I am thankful for numerous things, first of all for Pete. We are both pulling the same cart. Sometimes I don’t have the strength or the fortitude needed to pull my weight, so he pulls harder. He does not ever give up. He is taurus the bull, and once they commit to doing something, they do not back off.

Tonight he gave me a much needed assist with getting the former banquet room of the historic Eagle hotel ready for tomorrow’s event – 30 first graders are going to descend on the banquet room and expect to be entertained for two hours.

Joseph's last day of his mission

I had a brilliant idea at 6:00 a.m. this morning. I originally was going to have the children write books, but instead, I am going to have them create a LEGO town for dinosaurs. I did find the dinosaurs across the street at the thrift store. I also have play dough, so they are going to make their own dinosaurs. We’ll see how it goes. It is hard to fall flat on your face when you are dealing with first graders. They are adept at letting their imaginations go in differing directions. The only thing that could go wrong is that they just don’t get what I’m asking.

At the end of the day they will go home. I do not have to worry about making up for a botched lesson on Monday.

Tooth is better. Now I have an eye floater. I think I burst a blood vessel doing too much heavy lifting. I wonder what they do for such things. I wonder if it will disappear. I wonder a lot of things when I am physically tired.

I did not sleep at all last night, which is why I am exhausted tonight. This means that there is the likelihood that I might sleep well tonight. I got to thinking today – what if I were to attempt to stay awake for ten days, could I do it? Given the way I feel tonight, I think that I might last two days.

I could stay awake by keeping on moving. The minute I sat down I would fall asleep.

I often think about doing the Tevis endurance race – it’s 100 miles over some fairly rough terrain. I could do this on Tyra. I’d have to train down south, and ride hundreds of miles. I would have to ride after dark and get used to being up all night. This would be my greatest challenge.

As I have said before, I would also like to go to Iceland and ride in a sheep herding roundup. I am getting increasingly more fond of sheep. I wonder if people move to Iceland, and if it’s allowed. Horses are not allowed back in Iceland, so I will not move there. I wonder if anyone has smuggled a horse into Iceland. Must be, someone has done this.

I’m so tired that I am wondering how I’ll get through tomorrow. I will, it is just at night that this seems like an impossibility.

Next: 44. 2/13/26: Doing the Near Impossible