Yep. This one is significant. I think what I will most remember about it is the weather. Sunny, warm, no breeze, the smell of fall, decaying leaves in the air. It was much like the day that my father died, though the leaves on the trees aren’t quite so golden. Actually, he died on the 21st of September so no wonder today’s weather reminded me of that particular day’s weather.

I celebrated it being my birthday by taking the dogs for a walk. They also knew it was good weather, as did all the other Squalor Holler animals. The chickens, named Black Tail and Speckles, are getting along with now renamed Red Hen. It isn’t the company she wants, but it is still company. Being alone was really hard on her.

I went and distributed books at the Lekker Bakery before heading down the Glenn Highway and visiting Mary and Mario. Mario has ALS – I mentioned the other day that I looked it up. This is a really dreadful disease – it slowly sucks the life out of you. He can’t eat without choking – today he had to be aspirated after attempting to drink some juice.

Towards the end of my visit Mario had two visitors, a neighbor who’s been watching out for him, and Pat, a hospice volunteer who works at the Palmer Pioneer Home. She’s replacing the other volunteer that I’ve been working with, so we will be conferring about books. And tomorrow I will take some grown up books with me for Mario.

I left Mario in the hands of his neighbor and Pat and then went to the pool where I went for a very brief swim. I ran into Cathy, the artist in residence, and she immediately began telling me about reading Dostoyevsky. She was near spell bound. She said, “Well, I’ve read the short story, I’m ready for a longer book.” So in the next few days I am going to find one of this author’s works – I may have to go to Fireside Books in order to pull this off.

Cathy and I also talked with Mike, a mutual friend.

I spent my last few minutes in the hot tub talking to George the young lifeguard who I think elected to talk to me because the rule is that he needed to be in the pool area when anyone is out there. I was the last person to leave the pool area.

Heavy traffic on Bogard, heading in the direction of town. What gives?

A scene of general mayhem in the former banquet room of the historic Eagle Hotel – lots of children’s books had come in and there were three volunteers on hand. Plus, Sharon who designed the hats for the Alaska State Fair, was in the Literacy Annex. There was a new volunteer, a fellow by the name of Alexander. Alexander, age 20, has a strong interest in horses and art. He actually did a lot of heavy lifting today.

There was a BLBP board meeting this evening. The less said about it, the better.

Next: 251. 9/18/25: Monsoon