I do wonder, if people get older, do they need more light? Seems like this was never an issue with me before, but it is an issue now. Or maybe I don’t remember being affected by the lack of light. My not remembering this may now be an issue.

The days are going by so fast now that before they are even over, seem like a blur. I think the trick is going to be to learn to live for the moment. Remaining in the present is a good idea. Why is it that I can remember the order of all my freshman classes in high school but can’t remember yesterday’s significant events? My short-term memory is waning and my long term memory is waxing. To the moon Alys.

I can even tell you where I was and all the events that occurred on the day of the first moon landing. Significant assassinations? I remember them all.

This isn’t anything that I want to dwell on, and in fact, I just stifled the urge to delete what I wrote.

I remember typewriters, typing entire drafts, making changes on the typed copy, and then retyping what I wrote. I often think that it would be fun to again work on a typewriter, but I sense that after five minutes I’d say, “I have had enough of this.” One thing I now lack is what would be needed, finger strength.

I do still write drafts by hand. This is because on the computer I tend to self-censor when working on high stakes writing. Dispatches are medium stakes writing. I do revise some, and there are often what I call fits and starts. But I do not erase entire paragraphs.

Back to the subject of this dispatch, light. Again, today, very windy. But the sunrise was around 7:00 a.m. and the sunset around 7:00 p.m. I had enough time when I got home to clean the horse pen without a headlight. It was cold, so I wore my Refrigirware suit. I was comfortable.

I did not have the time to walk the horses. Pete and I went to the hotel, and we continued to get ready for tomorrow. It gets to the point in which towards the end of a day my subconscious says “enough!” and my conscious says, “yep, it all looks really good. Everything is in order.” Then the next day I return to the former banquet room of the historic Eagle Hotel and I see what wasn’t done and needs to be done. For example, today I checked out the back room and thought, oh, the boxes of books on the shelves need to be put in a more logical order. Pete and Robert did this for me. This, though, was not a thought that occurred to me yesterday.

The light – in a few days there will be enough that I’ll be able to come home and go for a horseback ride or two or three.

Light, it does not discriminate between past, present and future. It’s just a welcome constant in my life.

Next: 61. 2/3/24: Nearly Spring