I have never before had this problem, making time to write. But I now have this problem. I am having a hard time prioritizing, in part because writing proposals is such hard work for me. Some people just crank them out – for me this is an onerous task.

I’m usually able to work when the weather’s crappy – and it was snowing hard this morning. Pete gave me a ride in because I left the car in the parking lot so that two volunteers could go to Anchorage and do a Title Wave pick up.

This morning I put myself in the zone – I was there – in the former banquet room of the historic Eagle Hotel – at 11:00 a.m. well before opening time at 1:00 p.m. And in walks a woman who works at the Palmer Visitor Center. She wanted one of our demo books that we use to train volunteers – this one had the center cut out. She’s in a play, plays a southern woman who sells stuff on T.V., and she is going to open the book and show that the pages have been cut out.

We talked for a bit – but I had to come out of the zone to work with her.

I don’t recall what I did after this – but the impetus to get back to work on the proposal for Prophyry Press was long gone. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh no.

I corresponded with the two volunteers who went this morning, in near blizzard conditions and did the Title Wave pickup. In came Eliza, the new volunteer (early), and I showed her how to clean books. And in came Annetta, who already knew how to clean books. I paired them up.

And in came Dan, who is with Mabel, to say hello. Then in came Megan and Dan, who unloaded the car. They had a great time driving to Anchorage – they purchased their own books from Title Wave and called it an adventure. They picked up eight boxes of books from Title Wave, six children and two adult boxes.

I repeatedly told Dan and Megan that they saved Pete from having to go to town – he has classes on Wednesday. I don’t know how to thank such people. I am at a loss. Maybe they are, like most people, working for the good of the project. I don’t know.

I unpacked the books in the afternoon and worked alongside Eliza and Annetta. We had a good time. I did my story time thing and read them passages from books. I got this new thing that I do – I am taking stickers from sticker books and putting them on price tags. Before I was doing this haphazardly and not asking other volunteers to do this, but now I am going to show people how to do this. It makes the books more marketable, this is what I am going to tell them, but the real reason is that it slows them down. I am attempting to keep the books coming in and going out balance – it’s hard when there are so many volunteers.

Well, I have just spent fifteen minutes or so writing this dispatch, which is another form of procrastination. Now I’m going for it. And I hope that I can get in the zone.

Next: 15. 1/15/26: Mid-January