It was another one of those days in which I wondered at the onset how it was going to go, and if perhaps I’d collapse under the weight of having too many differing things to do. In fact, I lost sleep last night fretting about this. I kept going over what it was that I had to do. Not a good thing. What was good was that I did get done what needed to get done. It was what in some circles they call, “a smooth run.”

Got up before sunrise – it’s that time of year – and I cleaned the horse pen, which right now is extremely muddy. I let the horses out of the pen and Raudi and Hrimmi rolled in the gravel spot outside the pen. Tyra went and rolled in the grass.

I made note of the fact that our remaining hay stash is starting to smell bad. Pete is going to talk with our hay guy tomorrow; we may get more hay this weekend.

Katie painting newspaper box

I ate a quick breakfast – Pete insisted on this – then headed to town where at 8:30 a.m. I met up with Robert, the BLBP board president. We drove to Anchorage and first met Angela Libel, the owner of Title Wave books. She was very congenial – she has a very good business acumen and has a big picture mentality. If I was younger, she would have intimidated me. This time, no. It was good, to talk with someone who is as passionate about books as I am.

Robert and I next drove around back and picked up a few boxes of books. The number of books we are now getting is lower than previously – other organizations are also claiming books. My thinking is that preference is now going to Anchorage teachers/schools – we in Palmer are not high up in the queue.

Robert and I talked nonstop there and back, mainly about BLBP things. If I have the time (hah), I will go with him to Anchorage again in the near future.

He has to pick up books on Sunday that came in from Wrangell. They will be at Alaska Air Cargo. It is pretty amazing that we have books coming to us from other parts of the state.

I hustled once we got back and went swimming at the Palmer High School Pool. I did laps then said hello to my friend Cathy who was in the non-lap area. The hot tub. This was the motivator, for sure.

I was supposed to be back at the hotel at 1:00 p.m. I was there at one minute after one. Behind me was a pickup. The passengers were waiting to drop off books from Willow. Turned out it was a wonderful assortment of children’s books.

I began sorting through these books and then went to use the restroom and noticed that someone had dropped off another ten or so boxes of books. I next talked with Lindsay from Alaska Family Services.

I was supposed to attend a discussion about the value of libraries this evening, but I got back to town and found out the gathering was cancelled. Grr, grr, grr. Once I returned home, I began fretting about tomorrow.

Next: 248. 9/12/24: Rain