Some time ago, I told people that I had an internal mood-o-meter, and in this way I gauged my mood level, one being very low and ten being very high. People did not respond in the affirmative to this and rather than continue to talk about it, I just let it go.

Now I’m thinking about having a lucky-o-meter – an internal indicator of how I’m doing luck-wise, one being very low and ten being very high. A few days ago, I was feeling very fortunate. Today, I was feeling very unfortunate.

I knew going into this that the meter reading would be low; I figured maybe a 4 or a 3. To go into the negative numbers was something that I didn’t anticipate. But I went there today. The problem is, the lower one goes, the harder it is to raise the level of the lucky-o-meter.

Denali Highway

Okay. We have now entered the area monsoon season. We were lucky (and the lucky-0-meter was near off the charts. Summer in the Park(s) was (I now realize) weather dependent. Of course, parents and children are not going to hang out in places like Bugge Park unless the weather’s good. It is far preferable, and of course the choice of any and all children, to be inside on rainy days. There they can (har har) spend their time reading books, where it’s warm and dry. And rather than eat free lunches that come in paper bags, they can instead have warm soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Kids, I think, are also taking advantage of other outdoor related programs.

We did well for a while. Today was not such a good day. Motion, using bicycles, with two volunteers to describe how bicycles work, was a bust. It was a Bugge Park day. It had been raining, but today it was just spitting some. Two children, regulars, showed up. We read them books and we showed them how bicycles work. The connection inherent to the readings, bicycle activity, and games was weak.

I got back to the hotel. There was some confusion as to what to do with incoming books, which came in library magazine boxes. I first went over what we needed to do with the Summer in the Park(s) staff, and then sorted out the books, duplicates going in the back room – to be stamped by the disabled students in the fall.

I then went to a local café and checked out a friend’s photography exhibit.

All stories have ups and downs – they can’t go one way or the other. The lucky-0-meter, of course, could not keep dropping. I came home and sure enough up it went.

I let it be known to Pete that I’d had a shitty day. I felt better after I had some of his potato leek soup. Then after, I went for a ride on Raudi. I recalled that many years ago, I’d get apprehensive before riding her. No more. I now look forward to riding her. And today, in riding her, the lucky-0-meter rose to a respectable level.

Tomorrow it will hold constant. I am expecting it to drop on Wednesday. But you never know. Change, even with the lucky-0-meter, is a given.

Next: 190. 7/14/26: Rain