Perhaps you’ve noticed that there are profound seasonal changes underway on our Island.

No, I don’t mean that our tomatoes are finally starting to ripen or that we are about to be swamped by a tsunami of zucchini. And I don’t mean the coming of fall. I mean the going of the Summer People. That’s right: Their semi-annual migration is now complete.

The signs are all around us. The buzz of jet skis and the roar of powerboats towing waterskiers and screaming, child-filled inflated rubber rafts the size of floating dirigibles on outer Quartermaster Harbor have yielded once again to a merciful quiet, broken only now and then by the birdlike flap of sails as a lone sailboat comes about or the gentle paddle slap of the occasional human-powered kayak.

It is also now possible both to get a table at The Hardware Store and to get through the main intersection in town in less than two hours.

Similarly, it is now nearly possible to head for either ferry dock with at least a reasonable hope of driving on the boat during the same day.

And it is once again possible to find a parking space at the Thriftway lot without the aid of GPS. What’s more, when you get inside you actually recognize the other customers. This is lovely, though it has its own disadvantages — namely that you have so much to catch up on with neighbors who seem to have just emerged from summer hibernation that it takes forever to get out of the store.

Also, in the case of rain, you can now get around on the sidewalks in town without fear of being poked in the eye by umbrellas because year-round Islanders take rain for granted and have no idea what an umbrella is anyway. Water off an Islander’s back, as it were.

And speaking of water, here’s another seasonal change: Vashon’s duly-famous masters men’s and women’s crew teams, and the junior crew team as well, are back on the water. I don’t know about you, but I find this change curious. In a good year (and this one wasn’t), we have maybe two months of reasonably nice summer weather, days when it’s pleasant to be out on the water at the crack of dawn. But the rowers don’t row much then. I can think of only one explanation for this behavior: If you’re going to be cold, wet and miserable anyway, it only makes sense to wait for the weather to be the same.

Here’s another thing that’s curious about migration season. Summer People can afford to own Island homes they inhabit for only two months of the year because, why? That’s right, because, unlike the rest of us, they’re insanely rich. It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to work this out.

So somebody please tell me why most of the Island’s biggest and most important charity auctions — the Vashon PTSA auction, the Vashon Allied Arts auction, the VIPP Fur Ball, to name but a few — occur, when? That’s right, in the off season. Which is to say, AFTER the big money has flown. What’s that about? Sheer Islander cussedness? Note to charity auction people: Follow the money!

I don’t mean to act like a curmudgeon (I don’t have to, it comes naturally). And the truth is that Summer People are lovely folks. I say this because many of our Island businesses depend upon them for their seasonal purchases of goods and services. I also say this because many of them are my immediate neighbors in the Burton Beach area for two months of the year, and if I don’t act respectful-like and tug at my forelock in their presence I might be banished from the neighborhood.

Come to think of it, there may be permanent residents with the same idea.

— Will North, year-round Islander (thus far) and writer, is completing his latest novel.