This is a truism. As the day goes on, I think of various dispatch titles and then start to write/rehearse them in my head. They come and go. But none, absolutely none, come to mind when at night I step up to the computer, turn it on, and look at the white (blank) page. No, nothing comes to mind.

I am now beginning to have the symptoms of dementia. I can’t hold more than a single thought in my head, nor pass on these additional thoughts to others.

And sometimes now, I really do draw a blank when I attempt to remember something recent. What I am attempting to remember just is not there.

This, the memory decline, could be age related. But at the same time, it has to do with hearing loss. I have hearing aids, but they sometimes don’t work very well. The hardest place for me to tune in to what others are saying is the former banquet room of the historic Eagle Hotel. I think that books absorb sound.

I pretend to hear what people are saying – I go by context, particularly if I am able to catch their following sentence of thought. And sometimes I will say what? Repeatedly.

It may be too late to recover what I’ve lost, but I might be able to keep from losing more. The first step will be to check in with the audiologist and see if the hearing aids can be adjusted. There may be a way, using my cell phone, that I can do this myself.

I practice self-health care by remaining busy. This is also a truism. I do see the tunnel at the end of the light. Now just one day and one more week of Summer in the Park(s).

It has been an amazing adventure – I have to see this as a major accomplishment. It started with an idea (most things do), and then I got funding. I got a staff. We designed a curriculum; one that was very ambitious in scope. We carried it out.

The program did fill me with angst (another dementia related contributor) because I was (as I was told), “The one with the vision and the dime.” Because I was the one who got this going, I was in charge. And because I was the one in charge, I had to assume responsibility in making sure that before each day’s lesson, everything was in readiness.

I am now at the 22-mile point of the outreach program marathon. I know that there will be an end to this, and that I will cross the finish line victorious.

This week and next week are supposed to remain sunny. The rain contributed, at times, to low attendance. But this is the catch – if the weather is really good, then the children just want to play on the playground equipment. Today the kid eater was full of children; who can blame them for choosing to do this over attending a story time?

Rode Hrimmi tonight. She had a case of separation anxiety on the upper road. I suppose her articulating this was a sign of good mental and physical health.

Next: 204. 7/30/26: The Second Last Day of July