Interesting, getting older, getting wiser. I feel like there are fewer absolutes. I pause, wondering what to write next. I can’t think of an example. Maybe this is a line of thought that I should ponder some more.

Not everyone is lucky as I am. Some live very hardscrabble lives, and this is not their doing; rather, this is a matter of happenstance.

I made some definite choices, and it turned out they were the right ones. I was also fortunate in that I did not (dare I say it) become accidently pregnant then have the father refuse to pay for the upkeep of the child.

I seldom think of it this way, but my mother became a single mom, this was before it was fashionable. This was not at all her doing. She had children and was left to raise them herself. I don’t think she was disappointed in the outcome – both El and I did well for ourselves in that we did not end up hanging out with the wrong crowd; addiction to drugs or alcohol becoming one such consequence.

Pete and Tyra

I at times wish that I’d been successful as a writer, but it isn’t over yet. I am soon going to resume working on Shelf Life: A Book about an Overabundance of Books. I am also thinking about another book, entitled The Power of One, which would be much like Studs Terkel’s Working except the setting would not be Chicago, but rather, Palmer. And the subjects would not be males and females but exclusively females. I have a list of women I’d like to interview.

In order for this to happen, I am going to need to find others who are willing to invest time and energy in the BLBP. I suspect that this will happen in some serendipitous fashion, and hopefully soon.

Yesterday, I forgot to mention it – the Story Time at the Mat-Su Borough Animal Shelter went as planned. There were seven children and seven adults present – the children, pre-teens, were the perfect age.

I also met Dave, who owns the Beagle Rescue nonprofit. I liked him a lot. He has a lot of common sense – he’s bringing three dogs rather than my proposed six – and as he said, we’ll see how it goes. This is fine with me although I had envisioned involving more children.

Then again, I might leave this event to Pete and head to Anchorage and attend the Alaska Convention of Native conference. Pete said he’d be glad to head up the dog event.

We’ll see how it all shakes out this week.

There was a 100 percent chance of rain today. I worked inside this morning, one eye constantly looking out the kitchen window at the sky, which didn’t darken. We got out at 2:00 p.m. for a ride, me on Raudi and Pete on Tyra. The horses are woefully out of shape, but eager to get out. I remarked, as we rode, that I wished that it was an all day ride, which was a good sign.