Beth O’Connor was nine years old when she began skating at the Martha’s Vineyard Ice Arena. At that time, the arena had just a roof, and players hung tarps around the sides in the winter to keep rain and snow off the ice. In 1992 the arena was enclosed for year-round skating and locker rooms were added to the building a few years later.

“I’ve watched the arena be cut and pasted together over the years,” Ms. O’Connor said. “It’s been great to see it grow.”

Keep your eyes trained on the night sky in the coming week. One of the highlights of summer stargazing, the Perseid meteor shower, peaks on Sunday and Monday nights. This is a productive, weeks-long shower that could yield around 50 meteors an hour, according to the Peterson Field Guide’s Stars and Planets.

Lucy Thompson lives on Spring Moon Farm off Lambert’s Cove Road, a here-an-oink, there-an-oink working farm. It requires all the dawn-to-dusk responsibilities involved with raising cows, sheep, chickens, ducks, pigs and other animals, plus all the daily work of maintaining a lush garden that tumbles over with herbs, melons, squash, and a variety of vegetables. 

The Edgartown selectmen Monday approved a change of location for a downtown Edgartown liquor store that’s moving to the airport.

Brion McGroarty Sr. and Brion McGroarty Jr. came before selectmen to ask to transfer their year-round liquor license from Mayhew Lane to a location near the Martha’s Vineyard Airport.

The name will also change from Town Provisions Company to Martha’s Vineyard Wine and Spirits.

A new commercial-scale solar project and development of a wind turbine project south of the Island top the to-do list for Vineyard Power in the coming year, leaders of the cooperative told members last weekend.

So far, the Stop & Shop expansion project seems to be flying under the radar of many people who would be concerned if they knew exactly what Stop & Shop is planning for the expansion of their Vineyard Haven store.

The future of journalism seemed to be on a lot of minds last weekend, and not just at a panel by that name at the Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival. The stunning news that the Graham family had sold the Washington Post after eight decades to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos for two hundred and fifty million dollars eclipsed another major milestone in the newspaper industry: the sale of the Boston Globe to Red Sox owner John Henry for seventy million.

Have you ever awakened with that FEELING of foreboding or the fear of death, and more important what will come after death? It usually lasts through the first cup of coffee then slowly goes away. Well it happened to me the other morning at about 3 a.m., so I got up and had that cup of coffee and came to the realization that Dickie Becker is completely to blame for it.

It all went down just the way he said it would.

Several years ago I worked with a highly intelligent, sophisticated couple who were severely addicted to heroin. Month after month they struggled to stop, but over and over they found themselves “chasing the high” by taking larger amounts of intravenous heroin or scoring smaller amounts just to keep themselves functional. Finally, they left the States and moved to a kibbutz for a year. They went through a difficult and painful withdrawal syndrome but then lived a drug-free but isolated life for over a year.

He shows me the way

A boy in a dog suit

On a scent

Innocent

His marble-sized eyes

Soft brown nougats

Warm Black Crow centers

Anchored in opposing tear drops

At rest

Lying sideways

Between the weight of the world

And a profound sense of loss

He has seen it all

And regrets most of it

Eyes rimmed as if with kohl

It’s a look, a look that cannot be denied

You want to give him everything

You will give him anything,

Anything that will make his tongue come out

And swipe his snout

Or make him sweep the floor with his tail

Call his name

Tell him he’s good

Ask him if he wants food

Ask him if he wants a ride

Tell him Mommy’s coming

Tell him anyone’s coming

For God’s sake just say hello

As Quixote upon seeing a windmill,

He tilts his head

He pumps an eyebrow

He’s ready to follow you

To the ends of the earth or the driveway,

Whichever comes first.

“Mommy, why is that doggie so sad?”

The little girl pumps her mother’s hand,

Her finger wags at Floyd

“He can’t help it,” I say in a sing-song way.

“His eyes are shaped like sadness.

His brows slope down,

Like a seesaw always down.

He always looks this way,

Even when he’s happy

And he’s always happy.

Isn’t that right, Floyd?”

Tilt

Pump

Lick

Wag

Giggle

The little girl runs over and hugs Floyd,

Squeezing his scruff with arms of grace in training.

He looks at me as if to say,

“Is this the ends of the earth or the driveway?”