It was wonderful to be out on the sound yesterday. I saw many thousands of fish percolating to the surface with shining flashes of silver. The sky was dark and brooding with streaks of sunlight breaking through. The blueish colored tones were constantly changing. White puffs could be seen way off on the horizon — to the north.
Our craft slapped the water’s smooth rippling skin. We passed the Black Duck; we passed the huge monster houses near the train station — where we called out a salute to Mickey Finer who had passed away recently, at 105 years old. We passed Saugatuck Shores with its yacht clubs. We passed Long Shore with its closed restaurant. We passed Compo Beach and Joey’s where I bought a small coke for 3.18(never again) the other day. We passed Old Mill where the Positano’s is closed and just kept on going. We just kept going….
The fish were practically jumping into the boat. We were the only ones out there as the sky was threatening. We talked about the possible effects of lightning on the water — but saw none. The sense of space is quite dramatic out there — all alone. No traffic or noisy commuters to contend with, you could be on another planet. I imagined that I was Adrian Block discovering the Connecticut coastline in 1611. I imagined the British Dragoons in their longboats and red – coats landing upon our sandy beach, getting picked off by highly skilled 12 year old locals.
It was great to get away from downtown. Downtown Westport is really a hot-mess these days. The construction was just supposed to last a month or so starting at the end of February, but it was late in getting off the ground and not even close to being halfway done now. I feel so bad for the store owners who are losing millions and millions in revenue because of all the construction. It’s just brick sidewalks(which we already had) and a few little trees (which we already had) and a couple new lamp posts.
All complaining aside — because it won’t help the catastrophe, the brick-mason dudes are doing a bang-up job. The Sidewalk-Sale this weekend will suffer tremendously, but who really cares anyway, there are no more mom and pops downtown and just about all Westport people are soo rich that bargain shopping is more of a bourgeoisie thing. The new upscale mall in Norwalk will be quite the relief, its almost impossible to park downtown these days. The new mall at exit 15 with its huge anchor stores like Bloomingdales already committed to 100,000 SF will be so great at solving the parking problems in Westport.
The Gunn House is starting to look less junky as David Waldman’s restoration is thorough and to the bone. Bedford Square looks not unlike Ground-Zero. I have been over to a couple of the Levitt shows but had to leave with a quickness as the performances were a little wonky for my taste.
Now let’s see……hmmmmm….what else?………….reading a lot. Just killed “Rendezvous with Rama”, talk about crisp and clean science fiction — wow, too bad Rama 2 has terrible reviews. Reading “Moods of Future Joys”, which my awesome cousin Lisa just sent me, it’s about riding a bicycle around the world. The Bible is getting more than a scholarly scouring by me this month (King James Version). I Found a Constance Garnett translation of Crime & Punishment on the cheapy rack at the Library and Jack Higgins’ Day of Judgment — might get a few page turns, we shall see.
At any rate, the hot muggy summer sweat is hovering like a cloud around Westport. Downtown is empty at night aside from the occasional band — at a local joint.