Nicholas Billingham of Edgartown was named to the fall 2013 president’s list at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, N.H.

The polar vortex seems to have gone elsewhere for the moment. I kind of thought those snowy owls were an omen of what was to be. We’ve had grey overcast skies, light snow a week ago and pouring rain all day on Tuesday.

Chilmark enjoyed sharing the January thaw with the rest of the Island. However, there were many activities in town to get us out in the mild weather. At Squibnocket Beach, both in the parking lot and in the surf, many boarders enjoyed the waves. Over at Menemsha, the parking lot was at a summertime level, people coming in numbers to view the unfortunate basking shark cast up on the bathing beach. As I write midweek, the rains are falling and there is a mist similar to an April rain. However, cooler weather is in the forecast.

Well, this is the start of a long holiday weekend as Monday is Martin Luther King Day and all municipal buildings, including the post office, will be closed. Last weekend’s weather was wet and windy with the temperature in the upper 50s. Gale force winds were so strong that all afternoon and evening trips by the SSA had to be cancelled. We are just two short months away from the start of spring. Our son Sam remarked the other day that it is so quiet around town that the lack of traffic gives the appearance that it has been evacuated!

This is pretty much as close as we will get to the dead of winter here on Chappy. Aside from the burst of activity at morning and evening rush hour, traffic is light at the ferry. Perhaps this is a good time to take a moment to reflect upon the integral role that the Chappy ferry plays in life on Chappaquiddick. I know that it can be a love/hate relationship. As the ferry itself serves to create the solitude and separation from the rest of the world that we value on Chappy, it is also a source of frustration.

Phyllis Clair Deitz’s daughter and three of her grandchildren were at her bedside when she died on July 22 last year. Her amazing obituary in the Vineyard Gazette was titled, Phyllis Deitz, 90, Was an Oak Bluffs Girl at Heart.

This past week’s storm caused the waves at South Beach to be high and they did some washing away of the little beach we have left. But, you still can’t resist going down to the beach and watching the waves rolling in.

Sharon Edell was 64 and had lived on the Island for many years. Her death is not criminally suspicious. Police have been unable to contact relatives; anyone with information is asked to call 508-693-0545.

Like the rest of the Island, the Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard is in a post-holiday lull. There is only one canine resident, the bichon frisee named Jackson. He has been transformed by Ellen, the groomer par excellence, into a mass of white curls surrounding his black button eyes.

Mona Rosenthal, an account executive with the company for the past year, succeeds BJ Yerdon, who retired from the Gazette in December after 12 years.