One day, on the way into the hotel, I heard on “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” a radio show, someone say, “You can’t change circumstance. You can only change your response to it.” The host, Peter Sagal, blithely continued on, and I kept driving, the difference being that the above phrase stuck in my mind.

The phrase became a constant – I still think of it often. Changing your response means that you can change your response. This is not a redundancy. It means that you have the power of self-determination.

Woke up to snow this morning, not a lot, just a few inches on the ground. And it was still snowing. I had to drive to town – Pete needed to get home earlier than me because he was to meet up with Josh, our farrier. He was coming to reset shoes. I normally would have gone in with Pete, but I had a number of things going on after the BLBP board meeting.

The meeting – a long time BLBP board member retired; Robert has been on the board since the beginning, but he has a lot of other irons in the fire. This was the circumstance and there wasn’t anything that I could do about this. As for my response to the circumstance, I elected to move ahead and think about the fact that he is going to continue to be a volunteer. There is plenty of work to be done, and he will be encouraged to contribute in this new capacity.

After, the circumstance was that there was going to be a lot going on in the afternoon. This proved to be true. Melissa and Alexi both first cleaned books, then they did story time, then assisted kids who are a part of the LEGOs Club. We also had six volunteers total cleaning books. I responded to this circumstance by walking around and giving everyone a hand.

The final circumstance was that it was snowing at 4:30 p.m. and I had to go home. I didn’t have my phone, so I could not call Pete. I instead waited and he did show up and to take me home. I could have just gritted my teeth and drove home, but I instead waited for Pete to arrive. He showed up in the truck – a wise decision to bring this instead of his car. My decision proved to be less stressful in the long run.

Now I have one full day off, tomorrow. I am going to hang out at home. Josh the farrier did not show up today, but he is going to be around tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. Then on Monday or Tuesday, Pete, and maybe I, will go to Anchorage and pick up umpteen books.

Shelf Life is coming along – I moved on to the chapter entitled Partnership, and I am focusing on my involvement in the Palmer Lion Club. I started to expand upon what I’d written – and am seeing that there is a story there. I am going to write about our partnership in relation to Bugge Park and getting the big little library going again. I will also include some history.

Tonight we will watch an old video. I most likely will fall asleep.