August 14, 2026: I did it!
People don’t gloat for me. I gloat for myself. I did what seemed to be an impossibility, on a few differing fronts. First of all, I got 100 plus boxes of books packed up and ready to send to Nikolaevsk School down on the Kenai Peninsula. There is proof of this – the 105 boxes are in a U-Haul trailer, parked in the lower driveway. The trailer seems big to me, but it is considered to be a mid-sized trailer. It has a picture on the side of a soccer player, and it says Oneonta, NY. Huh. Oneonta, NY is not far from Cobleskill, NY where I went to school. I did not think I’d have the time to get this done. I also “did” my last seasonal Friday Fling stint today. It was actually a bit touch and go for a while. This morning, as I was packing up in the former banquet room of the historic Eagle Hotel, I foresaw that I didn’t have any volunteers. Getting the car and the wagon (which is needed in order to haul our materials across the lawn) seemed like an impossibility. |
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Then the Alaska Junior Theatre crew, from Anchorage, showed up. There were four people, one of whom needed the use of a wheelchair, two dogs, and all their event stuff. I wasn’t up for coordinating them, but I knocked the chip off my shoulder and I did it. I headed in the direction of the Palmer Visitor’s Center and went to turn into the place where I park, the Alaska Bible College parking lot. It was empty. I went over around two chairs that were used to block the driveway and took my spot. I didn’t have the cart, so I carried the books across the grassy expanse. The theatre people followed suit with their event stuff. It was then that two volunteers, Deb and Pam, showed up. We got things assembled in pretty quick order. Then a staff member of the Alaska Literacy Program showed up – I got her a chair and a table and she set out her fliers. We were a large group. I went over to the Bible College and asked if my car could remain in the lot. They said yes. It crossed my mind that a visitor center staff member could ask if the two other nonprofit groups had City of Palmer permits. Fortunately, this didn’t seem to cross anyone’s minds. Turns out, the children are back in school, and so there were not a lot of children around today. However, there were just enough parents, grandparents, children, and tourists to make it worth our time to be there. This is what I am going to remember about today: my feet were hurting, my left foot hurting really bad. I took off my shoes and socks – the grass felt so good underfoot. Oh my. Shoes, I was reminded, do protect feet – I did bump my feet a few times and saw stars. I returned to the hotel and finished packing up the outgoing boxes. Meanwhile, about 20 boxes of books came in, most from Glennallen – tons of Chilton’s auto repair manuals. It’s now the end of the day. The words “I did it,” are now bouncing around in my tennis court head. |
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