Three days of rain

If there is one thing that everyone around here can agree on, it's that the weather has been unusually lousy lately. The skies have been overcast, the wind has been coming in in fierce gusts and rain (or some sort of misty, mystical demi-rain that seems to be native to this island) keeps drenching us. It's extremely tiresome to deal with, especially since the high winds have ripped branches down from the trees and, apparently, even pulled sailboats out of the water. It has also shut down part of the ferry service to the island (which, I am told, is a common occurrence) and it is said that many of the people who have made it over from the dock in Woods Hole have arrived with their stomachs tumbling like clothes dryers.

I had hoped to take the ferry back to the mainland to do a little shopping and maybe see a movie or two, but Sunday was awful, Monday was worse and today looks highly unpromising. It's times like these when you really are reminded that you're in a remote location. I often feel cut off from the rest of the world in a pleasant sort of way -- the usual rush-rush pace of life is not something you feel here at all -- although it can also be a bit frustrating, too. Jumping off and back onto the island is not inexpensive, for one thing. It's $15 round-trip on the Woods Hole Ferry for a single passenger; if you feel the need to take your car with you, it's $150 round-trip.

If you don't take your own transportation, you will be relying on trolleys, shuttles, buses, trains and cabs. If you want to go to a major city, like Providence or Boston, you will need a combination of them to get you where you want to be and, if you can't make it back to Woods Hole in time to catch the last ferry, you can add an extra $100 or so to your trip because you'll have to stay in a hotel and wait for the 6 a.m. boat.

I had an invitation to a Monday night screening of the Cameron Diaz/Abigail Breslin movie "My Sister's Keeper" in Providence. I've never been to Providence, so it sounded like fun -- until I started planning how to get there. Watch the cost add up:

• First: I have to catch the Vineyard Fast Ferry to Quonset Point in North Kingston, Rhode Island. That will be $69 round-trip.


• Then, a choice: I can either call a cab to take me into the heart of downtown Providence ("That would be $55" for a one-way fare, according to the cab company rep I contacted, or $110 round-trip), or I can jump on a Rhode Island Public Transit bus ($3.50 round-trip), which will take me the same distance -- in approximately three and a half hours.

The screening was to start at 7 p.m., so let's guess it would be around 9 p.m. by the time I would get out. But the last ferry back to the Vineyard from Quonset left at 4 p.m., so I'll have to stay overnight. A visit to Priceline reveals that hotels within a five-mile radius of the theater would run between $90 and $200. If that option doesn't appeal to me, I can see if I can find a cab willing to drive me the approximately 70 miles from Providence to Woods Hole. But even then, I will miss the 9:45 p.m. ferry and have to stay over in Woods Hole, where the cheapest hotel rate is $118.

So my jaunt to Providence would have cost me at least $200, any way I figured it. And that's before you add in meals. As you might guess, I stayed home (even though the film got a very favorable review in The Hollywood Reporter). I spent Monday night running around Oak Bluffs with my co-workers Zach, Anna, Scott and Jessica, and I didn't even spend $20, which is quite impressive considering we stopped at Back Door Donuts to pick up some freshly baked treats from the MV Gourmet Cafe and Bakery. They've got a clever set-up. After the bakery closes, the staff goes to work baking tomorrow's goodies. But for those who can't wait until sunrise for something sweet, the bakers have taken out the top screen from their screened-in back door and they happily sell you some of the items they've just made. The bakery is celebrated for its sprawling apple fritters, which are too large to fit on most dinner plates (I got one last week and it was like eating a small continent). Order them at your own risk: They are certainly wonderful, but they will leave you with incredibly sticky fingers and a sugar rush that lasts for hours. The bakery has a limit of six apple fritters per customer; if anyone on this planet tried to eat six of those creations in one sitting, he or she would need a swimming pool full of coffee to wash it all down.