I do not seem to be able to hold entire thoughts these days. If I say I have two points to make, I remember only one. I am going to try not to hold any thoughts. I’ve done a good job of faking it thus far, but I fear that I might not be able to do this much longer.

I pause. My mind is crammed with too many details. I do need to keep a notebook handy and jot them down. I do not, as do some, rely on a phone calendar. I think that forcing myself to remember things is upping my acuity. Enough said.

Last night I dreamt that Pete and I owned several aquariums that ended up in the black hole. This dream seemed very real because, yes, we very well might have owned an aquarium at some time. Of course, after going from horizontal to vertical, I realized that, no, we have never owned any aquariums of any sort.

Is there such a thing as a coincidence? I went to the fairgrounds midmorning with Pete and dropped off the reptile box. I then went into the reptile house and found Cyndi who owns Ali-gator. Way fun to reconnect. And as we talked, I looked around and I saw several aquariums. Some were empty and some had snakes in them. There was a parrot nearby, sitting on a perch.

Could it be that my subconscious was focusing on the fact that I’d soon be in the vicinity of Brad’s reptile house? Or was this just me making note of this place having aquariums?

I didn’t have time to think any further about this. I had a lot going on. I worked some in the cabin, then went back to the hotel and did routine stuff like unpack and categorize innumerable books. As an aside, I am thinking that the word infinite refers to the number of books in this world. There are just so many. And they just keep appearing.

A good day, talking to people and hanging out with volunteers.

I talked to a teacher in Maine who is the 2027 Iditarod teacher of the year; she is coming to Alaska and doing the Iditarod trail. I will send her students Alaskana books and books about the Iditarod trail as they materialize. And she’s going to send us books.

And we might set up a pen pal network. Unreal. All this is going on. I would never have imagined all this. And if it all went belly up tomorrow, I would say to anyone who’d listen that this was a job well done.

But it is work. Tonight Pete and I went to the fairgrounds and put newspaper boxes in place. Then we went and put books in the respective theme-oriented newspaper boxes. The job isn’t done yet. But when it is, I will feel as though my workload is reduced.

Rounding corners, that’s all we do. And once the corners are rounded, nothing remains but circles. And circles are boring.

223. 8/20/26 Circles and Squares