It’s here. The leaves changing color, the temperature dropping, and the smell of dying leaves and vegetation in the air. It doesn’t seem fair to me, that this year it came so soon after spring. I was happy to see the leaves reappear, and in what seems like so little time they are on their way out.

Some would say, well, if you don’t like the shorter spring and summer seasons, move south. The problem is that the places I would like to live are now overcrowded. And this area is also growing fast.

I resumed driving before it got as bad as it is now, the traffic and the strip malls in particular. So I got used to being on area roads before the onslaught.

Today I was in Wasilla, attending what CCS/Headstart was calling a baby shower. There, in a building filled with pre-school classrooms, I met at least a dozen parents and parents to be. All seemed very intelligent and obviously will be good parents who will work at reading to their children. Of this I am sure of.

There was one little baby, his name was Chrismon – this was the sort of baby that you remember – most others are non-descript. He was four months, had big brown eyes, a small mouth and a dimple. He held tightly onto my finger with his shrimp-like fingers. I thought, this is going to be a very unusual child.

The rest, eh, they come and go. And of course, I would never, ever ask why, but the question that comes to mind is, why now? Why have children now? The world, as we know it, is falling apart. There are quite obviously too many people. The current population explosion is going to be our undoing. This is obvious.

Better, I think, to get the parents reading to children now, maybe the next generation will think twice about reproducing itself.

Back at the hotel, I did further work in the back room, and I packed up the Alaska Native Language Center books going to Barrow. This left me with more space for other books.

I’m glad to have a staff person who is invested in this project – but this does not seem to be saving me any time. I mentioned this to Pete and he said, “State Fair,” meaning that lately, this took up a lot of time. And you talk about evidence of the current population explosion – my goodness, it was as evident as night and day.

And this evening we went to the college and watched a play, one about 9/12/01 and the planes that were forced to divert to Gander, Newfoundland. I had been to Gander, so I was familiar with the town and with the geography. But I most wanted to see the play because I wanted to see how on a stage they’d take on the topic of 38 planes landing in a small backwoods Canadian town.

It was done with actors and actresses playing multiple roles, and the use of settings centered around the use of chairs.

Well done. And it brought 9/11 back to mind, which was what it was supposed to do.

Next: 244. 9/14/26: Falling Down and Getting Back Up