There are good days and there are bad days and there are so-so days. So-so days are a mix of good and bad days. Am I stating the obvious? I am actually just drawing this back to your attention.

Yes, there are times in a given day in which I wonder why I am doing this %^&*#@ project. My day begins when I’m reading my emails. This morning: looks like the books won’t be heading to Kenya until March. This is because the ship that they would normally be travelling on is in dry dock.

Got word back from Alaska Airlines and they are not going to be providing us with a raffle prize, which would be round trip airline tickets.

Ouch to all of the above. Equally distressing was the word that a volunteer would not be coming in to give an assist because he’s concerned about ICE. I told Pete about this, and he said that he thought the streets were okay. I showed him the message and he said that, yep, this individual’s mother does not want him exposed to government violence.

I did not know that ICE was taking away those who live in Palmer.

I spoke of my concerns to our partners, the Alaska Literacy Program staff, and we talked about what we’d do if an ICE person walked in the door. Now I fear for acquaintances of the hotel owners who are Albanian.

So, there was this part of a so-so day.

But some worked to make it a good day. Pete, as always, chipped in, breaking down boxes and working on administrative things – and Lawrence categorized the books.

There were 48 boxes of books that needed to be categorized, fiction, nonfiction mostly, with some young adult books and a box of children’s books. Lots and lots and lots of memoir books. I found a horse racing book and one about training a donkey to participate in a distance race.

This evening I printed up the introduction and first two chapters of Shelf Life, that which my friend, biographer, and editor Christopher sent back to me. He didn’t have a whole lot to say. I do not know if this is good or bad. But I went over what he sent back and tightened up the writing in several places.

I also attempted to do my math homework. Got stuck. Tomorrow at noon I will get unstuck. Then I will continue to sort books.

I knew I should be assisting Pete with working on fundraising, but I needed to take a break. Working on a book about the BLBP is a break.

I do wonder if there will be a BLBP five years from now, and what my involvement with it will be. The way my life goes, I’ll most likely look back and be incredulous because always, the twists and turns that my life takes, are pretty winding.

Next: 41. 2/10/26: Snow