Before trailing off into the tall grass in search of new adventures, I wanted to share a tiny bit of post-Father's Day best wishes for dads here and gone. It’s just a small item, please bare with me.

When our daughters were very young we read stories to them and listened to stories told via video or cassette recordings. Dating myself you might say? True enough. But one of the memorable stories we most listened to was the reading of Rudyard Kipling's “Elephant's Child” read by Jack Nicholson with amazing vocal accompaniment by Bobby McFerrin. The combination of Nicholson's voice and McFerrin's music is absolutely mesmerizing. And, for Father's Day my family acquired a copy of said reading to which we listened quietly at the dinner table, all six of us at home now!

My favorite often repeated line of the story is this, read by Mr. Nicholson: “The great gray-green greasey Limpopo River all set about with Fever trees.” I'm not sure how to acquire this reading, but I'm sure it can be found on line somewhere, if interested. I do recommend.

Now, on to other matters. Solstice. Saturday the 20th. The date with the most daylight of the year. I thought it might be fun to head over to the Harbor and see what was lit by this illumination. Well, we were amazed to see what wasn't. In all our 45+ years here in the area we have never seen the unusual darkness of the waterfront. This was a solstice to remember.

We saw people walking quietly through town, some with masks, some without. There was a huge white yacht at Brown's but hardly a light on at the Inn. Boothbay Harbor Inn was totally dark. Kaler's closed. Fisherman's Wharf had some activity in the parking lot but not many lights on in the building. It was spooky. June in Boothbay Harbor, this time of year, was never like this.

The only spot significantly lit up is shown in the photo I have shared this week. It was bustling with activity --- a colorful glow upon the calm harbor water with far fewer boats than normal for this time of year.

We had an interesting walk through the inner section of downtown. Not the solstice I expected, then again, as I have said many times before, “I don't get out much.” We can only hope that businesses will survive, that people will still come and that we can all hug one another again without concern for our health. These are challenging times for everyone. I hope there will be enough light left at the end of the tunnel.