Sometimes words escape me. I watch them fly off like those birds that flock together in trees, then take off seemingly together and seemingly apart. I call them the pepper shaker birds. They don’t go far – they lack the motivation to embark on long distance trips. These birds, well, all birds, bring me great joy. Not to the degree that I want to become a bird watcher, and stalk them, just to the degree that I like to see them as I am going hither and yon.

Cold, just slightly overcast today. We got going slowly this morning –this is typical of Thursdays, which follow Pete’s full schedule Wednesdays. He gets home at 10:30 p.m. but is wired, so we don’t get to bed until close to 1 p.m.

Alys in her study

I headed to town at 11:30 a.m. and went to yee old storage locker. The U-Haul place is like an airport with no planes. I now know my way around – the first few days I was far more tentative.

I grabbed eight or so boxes of books, which I put in the rear of DGNPNY. I ended up distributing them later in the day. I am going to be pleased to have all the books out of Unit 1338. I’m now closing in on it.

I met with Bea Adler after leaving 1338. Neither of us had writing to share, so we talked about our writing for some time. I picked up a piece of banana bread – I discovered that it had a hair in it. I returned it. And why did this place opt to put a plastic lid on my chamomile tea? I must remember to order this in a mug the next time.

I spent the afternoon distributing then hurried home. Pete, coming up the driveway, told me that the Alaska Daily News article on the Bright Lights Book Project was out. He said that there was a major error in the headline, and I thought, oh oh.

Pete was right. The reporter said in the headline that the BLBP had kept 60,000 books from ending up in the landfill. The real story is that Milena had 40,000 books sent up via TOTE, and The BLBP had kept 20,000 from being shredded. So I had to send an email to Emily and have her set the record straight, which I did.

I didn’t feel good about doing this; in fact, I felt bad about having to do this because I knew that the ADN reporter would feel bad if I pointed this out to her. I went ahead and did this anyways because Pete and I both feared that the recycling center staff would call us on this, and perhaps even take away our book salvaging privileges. For shame. . . .

Otherwise, a very good article, complete with photos, some of me lugging what appear to be very large and heavy boxes. The overall effect – big boxes/small woman is intensified by my small size.

Tonight, this is all the words I have. I am exhausted.

Next: 42. 2/11/22: Forward Ho