I’m closing up shop now, for an indeterminate amount of time. The main reason is that the number of people here in Alaska testing positive for the Covid-19 virus is on the upswing. This is a strong virus that’s apparently flexing its muscles.

It seems to be easy to acquire and I don’t want to get it. The number of people coming into the recycling center is being kept to a minimum, and everyone is observing the six-foot social distance rule. Still, touch a doorknob or a sink handle and you can be in for it.

This is actually a good stopping off place for me. The shredders have not been working for some time, and so the sorters don’t have to worry about staying ahead of them. And right now, there is no place to put recently sorted books. I also could be making calls and distributing books, but I am on borrowed time with Fireball XL-5.

Alys during the first book sale

I hope that the powers that be, will, in the meantime, give some thought to how my position might be funded. I can’t go on doing the job of umpteen people and not get paid. It also needed to be acknowledged that I have brought a lot of notoriety to the recycling center, both in terms of publicity and general good will.

I am not at all taking anything away from the fact that this project has, and I hope continues to be an incredible team effort. A lot of people put a lot of energy into this endeavor.

I have also as of late been feeling like I’ve been a salmon, swimming upstream. As this program has grown, so has the need for more space. I hope that down the road that there is a resale shop, a single building in which all the books can be housed. I know it would do quite well. But someone has to write a grant for this, for a book mobile, for distribution costs.

I can’t help but think about what I’ve accomplished just in the last few days. The majority of the books in the sorting area are now categorized and accessible. This includes all the children’s books, the curriculum texts, the pregnancy and health books. The books on the shelves are now also accessible. And in categorizing, I found numerous books that belonged in the other areas.

The bookstore is also now fairly well organized.

I left having a few projects left, that others can now do. The dictionary inventory needs to be pared down, as does the cookbook section. And the hardcovered novels and literary criticism books are now heaped on a pallet. They have to be sorted and categorized. And upstairs, there are two boxes of arts and crafts books that need to be shelved. Most importantly, the sorting area, which is adjacent to the recycling goods, needs to be shop vacuumed. The books in the sorting/categorization are now very dusty.

It is also a good time for me personally to temporarily close the shop. I need to finish If You Come to a Fork in the Road Pick it Up. And, it now being spring, I need to assist the ponies in making their transformation back into being horses.

I am looking forward to doing both things. We’ll see what the future holds for me. In the meantime, I am going to go (in relation to the project) with the adage out of sight, out of mind.

Next: 87. 3/28/20: Adjustments