I appreciate the response from Camron Adibi. Yes, let’s all keep thinking and talking about this issue, so vital to our economy and our health. Together we need to truly examine and compare all the many options that are available for solving this horrendous problem. And for those with their own on-site Title 5 septic systems, it is high time to apply whichever of the various nitrogen-reducing methods we each prefer among those that already exist.

I first wrote about Connie last January in the Oak Bluffs town column. Something unusual, actually supernatural, had happened between Connie and me, back in that frosty month, and I had to share it.

Constance MacAllister was a friend of mine, an older woman who lived with her daughter, Gwyn, also a close friend, in a drafty Victorian house only a few blocks away from me on Samoset avenue.

Rule number one: An islander does not ask another islander over for dinner. We already know far too much about each other to open ourselves up to the possibility of revealing what few mysteries there might be left. So aside from the occasional potluck supper, there isn’t much social life. The suppers tend to be pretty quiet, with one faction on one side of the hall and the other faction on the other side. If you like casseroles, Rice Krispy treats and a knot in your stomach, you’re in for something special. Conversation is kept at a pretty low burn . . .

Water. It is a key to life. At times it is our ally. Other times it is our adversary, as was the case for many during and after Hurricane Sandy. The lesson was clear: we have only one choice — to work with water, not fight it. Many individuals and organizations have been involved with the longstanding challenge to address water quality issues on the Vineyard. It is perhaps the greatest challenge we face as a community in the coming years.

In the home of my childhood we had no scissors, no flashlight and no scotch tape. Well, that’s not exactly true. We had them all but when they were needed we had no idea where they were. Everyone has one of the drawers that has three thumbtacks, two double A batteries rolling loose, a refrigerator light bulb still in its package and the baster that kept the drawer from closing the first nine times you tried to shove it shut. Well, our house, our entire house was that drawer.

When I first got married my mother in law was standing in my kitchen while I was making our spaghetti dinner.