We humans make life extremely hard for one another at times, and there is no reason in hell why we should be doing this. After all, we want things to be easy, right? Literal door opening – how difficult can it be to hold a door open for someone who’s arms are full? Figurative door opening – how difficult can it be to hold a door open for someone who is attempting to do what some would deem to be near impossible?

This past December I got the Bright Lights Book Project going. It was a real slog to put it mildly, harder than walking uphill on our area trails after a heavy snowfall. This was because most at VCRS had their reservations about what Bill Schmidtkunz and I were doing, which at that time was separating salvageable from non-salvageable books and giving the best of the salvageable books away. Then there was the first sale. We, meaning mostly me, carried at least 100 boxes of books prior to the sale and after, carried at least 50 boxes of books back downstairs. Where do I put them? This was my most asked question.

After, most thought that the sale went well and that a lot of good will was generated. Well, the good will seeped out of the boxes, and gradually, the VCRS staff became more receptive to giving me an assist in getting ready for the upcoming second sale.

A couple from Deb's crew checking out a book

I don’t know whose idea it was, to have a second sale, but this is of little consequence. Everyone, including me, thought that this was a good idea. And everyone has remained enthusiastic and upbeat about this event.

This is good because it is near as much work getting ready for this sale as it was for the first sale. The difference is that the staging area is no longer back in the nether regions of the warehouse, but more up front, in a corner now called the sorting and distribution area.

This area is a step up from before in that there is now a clearly defined distribution flow. The salvageable books go into the S and D cell, and the non-salvageable books go directly to the shredders. Salvageable books are then categorized and boxed.

This is the downside – right now there are at least a hundred boxes on the floor of the S and D cell, and on three wall-side tables. It’s hard to walk around them and harder to categorize books. In the next few days, tables are going to materialize from various sites, and the boxes will be placed on the tables.

Ahh, but I see a problem materializing. There are right now too many books on hand for the space available. Today everyone involved had ideas, good ideas, ideas that will work for food. But what I saw, and what I think escaped them, is the fact that The Bright Lights Bookstore is a growing entity, which is in need of a larger space. There is another storage area in the cattycombs, adjacent to the bookstore, but it is being designated for textile sales.

What to do? I hope that fate intervenes. Imagine it, and it comes to be. I just have not imagined where this space might be, or how we might gain access to it.

Next: 43. 2/12/20: Loose Change