August is the month when ocean swimming is at its best; the water has warmed enough to make long swims a pleasant escape from the heat and dust of summer. This is also the month when hurricanes and tropical storms can come barreling up the coast from the warmer waters south of us and kick up dangerous surf and rip currents, also known as riptides.

Oak Bluffs has long been a town of multiple personalities — some exuberant, some rough and tumble, some flashy and artistic, some quietly generous. One of our least favorites, the one that is prone to recklessness after a few drinks, seemed to dominate last weekend. The police log tells the story of a raucous Saturday night marred by a range of bad behavior and resulting in numerous arrests. Reviewing the weekend, town officials were careful not to blame the Monster Shark Tournament, but count us among those who are glad to see it over.

Under construction for the last two years and on the drawing board far longer than that, the new emergency services building in Tisbury cannot accurately be called new anymore, although it remains unfinished and unoccupied. One deadline after another for completion of the problem-plagued building has passed in the last year. And still the seven million-dollar project drags on.

It was too good to be true. Until last week, all seven cygnets — the offspring of the West Tisbury Mill Pond swans named Bob and Bobette — were happily swimming about with their parents. None had been struck by a car when they left the pond and dutifully followed their parents across the Edgartown-West Tisbury Road and then State Road.

The oppressive heat wave that has blanketed the Northeast in recent weeks finally broke on Wednesday night. A rush of cool air followed the razor edge of thunderstorms that lashed the rest of the state with hail, high winds and flooding in what has been reported as the most severe weather of the summer. Here the storms just brushed past the Island on their track from west to east, barely sprinkling the Island with much-needed rain.

If you live on the Vineyard and haven’t had Lyme disease, it’s a good bet you know someone who has. The risk of contracting the disease while hiking, gardening or just headed to the beach is at its peak right now, when the nymphal deer tick that carries it is most active.