Some may have thought that winter was about over and that we were going to have an early spring. Not me. It was dark when I woke up at 7:45 a.m. because, as I realized at 8 a.m., it was overcast and snowing. The snow was heavy, wet, coming down flake-like. There was maybe one, two inches on the ground. The horse manure (always the barometer) was still uncovered.

I had reservations about driving in it, to town, but had work to do. Pete said that three of the bookcases were complete, so I had to get the books ready. I badly wanted to go with him and stock the cases and do the hubba hubba with the students and staff, but I had too much to do at the Meeting House.

So I stayed put. I got 15 (or so) boxes of books ready to go to three high schools and packed up six boxes of books that, tomorrow, will be picked up and subsequently sent to villages.

Upstairs

This was easier said than done. I made a mess of things in short order. I just don’t work in a linear fashion. The good thing is that no one is ever around telling me what to do because I’m the one in charge. The bad thing is that getting books ready to send out takes twice as long as it would, if I were organized.

I am streamlining the process. I bought these garbage bags, which I put inside the boxes. They fit over the lids when I’m packing. I also now have labels, so I put the information that I need to have on the boxes onto the labels. I’m going to next put contact information along with newspaper articles and bookmarks in envelopes, which will go with the boxes.

I’m also going to call the high schools that are getting books and ask them to contact me when they are low on books.

I decided (and this was my nod to organization) that I will alternate days in which I work upstairs and days in which I work downstairs. Today was an upstairs day. The new set up isn’t ideal, but soon enough, we’ll get a building. Pete said so. He’s usually right.

Tomorrow is going to be another upstairs day, and Wednesday, maybe a downstairs day. Both spaces are radically different, so it feels like I am in two differing worlds.

I can work on Friday downstairs. In fact, I can work downstairs every day of the week. I’m shortlisted upstairs because of church activities.

After getting the kids’ books in order, I loaded up my car with books for the Palmer Senior Center and some for distribution. I ended up distributing all the books I had on hand, so tomorrow I am going to need to drop by the Meeting House before heading over to the senior center.

This was my day. I tended to the animals and am now beginning my writing day. I’d rather write in the mornings; we’ll see what happens. Change is a constant.

Next: 24. 1/24/23: Nasty Weather