December 21 is two weeks away. This means that there will be four weeks before there is again this much daylight. It also means that we’ll continue to lose daylight. Ptooey.

It’s getting to the point at which I am being majorly inconvenienced by the lack of light. I have a vehicle with good lights, but I don’t like driving at night. Old habits die hard.

And I don’t like being inside in the evening, for four to five hours at a stretch.

I’m sure that if I went back and looked at other dispatches penned at this time of year, I’d see the same sentiments, only written down differently.

I could not deal with living in Barrow, even though I am the sort of person who thinks she could live just about anywhere, with northern climes being my number one choice.

Alisha cleaning book

Oddly enough, if I could now go anywhere in the world, I’d opt to go to northern European countries, such as Scotland or Iceland or Wales, or to Scandinavian countries such as Norway, Greenland, or well, maybe Sweden.

I would be okay camping in the northern European countries, but I would want to be in a hut or under a roof in the Scandinavian countries. The latter, I’d like to stay in places with wood walls and windows. And I’d like for there to be hot tubs in these places.

Now that I think of it, I have roughed it enough to know that I can do this and what to expect. So going the more upscale, alternative route appeals to me.

I’m still plenty tough. And if given the option, yes, I would bicycle the ice road from Anchorage to Barrow, or the reverse direction. I’d like to start out on the solstice –this way I’d have the psychological edge because the days would be getting longer.

No one in this end of the world ever complains of the lack of daylight. And few complain about the wind and snow or the crapped out roads. The people I know do complain a lot about their health. I act empathetic because this is important to them. And someday, I may be stepping into their shoes, that is if after they die, they are dropped off at the Bishop’s Attic Thrift Store.

There is a high degree of introspection here. I wonder if people get more introspective when it gets darker.

I should switch gears. It was a good day – the sun was above the horizon line for a while. I set books out at the Palmer Senior Center – I had not been there in some time. I’ve been given two, yes two, shelves upon which I can put books. The maintenance man/executive director said I could do this. He reminded me that the senior center board told him that they wrote me a letter saying what I could and could not do. I did not say what I was thinking, which was that I thought that we’d put those concerns behind us.

Distributed books. The BLBP Board and I met with the Foraker Group tonight and the meeting went well. I never would have envisioned this coming to be...

Next: 336. 12/8/23: There’s No Place Like Home