The day began early. Pete had to get to town in order to meet Robert. The pair then went to the Carlile Trucking terminal and picked up the back haul. This is the term for the materials truckers bring back to their home base, in this case Anchorage.

Pete called Carlile a week ago and they agreed to back haul two pallets of books that were being donated to us by the Alaska Native Language Center in Fairbanks. I thought, when the deal went through, everything should be so easy. And it was easy. This just took a single phone call.

The guys picked up the books and then Robert dropped Pete off at a surgery center. He had his computer with him, so he did BLBP work. Four hours later, he had carpal tunnel surgery done on his left hand, which is his least dominant hand. He will have the other hand done in three weeks. He’s right-handed, so the best is yet to come.

He got a ride from Pam back to the former banquet room of the historic Eagle Hotel. He walked into the room – his hand had a large white bandage. He later told me about the surgery – it sounded ghastly. He was loaded up with lidocaine, and a curtain was put up, so he could not see the procedure. He said he could hear what was going on. It was, in my estimation, worse than cataract surgery.

He said his hand and arm were numb when we were at the hotel, but once he got home it started to hurt. He couldn’t tell, but I could, the surgery seemed to have taken it out of him.

And my day? Not as eventful. I got up early and ate breakfast with Pete. He took off and I did the morning chores. This, of course, included feeding and picking up horse poop. I next took the dogs and Hrimmi out for a ride. I did our trails but not Tin Can. I had to hustle because I had to get to the Lions Club meeting.

The BLBP got $1,000.00. I had asked for $1,500.00. This is the amount that Kid’s Kupboard got for a bread slicer. Hmm. I now know that if you ask for something specific, with a price tag, that you’ll get it. I did not ask for anything specific, so I was lucky to get $1,000.00.

I have, in asking for donations, now gotten $3,500.00. And I have other contributions coming. It’s like anything, I get in a rhythm and communicate with people, and good things happen.

I then went from the Lion’s Club to the Eagle Hotel. There were four people, with two truckloads of books, waiting for me so that they could donate books. And so I spent my afternoon sorting twenty or so boxes of books. I was joined by two very quiet individuals who cleaned and stamped children’s books. Then there was a late afternoon/early evening BLBP board meeting.

It went okay. But this on top of that made for a very long day.

Next: 71. 3/12/25: Snow