Z is at the end of the alphabet. Multiple Z’s indicate sleep or being tired. I am there. I didn’t sleep well last night, which might mean that I will sleep well tonight. Last night I briefly fell asleep reading The Shepherd’s View: Modern Photographs from an Ancient Landscape, by James Rebanks. I’d recently read his first book, A Shepherd’s Life. It took me a few minutes to figure out that he’d written the latter.

The Shepherd’s View is more simplistic, perhaps because it’s supposed to be a photographic essay. Still, I’m enjoying it. I enjoy reading books about livestock and herding dogs.

Some people count sheep, and this enables them to fall asleep. I read about sheep and fall asleep. I can’t picture sheep going over fences, but I can picture horses doing the same, so sometimes flipping the switch and watching show jumpers does the trick.

I’d still like to go to Iceland and participate in a sheep roundup. Maybe I should start looking now at dates when this is taking place and find out how I might sign on. This would give me incentive to get caught up on my rest and get in better shape. I have the entire summer ahead of me.

I have tomorrow ahead of me. I’m going into Anchorage for a three day conference, leaving tomorrow midday. I’m really glad that I’m not flying anywhere although I will be flying to Nome in March. I know the odds of being in a plane accident are very slim, but shit, a plane in Toronto flipped over coming in for a landing. All survived. This is amazing. Now I am wondering what it was like, being upside down, and figuring out how to be right side up. And everyone aboard must have been calm and cool and collected or else they would not have gotten out as quickly as they did. I do wonder, where there any very small children aboard? And how did they handle this?

Imagine being upside down and going ohh shit, I forgot to buckle my seatbelt. Then again, you might not live to tell about this. You most likely would land on your head and never again be the same. Those who had a fear of flying must really have a fear of flying now. I mean, who’s to say that the same thing might happen again.

Enough about flying. Though I was tired all day, I did have the energy to do my distribution route and pick up books at Swanson Elementary school. I was fast. I got an email message saying they were available, and while on my route, I went to pick them up.

18 or so boxes of books came in today from Wasilla Middle school. I reboxed them. I was so tired that I kept shaking my extremities as a way of staying awake. This did the trick.

And it’s doing the trick now. I need to retire and catch a few zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz’s

Next: 50. 2/19/25: Notebooks