I realized this morning, when I was cleaning the horse pen, that it was going to be an ideas day. Idea days have a distinct feeling to them – I feel exhilarated and at the same time at loose ends.

I have one of two options. I can either abandon ship and pretend like these ideas never occurred to me, or I can drop everything I’m doing and act upon them.

Today’s ideas came at an inopportune time. I have more to do than I can possibly do on the book project. Books are coming in from an Alaska village, a woman is going to drop off two boxes, and books need to be distributed.

And there is the fair project. Pete and I need to fill the reptile box, which is going to be placed in front of the reptile building by Logan, our videographer, later today. And Becky, the head gardener, just sent me an email saying that there is an extra newspaper box in front of the maintenance building. I have yet to tell Pete this – he has reached his max as far as newspaper box distribution goes.

Okay. I am dodging the issue. My ideas were related to Shelf Life. Last night I talked with my friend/Artist in Residence Cathy Stone who started talking about the problems at the Palmer Senior Center. Coincidently, I have been working on this chapter in my book. What I have come to realize is that, yes, history is repeating itself. Same problems as before, same sort of response on the part of the administration. So I need to find a way of addressing the matter. I have, in this particular chapter, veered away from the topic of over abundance and need to focus more on this, in this chapter. So I am going to write about over abundance in relation to commodities. I also need to include a sentence of two about what became of the cheap sunglasses that were, at an outdoor senior center event – two pairs in the garbage, one broken pair on the ground.

I was moving right along in my thinking and then I realized that yesterday I had been happily working on the chapter on visiting Old Harbor. Over abundance – they don’t have a way of recycling their trash. It ends up in a landfill.

The abundance issue is embedded in my story and needs to be a point of focus.

Lastly, the fair. I need to keep a notebook handy and take notes for an epilogue. Notetaking. I do not do much of this. I am now reading The Snow Geese: A Story of Home, by William Fiennes. I suspect that he is an ardent notetaker because his use of detail is over the top. He did get this book published, so perhaps note taking is a good idea.

So how am I to continue? I wrote this dispatch because I didn’t have the time to write this morning. I just couldn’t get up. I needed time to go into early morning dream state. I might not have time to write this evening.

The day has begun. I wrote this early in the day, so as to better get my thoughts together.

Next: 219. 8/15/25: Fair Particulars