The Lightkeeper's Blog

We begin with fireworks

The dominant story of the summer is the continuing drought.

The gardens struggled this summer as different phases of a water ban made it untenable to head out each day and give them the drink they needed. Its a chore I enjoy and crossing it off the daily list freed about a lot of time for reading. Some of the time was filled up with weeding; weeds grow no matter how dry.

It has also been very windy and that has meant giving some attention to the flags. The flagpole flag has broken twice and I was able to jury rig my gaff to pull it down and make the needed repairs. The tower flag was just torn apart by wind and that allowed me to get my grommet kit out and patch up a couple of flags before retiring them.

Luminaria was held in the first week of August, just as summer school was coming to a close. I had picked that job back up as a favor to a coworker and after I entered grades, I began filling up milk jugs with sand. I was grateful that the sand was delivered to me by two neighbors, Corey Conrad and Chris Corcione. They were also on board Saturday morning when those same jugs had to be retrieved from the jetties. Good guys doing good things.

The down side to the event was that the candles we installed in each jug were not reliable. Some lit and stayed lit. Others wouldn’t light at all. Others burned to a point and fizzled out. It made for a haphazard display. Not the outcome that was hoped for at the start of the night.

The Light was not open for Heritage Days at the request of the Trustees. The renovation project contracts are still in the works so the Cottage and Tower were taken off the menu. Saturday saw me hosting at the Stockbridge Grist Mill and on Sunday I returned to the Maritime and Mossing Museum. Some photos to wet your whistle for each site follow.

Another upside to Heritage Days was a couple of visitors. Brian Crowley, Dan Crowley, JoAnn Evans, and Tracy Dieselman found their way over during Luminaria for a chance to swap stories. The Crowley boys went to grade school with me and we were recalling the days when their mother was our baseball coach. Mrs. Crowley has been cutting edge a long time now.

I have been trying to capture some of the exchanges we hear in the course of the day but especially at night. Some samples:

Don’t bite your brother (during family photo shoot)

You lied to me (after friend shows up right after a wedding proposal on the rocks)

We are taking our pictures Bro (at 11:30 on a Wednesday night when a half dozen young men are asked what they are doing here so late) (There were so many “bros” thrown at me I wondered how long it will be before CSPAN will be the scene of “I yeild my time to the Bro from Nevada”)

This is a public place. I’ll come here and do whatever I want to do, anytime I want. You need to chill (The most charming of fellows. Probably 17. It was 2:00am and I pointed out that he woke me up)(I suggested that he try to make the same amount of noise in front of the police station. That’s a public place too after all)

This is likely to be a regular feature going forward. We hear everything you say if you are on the rocks and a lot of what you say if you are too loud on a bench. And when you are playing music in your car and your car bounces, we hear that too.

Maintenance that had been delayed by the pandemic was attended to this past week. Warren Cowing brought a small crew that addressed a leak in the Utility Room roof and several other overdue repairs. Casings were replaced, a small tar roof coated with sealant, and one of the gutters got some long needed attention. His crew were diligent in every step and no short cuts were taken. I was thankful to Bob Chessia for his help in advancing this work at Town Hall.

While the boys were tapping away with their nail guns I was inside a small storage area in the utility room adding in some insulation. With a tight roof and this add in that room should be much warmer for watching football and basketball this winter.

While the ladders were available, and since one of the placements was being taken down for a new corner board, the camera for the walkway was raised up creating a new perspective with a good deal more ocean. That move led to two other moves; a higher quality shot of the Tower and the ocean from the Cottage, The East camera, and a new placement on the Utility room that shoots back across the parking lot to the Inner Harbor.

The seawall that guards the neck of Cedar Point has deteriorated to the point where it is possible to push something through it. The Army Corps of Engineers is in the process of reporting out on the wall but no work is likely for another year or more. If it gives way, that Inner Harbor camera will be the place to go to see just how high a tide can get in Scituate Harbor. We are in no way wishing for it but when I thought about where I could cover that I wasn’t already covering, that was the spot I thought of first.

One of the true highlights of each summer is the annual Yacht Club youth regatta. This year was no exception. It is awesome to watch the flotilla makes its way out (and in) and then find the wind