The second snowfall of the season wasn’t as wonderful as the first. The familiarity of it all explains why I would happily postpone the next one until 2027. New is good, old is old.

Similarly, (and naively), I can’t help but feel a down-deep sense of hope and promise with the arrival of a new year. After a year of understandable terror within the Island’s immigrant community, and the generalized betrayal of American values recounted in each day’s news, it is unrealistic to feel optimistic. We can’t even count on a new government this coming year. But there is some nugget of inspiration in the blankness of a blank slate.

The Irish, I have read, open their doors on New Year’s day to help push out the old year and welcome the new year inside. We don’t have the climate for that ritual here, but it must be good for the soul to feel the freshness of starting anew and of canceling our regrets.

My regret of the week is my blunder in sending in a partial draft of my column to the Gazette last week. Here are some of the narrative parts that didn’t make it in the paper.

Thank you to the mystery woman in the gray pick-up truck who, just before Christmas, delivered home-made cookies to the workers on the State Road public works project. We were all delayed a bit along the stretch of road by Nip ‘n Tuck farm, where a long ribbon of pavement was dug up for the installation of water mains.

The other happy news from last week was that two West Tisbury couples celebrated their long-time wedding anniversaries over the New Year’s holiday. Congratulations to Chris and Sheila Morse on their New Year’s Eve wedding anniversary, and to Mike and Hermine Hull who celebrated that milestone on New Year’s Day.

This coming week, our daughter Chloe Maley, her caregiver Stephanie Brothers, and Stephanie’s daughter, Annabelle Brothers, are flying to Los Angeles for a visit with Chloe’s aunt, Sandra Caruso. On their way home, Annabelle will pick up her car at Logan and drive back to New Haven for her winter semester at school. Annabelle will celebrate her 21st birthday while en route home, on Jan. 11. She says she will order champagne on board the plane, and  — just in case — she will carry proof of her age.

David Smith and Joan Apt have gone to Philadelphia to visit friends for the new year’s weekend, and on their way home will stop in Beacon, N.Y. to catch up with their son, Alex, his wife, Kelli Bird, grandson Desmond and his almost three-month-old sister Annabelle.

Anna Alley and her son Sam spent Christmas in North Attleboro with Sam’s sister, Nicole, her husband Arsen Hambardzumian, and Anna’s four grandsons. They returned to the Island Sunday.

Happy birthday greetings to Carol Brush on Friday, Jan. 2, and to Julie Mitchell on Saturday, Jan. 3. Birthday celebrants Todd Hitchings and Sloane Rossi rule the day on Monday, Jan. 5. Wednesday, Jan. 7 is celebration day for Alexis Holden.

Happy New Year to all.