It may be that after more than 25 years, the idea of some freight service to the Vineyard coming through New Bedford (bypassing Falmouth) could become a reality.

I know it is unpopular, but I am a lifetime lover of snow.

One winter I rented a house, high on a hill in Chilmark, overlooking the Atlantic. The sun came and went. The ocean changed from grey to green to blue, white caps here and there, now and then.

Everybody here has a gig, sometimes two or three. They are craftsman, artists, master chefs, farriers, healers or visionaries. But what was I?

It doesn’t happen often, at least not away from a harbor, but there are times when chance favors a meeting between well-traveled sailors when they find themselves inland.

These cold and sunless days of rain and intermittent drizzle have brought to mind the day I tried to rescue a white domestic duck on the Connecticut River near the Canadian border.