It’s warm and rainy. Can do without the rain, like the warmth. It’s easier to move around. Joints seem to be more flexible. It was partially sunny and balmy this morning. Early on, Pete said to Zach, our veterinarian, that the weather was going to change in the late afternoon. I thought, sure, Pete is blowing it out of his wazoo.

Well, Pete was right. He said when I pointed this out to him that he “was just a messenger” for the National Weather Service. It was nasty driving home, particularly on Buffalo Mine Road, but he went slow and was relaxed, and so I was able to observe the less fortunate, a stuck two dumper gravel truck and pickup truck, both off the road.

It was because my mind was on the weather, and making sure the horses were okay (we put their raincoats back on them after dinner), that I did not, until now, have the time to reflect upon the events of this day.

This a.m. we had Zach take a look at a marble-sized lump on Ryder’s nose – he thinks it’s an abscessed tooth, and so we are to give her antibiotics and perhaps in the spring have the tooth pulled. Her situation is just like mine, not, I think, a coincidence. Maybe we can convalesce together.

Brady moving pallet of books into the U-Haul storage locker

Next, we stocked the bookcases at the Valley Hotel, Vagabond Blues, and Turkey Red Restaurant. Then we headed back to the Mat-Su School District Warehouse, where James and Brady had already set out the books we were going to consider. This was at about 1:00 p.m.

I was totally smitten by these guys – both intelligent, articulate, relaxed, enjoying what they were doing, and helpful. After we got the books sorted and on the remaining pallet, they assisted us in loading one pallet into our truck and then loaded three more (very large) pallets into the big white school district warehouse box truck. They were fast and efficient. They used a power pallet jack to both load up the books and to transport them to the U-Haul storage locker.

This made me think that Milena should have gotten more help from TOTE when she was schlepping the books from First Book to the Alaska Native Heritage Center. I now, after assisting her, James, and Brady, have a better idea as to how to do this more efficiently.

It began raining when Pete dropped me off at the Meeting House. He went to get groceries, and I put the incoming load of books into the Meeting House library. I was relieved because I then had room left for more books.

Okay, so I am having to think ahead. I need a place for the books. I called John DePriest, our hay dealer, whose sister Georgina owns the yoga studio because he told me it was for sale. Well she told me that it caught fire last July and it needs repairs. It was a very positive conversation – so no wonder, when finally I asked about a place nearby, for lease, she said that she and her husband own the former Pet Crematorium and are going to lease it to Raymond, her brother. So I called Raymond but did not get an answer. I felt though, as though this might be an in.

You just never know. Perhaps tomorrow the rain might stop and it will be still be warm.

Next: 360. 12/22/21: 2:30 a.m.