In the past five minutes a dozen dispatch titles have come and gone. They are like the golden ring on the carousel – elusive, gone in seconds, never to be reclaimed.

Whomp – better than whoosh because I sat down in order to write this dispatch. I am now writing this at the kitchen table. I procrastinated when I was upstairs, in bringing it downstairs, I wasn’t up for making the lengthy journey.

Then, when I sat down, it was whomp. Sitting down is not good for you, or so says Katie Bowman, the author of Move your DNA. I know this, but I am sitting down because the side of my head hurts and for this reason I am very, very tired.

After a few nights of not sleeping well, I think that tonight I will sleep well.

One of the dispatch titles just came back to me. I was going to call it sense of accomplishment, and it was to be about the day’s achievements, of which there were quite a few.

I am going to follow this line of thought. Once again, I got going early. The first thing that I did was box up ten boxes of books for the flood ravaged northern villages. I was hoping to box up twelve boxes of books, but I ran out of time.

We had scheduled a meeting with Lawrence who had an interest in being our volunteer coordinator. The meeting went very, very well – he is adept at setting up data systems. We showed him the program that we want to use, and it made sense to him.

My role (I think) is going to be to provide him with the data. He in turn will talk care of those involved with our various programs. We need volunteer lists for our books in the community, bookcases in the schools, distribution, and Alaska State Fair offerings. Oh, and our children read to seniors program. If Lawrence does this, I won’t have to continue to do this – I can instead do other things.

Midafternoon, Pete and I took the boxes that I’d boxed up over to the Palmer City Hall Chambers. I think that someone had perhaps taken a load to Anchorage, so the chamber pile was smaller than it appeared to be.

I do not know where our books are going or where they will end up. This is disconcerting because I parted company with some really good books, and I hope that they end up in the hands of appreciative riders.

Next, we met with Becky Williams who works for the Mat-Su School District. Talking with her was another one of those proverbial breaths of fresh air. She wants to involve us in Borough literacy activities – I was initially suspicious because people who work for such organizations generally just want to keep their jobs and aren’t overly interested in reaching out to other organizations. But no, Becky is the real deal.

Went back to the hotel after this and I pretty much got the place ready for tomorrow’s event. We’ll see how it goes. Whomp.

Next: 281. 10/18/25: Going to the Dogs