I’m ticking them off – I have lived through more July 4ths than I now have left. A sobering thought. I celebrated this particular July 4 by going to the Big Dipper ice cream shop and stocking the bookcase and also eating a strawberry ice cream cone.

I now have strawberries coming out of my ears. Pete has been very diligent in tending to and harvesting his strawberries. We had them for breakfast and tonight after dinner. I will never tire of them.

It was wild and crazy day. I wrote for half an hour this morning then wrote for half an hour before dinner. I am working on the final chapter. I am going to go back and start to revise, adding anecdotal material here and there. Like I said yesterday, a paragraph on the history of the Eagle Hotel would work well.

I am now at page 276. I get to page 300, and I will print up what I have and begin revising. Slow and steady wins the race, a motto for the human race.

The Palmer Chamber of Commerce cancelled Friday Fling because it was the fourth of July. No one was happier than I was to hear this. It was like being a kid again and having school be cancelled on account of it being a snow day.

Before I left for town, I got a phone call – some woman said she had a U-Haul truck full of books to give us, and that they are “good books,” in “very good shape.” So Pete and I waited all afternoon for her to arrive; she was bringing the books in a 20-foot U-Haul. She never materialized. It was as we were leaving that I had an ah ha moment. This woman is a big-time hoarder. She gave Melina and me the runaround several years ago – we were to come and check out her books, but she never gave us her address. I think that we actually dodged a bullet.

So I went to the former banquet room of the historic Eagle Hotel and watched as Pete dismantled and rebuilt new shelves. He took the shelves that the Fire Marshall said were too tall and moved them into the broom closet. Then he built new, shorter shelves to replace the one’s he just moved. Pete had man help; Anthony, a volunteer, gave him an assist. Anthony also paid for and took apart the granite bar that no one knew what to do with. The owners actually charged him for this. . .

I cleaned the back room that the Anchorage Literacy Project people are going to occupy and moved the Alaska State Fair boxes onto the shelves in the broom closet. I also put books in boxes in order that Pete had temporarily removed from the shelves.

This evening, I took Hrimmi for a ride around the loop. It was a good, peaceful ride in which I had to use the crop minimally. I am pleased with both our progress.

Next: 182. 7/5/25: Whoa is Me