I wish. We get older we get wiser. I am now quite wise. I did strike a balance today, sort of.

I resumed working on Shelf Life. It was difficult because during my vacation I lost the thread of continuity. I tried to keep it but eventually gave up. I resumed working on the chapter on forging partnerships. I don’t know if I like it. I am not going to allow myself to be overly critical of it because if I do, I will start to think similarly about other chapters.

I need two things. I need a really good editor, one who knows about the nuances of memoir writing. And I need two weeks someplace else, so that I can work on this in an uninterrupted fashion. I have been lucky in life, usually what I have visualized has come to be. For example, I now have three wonderful riding horses.

Yes, I do need these two things and soon.

I then attempted to notify people about Friday’s Alaska Junior Theatre performance. It is looking like it’s going to rain – there’s a 70 percent chance, so the odds are that we’ll have the event in the downstairs teen center, which is my preference. I may have to go and round up children, but of course I hope not.

I’ll be glad to have this behind me. I do not like this sort of uncertainty.

I went for a ride mid-afternoon on Raudi – just on our trails. I am sure she would have preferred the company of her buddies, and to be ridden on differing trails. I noticed tonight, when I was riding Hrimmi, that they are four wheeling and dirt biking on the trails down at Scary Corner. They’ve made paths, so I will soon go down there and ride. I must break up the monotony.

I went to town after my ride on Raudi. In my absence, the books had piled up. I knew what to do and did it. I was glad to be working alone. I may actually make a schedule in which I spend most of my time working independently of others.

As I just said, I went for a ride around the loop and up Jim’s trail after dinner, riding Hrimmi. Right now road riding is working very well for us. Every so often she’d grab at the grass by the side of the road, but not when we were in motion.

Raudi and Tyra are shining stars, but Hrimmi is just as much a celestial bright light. Mary in Fairbanks rode her this past week and she did just fine. I told her in an email that if Hrimmi felt as though she was not being given directives, she would have stopped and refused to move. As it was, she did move out, sometimes very nicely.

Tomorrow I am going to make a concerted effort to get more information out about Friday’s event. We’ll see what happens.

Next: 199, 7/23/25: Huh