For things to say. Also, and maybe as importantly, for ways of saying what needs to be said. This is hard because right now I have no idea of who my dispatch readership might be. I could pretend that there are 100 or so lurkers, but this seems unlikely to me. I continue to pitch my ideas into a void.

I don’t have any readers who are family members. My biggest disappointment is that my sister Eleanor is not a reader. My second biggest disappointment is that my oldest friends, Jacki and Christopher, are not readers. Actually, the list of nonreaders is long, and my list of readers is short. You’d think that I’d be able (at least) to keep the interest of family members and friends.

My site is the literary version of the You Dig ‘em Hole Company. I am trying to be funny, but not doing very well at it. Maybe I should post a joke a day – these are easy to come by. I come across a lot of joke books. And if someone is hanging out in the former banquet room of the historic Eagle Hotel, I pick out a joke and read it to them. I also share books, as they do. Children’s books are the best because there are pictures and texts.

I know how to increase my fan base. What I need to do is to resume working on Shelf Life. I hit an impasse, one or two or three that the subconscious is still working on. I’m close to returning to work – maybe in the next few days. It is my hope (there is that word again) that readers, once this book is published (and it will be published) will be curious enough to check out this website and the, ahem, treasure trove of information.

In the meantime, I am continuing to write dispatches and also continuing to read. Reading is a good winter activity because I don’t do much outside in the evenings when it’s dark. Of course, I continue to fantasize about having a heated barn and an indoor arena – the heated barn, I could both ride and spend time grooming my horses in the winter. Maybe I’d have a boarder and this person and I, together, would get weekly lessons. And we’d be able to do indoor agility.

I miss doing agility – if we don’t (and we didn’t this year) get on it and plow the outside arena, this becomes an exercise in futility.

Change is a constant. The book project is the base of the hole dug by the You Dig ‘em Hole Company. Amazingly, it just keeps getting deeper and deeper. And I just keep digging. Some days I use a shovel, but most days I use a bent spoon. I don’t see where or when I am going to declare that “this hole is as deep as it’s going to be.” No, in fact, today I went at it with renewed energy.

But like the moon, my energy waxes and wanes.

Next: 39. 2/10/24: Again, at a Loss for Words