The weather's been great this Memorial Day weekend. Warmer here on the coast than it's been inland. We've been eating like royalty. Soft shelled crabs and asparagus Saturday. Rib eye steak and asparagus Sunday. Shrimp scampe tonight.

This morning I threw a kielbasa on the grill. The plan was to head out to Jamestown. Jamestown is an island located between Narragansett and Newport, Rhode Island. Beavertail's a park at the west end of the island. There's a lighthouse there. An old military bunker, manned back in The Good War: WWII.

And a great view of Newport. With a pair of binoculars you can see Jackie Kennedy's place: Hammersmith Farm. Where she and JFK had their wedding reception.

Our plan was to picnic. When we left the mainland, it was sunny and hot. By the time we'd crossed the Jamestown Bridge , the weather had taken a turn. It was cloudy. The temperature was 20 degrees colder than it was when we left home. The sky was turning dark off to our north.

Donna had forgotten to bring a sweater. I scolded her. " Be prepared! "I said. Like some idiot boy scout bucking for a merit badge in I Told You So's.

We set things up. Planted our chairs. Started eating the keilbasa and drinking the lemonade. But we didn't last long. Packed it all in. Drove back over the Jamestown Bridge, from which a woman had just jumped to her death the day before...

She was an " activist. " Served on boards. Worked for the mentally ill. Victims of domestic violence. Did good. For others. But that's another story.

Donna and I were in Memorial Day picnic mode, and it had rained on our parade.

I'm not so sure I'd want to live on an island. You need to fly to get out there. Take a long bridge. And the weather's always bad. If it's not rain, it's fog.

" No man is an island. " John Donne wrote that. Long before the Jamestown Bridge was constructed. Long before she stopped her car, got out, and leaped into the fog.