My friend Bill is calling this the summer that wasn’t. Yes, there was always the promise of a string of long, sunny days. But it never happened. Every so often, we’d get a warm, sunny day, but the days have mainly been overcast or early on sunny, and later, overcast.

I am not complaining. We have it here way better than places south of us. There have been record temperatures for days on end in the southern states. Also, fires and smoke have blanketed the northeast. And as well, there has been flooding.

I think, of course, of the animals when I hear all this – cows and horses in barns, overheating, inhaling smoke, getting washed downstream.

Anchorage SD makig a delivery

So yeah, we are lucky. On the local highway, lots more traffic, the tourists are coming here in droves. They are glad to be escaping the direct effects of climate change. I ran into Betty, who cuts my hair, and she said that she hopes that the cooler temperatures we are experiencing are not a draw, meaning that they will prompt others to move here. I suspect that this is going to happen.

There, then, will go our quality of life. Down road, Mike’s family got his property (I don’t think he sold it to them) cleaned it up, cleared it out, and are now building a house. A family of nine will occupy it. Boys that carry guns and ride ATVs. Most importantly, these individuals are already becoming a presence in that gravel and cement trucks have been going up and down road.

None of us realize how much of a presence we are. And none of us realize that each and every one of us is a drain on the available resources. It should be incumbent upon those who are here, to say, I understand this, and am not having any more children. Rather, I will take on one, two, or three that others could no longer care for.

There. I am hopping off my well-worn soap box.

Today started a bit rough, but soon evened out. Pete left before I did, so as to meet up with the guys from the Anchorage School District Warehouse, at U-Haul. I miscalculated the time and got out of here later than planned. Oh oh. I met Pete for breakfast at the Sunrise Grill and he lent me the key needed to get into the hotel. I then went to the senior center – I had a few instances in which the right books got into the hands of the right people. This, to me, is a good feeling.

At the hotel, Cara, who works for the Boys and Girls Club got the tour. Lois and I came up with a categorization system for the kids’ books. The fellow who made us our new banner dropped it off. Meredith who goes to Belize came and got more books. And after things quieted down, I sorted and categorized the books that, yesterday, we brought back from U-Haul.

The high point of the day was going for a late evening ride on Raudi and Tyra. Buggy – but the fireweed now is just starting to bloom. Yes, this was the summer that wasn’t.

Next: 197. 7/19/23: More Rain