I often say that I retired at age 14. This is not a joke. I took jobs that were fun and abandoned those that were no fun. I feel that karmic justice has now caught up with me. I am working harder than I have ever worked in my life: for no pay, no social security, and no retirement funds. The only perk, and it’s a good one, is that I will never, ever have to pay for a book, ever again (though I will).

I now have this idea – I’m going to take books here to the hotel and keep bringing the better ones home.

It was yet another long day. I immediately went to the Palmer Pioneer Home and I dropped off several boxes of books for their shelves. And I left them with books for their shelves. This was library revitalization. In going through the books they donated to us, I found clunkers, old books and very out of date books. And I also found some really good books. I surmised that if the Pioneer Home staff had been doing their own revitalization, that they would have kept a lot of what they packed up and passed off to me.

Alys on crosscountry bike trip

I returned to the hotel and noticed that there were two individuals at the far door. I went and opened it. Sharon and Harry, who are associated with Mat-Su, College greeted me warmly. Pete has Sharon, who is 79, in a class. She recently met Harry, and they became a couple.

There is much to remember from their visit, the most interesting thing to me being that there really is an overabundance of books out there. Sharon showed me a photo of the interior of a thrift store in Charleton, South Carolina – this thrift store sells items, including books, by the pound. 79 cents for a pound of books. I saw a copy of the children’s book, Corduroy, at the top of the heap. My gosh, I thought, the publishing world went apeshit, the market fell out of the print book market when technology intervened, and in part, books became overabundant when Kindles and Nooks became the main source of reading material.

The odd thing is, there are still readers out there. Our books go slowly, but they go.

I worked for a while, sorting the Pioneer Home books into fiction and nonfiction boxes. Volunteers trickled in. Pete and Alex went to Susan’s house and retrieved 20 more boxes. Pete and I then went to Kaladi Brothers in Anchorage and talked with Michele Parkhurst about her project – K brothers is currently constructing a larger warehouse and roasting facility. She gave us a tour – the coffee industry and all that is involved in getting the product into the hands of appreciative coffee drinkers is beyond my comprehension.

We then filled Michele in on what we are doing, but our end of the deal pales in comparison to hers.

Once back in town, I took a look at the contents of the 20 boxes of books. Unreal. This was someone’s home library. Seeing all these books bolstered my sagging spirits – once again, tomorrow will be another day.

Next: 94. 4/5/25: Spring is on it’s Way