When I left home this morning, it was dark.

We all in our youth learned the saying, “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” The year, there is no context or frame of reference for those who are young. We tend to put things into perspective as we get older and get a sense of the historical big picture.

But I can’t tell you anything about Columbus, except the names of his boats, there were three; they were the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Also, he treated Indians poorly and refused to acknowledge that he was an interloper on their land

This being a Saturday, no one who I interacted with today acknowledged that it was the 12th, Columbus Day. I don’t know if schools are closed on this day. And I am not going to give the matter anymore thought. I will just live with my ignorance for now.

It was a rainy, blustery day. It was also somewhat warm out. I found myself wondering if its going to continue this way all winter, and if we are going to get rain instead of snow.

A few years ago, a huge cottonwood fell across the Jim’s Road trail. For some time, it was not possible to get to either side of the road. I finally made a horseback riding path. I remember making note of this in an earlier dispatch, I called it nature bitch slapping us.

I am so tired – I just fell asleep here at the computer. The cursor continued to move llllllllllll just like that. I was on my way to creating the world’s longest bar code.

And in a few minutes here, I will do the dishes.

It was a long day – met up with Bill and had breakfast at the hotel, then we went to Family Treasurers- a local thrift store, and we cleaned out their bookshop. They had additional books on hand. I took the books that we could put into the hands of appreciative readers and put the rest on shelves.

The proprietors don’t seem to care what’s on the shelves – so now they have a lot of CD’s, VCRS tapes, and religious books. I suppose we could publicize the fact that Bright Lights books are available there, and get some signage there, and fliers, and make it an extension of the hotel space.

I will do this when time permits.

Time is not permitting for much of anything these days. Quite frustrating. Anyhow, after absconding with the best of the books, I returned to the hotel and spent the afternoon boxing up books for villages. Pete and Robert weighed the 27 boxes and printed up shipping labels for the same.

And by the time I got home, it was dark.

Next: 278. 10/13/24: Uff Da