Hello, friends and neighbors! Mary Ellen did not have to twist my arm too much to take on writing the Westport Island newspaper column. But it will only be successful or informative if readers help out! Those who have an event to publicize or a business to advertise or good news to share with the community should please send me an email to pat-dick@midcoast.com or give me a call at 231-4049 to include it in next week’s paper. I have lived on Westport Island full-time almost nine years, after a career of educating and counseling high school students in New England and a childhood of dairy farming in Minnesota. I am so lucky to be living in this beautiful place surrounded by nice folks from all walks of life. I hope to meet more of you over time through this column. Don’t be shy.

“She’s not your friend because of what you’ve done for her, but she’s your friend because of what you are to her.”

I’d like to begin this week’s column with an apology to meteorologist Adam Epstein for calling him a weatherman in last week’s column. I don’t know if I offended him, but my daughter was aghast and said, “Mom, he’s a meteorologist!”

Another fast-paced week is in the books. The days are growing shorter, and as of today we are down three hours and three minutes — to 12 hours and 14 minutes of daylight.

Well, dear readers, I’ve been away, as they say. Autumn is a nice time to take a vacation. We took a road trip, my spouse and I, and have not stopped talking about the wonderful time “away.” If you missed the column, then I offer my heartfelt gratitude for appreciating these simple efforts.

Welcome home, Marcia! I’m sure you and your family have been very keen to have you home. We all send prayers and best wishes to you on your next steps in getting back to good health.

I have had many phone calls, visits, and emails about the excerpts from Shirley Ross’ letter that I have been including each week in the Round Pond news. People are really enjoying them, especially the natives that know everyone mentioned in the letter. I only wish that I had many more of her letters to share! A couple more tidbits from Shirley:

Congratulations to Curtis DeCosta and Rebcca Neuts on their marriage, Sept. 17. Curtis is the son of Randy and Marsha DeCosta, living in Alna.

A big thank you to our friends the Horseshoe Crabs for providing us with entertainment on Saturday, Sept. 10. Peter, Paul, and Brian made us smile while we were working or taking care of our trash and recycling. I hope you enjoyed the music as it found its way across the transfer station. Thanks again, Crabs.

There’s a big sparrow at the feeder this morning and it’s not with the house sparrows. From its size, at first glance maybe it’s a fox sparrow, but it’s not typically scratching, just sitting like it is maybe injured or dying.

Almost everything can be explained in different ways. For example, audio information that is used to produce music from a digital source can be stored as a time series. Alternatively, as is the normal convention, the audio information can be remapped into the frequency domain via Fourier transform. The latter is helpful for use with electronic signals.

A few days ago, the second brood of new phoebe birds left their nest at my house. I’ve tried unsuccessfully to even imagine what it must be like to be a newborn phoebe, probably about 3 inches tall, being pushed out of a nest that was about 10 feet above the ground. All of this, of course, while being expected to then immediately start flying, something I’d never even done before. Next being told – who knows how, or by whom – that in just a few days, we’d be leaving to migrate to Mexico.

Every emergency department has patients who doctors and nurses see on a regular basis and often, we get to know them fairly well.