This is what I’m involved in, a race against time. It’s a bit tiring, but at the same time energizing. Maybe it’s a yin/yang kind of thing. And the yin/yang symbol is now spinning wildly.

I am pushing all involved with the Bright Lights Book Project (this is mainly board members) to focus on our getting a site for the books. I tell all that we have overstayed our leave at the Meeting House/Church of the Covenant and that we must have our own place.

The problem is, of course, that there is absolutely no space available in Palmer, Alaska, no space at all. Palmer is now a bedroom community of Anchorage, and all storefronts are taken, and all warehouse space is full. I thought we’d get the yoga studio, the pet crematorium, the Palmer Senior Center Land, but we ended up being shit out of luck. Very frustrating for me because I am the one who does most of the work in very small spaces.

Well, my single minded intensity of focus does seem to be paying off. Tomorrow we’ll find out if we got the City of Palmer’s permission to build on Meeting House land. I have convinced Pete of the importance of our getting this land, and he’s come through with flying colors in his discussions with the Palmer powers that be.

Yesterday I speculated as to why he was so successful in talking the talk and walking the walk with the city planners. Today, in talking with him further, I realized that I’d left out an important piece of the puzzle. It is that he is a technical writer. He teaches the subject, and thinks about it, and often, in working on various documents, puts theory to practice. So his academic training and mindset, as far as technical writing goes, lent itself to the self-designated task.

He was up for the challenge of seeing if he could get us permission to put the building on that land – two others failed and one in fact said, “I hope that you are not wasting your time doing unnecessary legwork.”

Yesterday I ran into our friends, Judy and Brian, the two individuals who took me and my bicycle over the far side of Thompson Pass, in the Turkey Red parking lot. I recognized their 1977 Chinook RV and they recognized me in my 1991 SAAB. I invited them home. Recall that two years previously, I struck up a conversation with Judy who was wearing a black fleece coat with a white Alaska Humanities Forum on the front. I then told her about the BLBP, and she was then dismissive, I think because we were not yet a nonprofit.

Well, today I told her we were a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and I also gave her the Meeting House/restaurant distribution tour. This time she was really impressed, so much so that she might assist us with AHF grant inroads.

The latter was a race against time because we need funding, and we need it now.

Next: 205. 7/29/22: The Bacon Family Reappears