The absence of light is making itself known in the morning, say when I look out the window at 8:00 a.m. and it’s dark and I think I will stay in bed a few minutes more, until when it’s light. Or say when I sit down to dinner at 7:30 p.m. and it’s dark and I think I will not go for a ride; rather, I will clean up the pen using a headlight.

I have to adjust to and change my evening routine – no more going out for rides when I get home. And once inside, I need to be productive. I’ve asked Pete to print up a copy of “Shelf Life: An Overabundance of Books” – I will resume revising it. Resuming revising it is like hopping into a pool, lake, or river, well knowing that the water will be cold but bearable once I am in it.

At the Senior Center

Water – it is interesting, you get in and every single inch of space is surrounded by liquid, every single square space. It is pretty remarkable.

It was one of those days where I constantly had to keep reminding myself that I could not change the circumstances, just my response to these circumstances.

The powers that be at the Palmer Senior Center wanted the children’s books that I took from their library, back. I briefly envisioned responding to their original request, in essence going backwards in time and putting the labels back on the books and retaping the plastic bags, then going over to the recycling center and retrieving the cardboard boxes and putting the books back in their original boxes and taking them back to the senior center and down the stairs, in the order in which I picked them up. No, no, this would not be possible.

I didn’t say to the powers that be that some of the books had been distributed and some were mixed in with other books because this would have been too complicated. Rather I told the powers that be that I had taken the books and that a crew had unwrapped them and cleaned them up and that they had already been distributed. This was because sometimes including every single little detail confuses people.

This was the end of the first conversation. I called the Powers that be back and offered, instead, to make a donation of differing cleaned and vetted books. The one Power that be went to confer with another Power that be and when she returned said no, they did not want these books. Then she added that I was not supposed to ever go into the library again, to which I agreed. End of conversation.

At least I hope that this was the end of the conversation. I do hope that the powers that be don’t start throwing their weight around and tell me to stop bringing books to the senior center. They could, thinking that the seniors, if they want, could go downstairs and get books.

I am to learn from this to live in the present and respond to the circumstance that can’t be changed, when it arises.

Next: 277. 10/14/25: When it Rains, it Pours