Sometimes at night, like tonight, I am so tired that I wonder how I’ll get through the next day. As the days progress, I find it harder and harder to get things done, particularly things that require single minded intensity of focus. This includes pen cleaning

For example, if I hadn’t written for an hour this morning, I would have attempted to write this evening and would have failed miserably. Most likely I would have fallen asleep at the keyboard, which actually does happen these days when I write anything late at night.

This morning I worked on the chapter on visiting Old Harbor. I had it at the end of my document, but I realized that since I am going with a straightforward chronology, I am going to place this chapter right before the chapter on Lisa Murkowski.

The end stages, the final chapters of this document, are a mess. But I am going to wait until this document is printed up and then begin making changes.

Very odd – the Palmer Senior Center is again having problems – they are the same sort that they had previously and are again having. There is still an adversarial relationship between the upper floor administrators and the downstairs seniors.

I obviously have high hopes for this book. I am hoping my friend Christopher will edit it – we’ll see. I’m going to try and work on it during the upcoming Alaska State Fair.

My friend Cathy Stone, the Hotel artist in residence, expressed her concerns about the Palmer Senior Center as well as about Trump and Putin’s upcoming visit. I didn’t used to get my knots in a knicker about what was happening politically – right now I’m singing a differing tune maybe because I see (for example) how the budgets cuts are affecting nonprofits like ours.

Pete guessed where the big beautiful event is going to be held, which is at JBER. No motorcades this time for either man. It’s hard to understand how any one man (like Putin or Trump) could be major political figures and have children, but then life is just full of surprises.

I’m slowly heading in the direction of bed, slowly. And tomorrow I will wake up and everything will be just fine.

Once again, I will progress, and hope that I have the inner and outer temerity to make decisions in a quick and efficient manner.

The fairgrounds work quite well. We put former newspaper boxes across on the red trail and in Tiny Town in locations that are accessible. Sharon Aubuy was the artist who painted both boxes.

I am now starting to fall over, so I need to wrap this up. This is what I mean about most things.

I cannot imagine how people can go to an ice cream store and not sample the goods along the way.

I gotta wrap this up. I just fell over.

Next: 218. 8/14/25: Ideas Day