It’s raining and humid. I don’t mind the rain part. The humidity I could do without. It’s also easier to get inside work done.

I can now see, for sure, the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s a pinprick, but it is light. This, what I just said, is very apt.

This morning I cleaned books along Jess, who has cleaned books in the past. She is woman with a lot of ideas, a good thing. She’s going to take a newspaper box and have it outside of her place of work. I am going to see if I can get her to put one outside of the petting zoo at the Alaska State Fair. Maybe the Winners Circle 4-H group will paint it. I had this idea on the way home today.

The new categorization system is going to work really, really well. Now I’ll be able to honor teachers wanting books for specific age groups.

As Jess was leaving, Pete appeared with the bookcase for the Boys and Girls Club of Alaska.

After Pete left, I worked on macro categorization. It went well – most of the books on alike subject matter are now grouped together. I have just a few more changes to make. Now, what’s left, the light at the end of the tunnel part – is micro categorization. I have to get single books on various subjects in their corresponding boxes. I estimate that this is going to take two weeks. It would be good to have this done by the end of July so that I can focus on doing other things.

The question is, should I start to work on putting together literacy programs or should I instead start working on putting together a fundraising plan? I haven’t a clue. We are supposed to get assistance from a nonprofit that specializes in this sort of thing, called the Foraker Group. But here’s the deal. We have sixteen months left on our lease. Time (I now know) goes by quickly. It’s a matter of early, early, early, on time, late, late, late. If we don’t start working on this now, we are going to find ourselves out in the Historic Eagle Hotel Parking lot, hosting a huge book giveaway. Of course, this will be in the rain.

Last year we went to an event hosted by Kaladi Brothers Coffee – it was in the rain, and we had rare books there.

There are now so many stories. At dinner tonight I recounted some of them with Pete.

The good thing about Pete is that when I get overwhelmed, he who is not overwhelmed reassures me that we are doing a good thing and that everything is going to work out.

NO horseback riding today. I am told that tomorrow the sun will be shining (hard to believe), and so we’ll go riding with our friend Judy.

Rain. Far better than fire.

Next: 198. 7/20/23: One Month after the Solstice