvested with.

Adult Learners

The Cape Cod Foundation has a new scholarship for adults returning to school. The Scarbrough Adult Learner Scholarship Fund is open to citizens of the United States pursuing an undergraduate education in an accredited program. Students must have at least 24 consecutive months as a nonstudent. Preference is for students pursuing a two-year degree or professional certificate and/or attending a technical school.