The Vashon Island School District’s 1,500 students made their way back to school this week, a bittersweet reminder that fall is in the air and the long days of summer are behind us.
Well, the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing just wrapped up Sunday. The closing ceremony dazzled viewers with an oversized and fiery pyrotechnic finale.
Jean Bosch, real estate agent and housing advocate, captured the dilemma well when she talked to The Beachcomber this week about Vashon HouseHold’s newest project.
Remember the good old days, just a year or two ago, when $20 would fill up your car’s gas tank? Remember when the gas pumps at Engels could keep track of the cost of gas? Remember when buying heating oil didn’t require a second mortgage? Who thinks our natural gas or electric rates are going down? Our school district is facing these same dilemmas.
When Emir Nohutcu was preparing to leave his native Turkey last summer for a year on Vashon, he turned for advice to his uncle, an Istanbul ophthalmologist who had been an exchange student in Philadelphia 30 years ago.
Wasn’t it just last week that you read about vandalism in this very spot? Well, it happened again. This time, Vashon’s unidentified troublemakers smashed into the Island’s public schools and several school buses between 3 and 4 a.m. last Tuesday.
I sat in stunned silence listening to a visiting Rabbi explain that many Jews today debate whether or not they are really a “chosen people.”
We ought to be embarrassed.
For years, our community has squabbled and kibitzed over the need for a remodeled high school without ever calling the question to a vote.
While it’s wonderful to hear that the Island has seen a slight decline in assaults and other serious crimes in the last year, a contrasting yet unsurprising crime statistic is disheartening: “Quality of life” crimes on Vashon have seen a 20 percent spike since 2007.
The spherical webs of the forest spiders glisten in the afternoon sunlight, the slight breeze stirring the yellowing leaves of the Indian plum and unleashing a sprinkling of fir and hemlock needles. The crunch of the madrona’s leaves and peeled bark under my feet is the only sound except for the territorial chatter and occasional piercing alarm cry of the native Douglas squirrel. The image of the squirrel, at the top of Douglas fir trees tossing down ripe cones to then gather and store, is the quintessential expression of this season: a celebration of the bountiful summer harvest with an equal appreciation for the need to begin storing for winter. I call this season “Hints of Autumn in the Undercurrent of Summer.”
Boy, have we been busy!
My first home on Vashon was a nine-month winter rental.
I love you. You’re terrific. Great job. Congratulations. I’m so proud of you.
