Title here reminiscent of Sarah’s Palin’s drill baby drill. The same as in, get what you can and get the hell out. And don’t look back.

Went to the recycling center today, in order to salvage books. Last week there was an overabundance of books. This week, maybe an under abundance. A good thing because the number of books on hand dictates how much time I’ll have to spend during the week, looking for places to distribute them.

And, too, I am limited on space. I have to move them out quickly, or else I will not have any more room for the influx.

Alys in the box

I decided to keep the eye of the storm analogy in mind as I worked. I am the calm center, what blows around me is or should be of little consequence. Gosh, it is hard because the wind that blows around me continues to create a maelstrom.

But sort baby sort it was. Bill, as usual, arrived at VCRS before I did, and was already hard at work, getting the books he needed to distribute at the Sutton Post office. So I joined him, and jumped right in. I first took care of the books on the pallet and then climbed into a gaylord (large cardboard box) and salvaged out of it, what I could.

The best find of the day was 2-3 boxes of Amish romances. I am going to box these up and send them to a fellow in New York state who has direct contact with some Amish. The Amish are close knit, and undoubtedly, will pass these books on to others in their community. It is really exciting to think that these books will both be well-received and well-read. Had they remained here, they would have been shredded. There is not a huge call for Amish romances here in Alaska.

There were no children’s books. This was odd – hopefully in the future this situation will change.

I discarded more books today than I wanted to. I could for example, find places for the quasi-spiritual stuff. The problem is that I only have so much room, and so much time. I’d hang onto these books if I had more of both.

I hung onto two books on the subject of juicing. Bill had discarded them. I know they’ll go quickly.

My distribution chain is much more extensive than Bill’s, so I have more places to put some of the more varied titles. This is both a curse and a blessing – a curse because (again) time is of the essence, and a blessing because more books are then saved.

Nothing else that I came across today now comes to mind. This is because we salvage so quickly. Quite often, the decisions as to what to save and what to pitch are made fairly quickly. Then, there are times in which I read the cover, the first few pages, and then for some time, deliberate about where it will go.

Sort baby sort, yes, this is going to remain my salvaging motto.

Next: 294. 10/24/21: The Ponies have a Field Day