This is what Pete just said to me. It’s 12:47 a.m., and here I am, writing the end of the day dispatch. I still have to take a shower. I have removed my hearing aids, and they are next to my computer. The one good thing about suffering from acute hearing loss is that once I remove these devices, I experience quietude. I can’t even hear the kitchen clock ticking.

Tomorrow I will confirm with the audiologist that getting these particular hearing aids was a good thing.

Alys drew a picture for coloring

A beautiful summer day – one that like water, just slipped through my hands. Yes, we did load up Hrimfara and took her to Sutton. There we met up with Sharon Aube who had, in her truck, a painted newspaper box. After considerable discussion, we put it on the porch of the Geist House, one of the properties in the Alpine Historic Park.

Hrimmi, Pete, and I did two story times, one with preschoolers and one with older children. There were maybe a dozen preschoolers in the first session and easily 30 older children in the second session.

I had been pressed for time, getting everything ready – I ran out of energy, so I did not put as much time as I should have into selecting the right reading materials. I should have read the children the Wonky Donkey and the book by the author of Good Dog Carl, about the family and their animals and how they begin delivering the mail. Darn. Instead, I read the bibliographic Burro to both groups, and There was an old Woman who Swallowed a Fly to the second group.

All the while, Hrimmi grazed. Pete hung on to her. I then had this idea, which was take the first group of children on a hike over to the newspaper box. There we unloaded Hrimmi’s pack and put the books in the newspaper box. An unforeseen consequence was that the children learned the importance of straightening books in bookcases and newspaper boxes.

After, Hrimmi and Pete headed home. And I went to town, first heading in the direction of the Bleeding Heart Brewery. There I picked up the five large boxes of books that someone had left there – grrr, grr, grr and returned to the former banquet room of the historic Eagle Hotel where I quickly cleaned and stamped the fiction and set aside the children’s books for others to clean. I mean, I was fast.

I did this because in my absence, the nonfiction table had filled with boxes of books. They were two deep. I didn’t have the time right then to deal because I had to attend a Literacy Team meeting.

It was one of the best meetings that I have ever attended. The 10 who showed up had a lot of good ideas and were (amazingly) respectful of me.

Rode Raudi and Pete rode Tyra this evening. Too much grubbing going on. Gotta do more road rides.

Next: 174. 6/27/25: Getting Darker