Quite often I say to Pete, I says, “I’m so glad to have a home.” And I am. I saw a good number of homeless people in Anchorage, in particular one younger fellow with a heavy looking cast on his foot, and a backpack on his back. He was on crutches, slowly making his way across the street. He may have, or may not have, had home – hard to say. But seeing him got me to thinking that many out there don’t have warm houses with showers to return to after a long day of being outside. They scrounge for food, a place to sleep, and a place to urinate and to defecate.

Ryder and Shadow with Zellie

As Pam and I were going to and from our hotel, we saw a homeless camp with about a dozen tents. Those who inhabited the multi-colored dwellings at least had each other to commiserate with. And we both thought, there was a lot of food left over, particularly last night after the networking session. Pam and I did not, as we should have, gathered up the food and taken it to them. This would have been difficult to do.

The table meals – there were no doggie bags provided. Most likely a lot of that food was left on plates.

Examples again, of overabundance and underabundance. Nothing is being distributed equally.

Good to get home and again be amongst the animals. I did, even though I was tired, get out and brush all three horses. So they knew I was back and again caring for them.

We are caring for a neighbor’s dog. Ozone, as I call her, fits right in. She actually seems to fit in. I mentioned this to Pete and he said, “Well, there’s a lot going on here.” We also speculated that Ryder and Shadow know that she’s a visitor dog.

Once again, it was a long day, distributing books. This day, we did not get as many books into the hands of as many appreciative readers as we had in the past two days. But there were many, many good conversations, including one conversation with a fellow named D’Angelo who appeared at the end of our workday. He, I think, was one of the workers at the place where the Science of Reading Symposium was taking place. We had been told by one worker that she’d been told that she could not take books until after the conference attendees had gotten their books. So she stashed the books she picked out in a bag, under the table, and later came and got it.

What gives? I thought we had so many books on hand, and that which people weren’t taking we had to pack up and bring home.

Why aren’t humans more humanitarian? What is wrong with us? Why can’t we be kinder, gentler, and more compassionate?

On the way home we stopped and dropped off books at the Trunk Road Laundromat. There, in parking lot, was a father and his two kids. He had a gun in a hip holster. His youngest was riding a small ATV. So much for their wilderness experience.

How does one get people to see the light?

Next: 111. 4/22/24: Bogged Down