When I got up this morning, there was a nip in the air. It was fall like, a harbinger of what’s to come. There was also termination dust on the upper ranges of both the Chugach and the Talkeetna Ranges. A bit colder and we could have experienced our first fall frost.

We could be in a race against time because we are now harvesting our berry crops. And it’s been a bountiful year. As I write this, at 10:30 p.m., Pete is making MORE raspberry jam. The raspberries are fresh, he picked them this afternoon. I did not give him an assist because I was busy sorting and categorizing books, getting ready for a big weekend.

Becky's horse

Though there was a nip in the air, the sun was shining brightly and continued to shine all day. The temperatures were in the low 60s. Would have been a great day to get the horses out, but again, I was busy sorting and categorizing books, getting ready for a big weekend.

Wait, early in the day, I along with Pete met with the Mat-Su School District superintendent and talked with him about the school bookcase project. He was a likeable fellow – had a very large office, bigger than our kitchen and living room together. I noticed that he had tacked some documents to the far wall. I didn’t get the chance to mention it, but a sheet of paper, in bold black block letters read DON’T GIVE UP.

I wanted to talk about this; perhaps I wanted verification that I should (in the words of Bob Dylan) “keep on keeping on” with the book project because, yes, it is taking up a lot of my time. The super seemed to have been scheduled to talk to us for half an hour because then his secretary stuck her head in the door, meaning it was time to wrap up our conversation.

I did learn that he attended UAF in 1985, which was when I was teaching English. I may have had him as a student. Small world getting smaller.

Pete and I continued on our way, checked out a long white building across the street that at one time was a church. The last time we checked it out he showed no interest in it – this time he looked in the windows and speculated that perhaps we could share space with other non-profits.

Our next stop was Evangelo’s Restaurant in Wasilla. There I gave a presentation to the Rotary Club. I think it went well, hard to say; after, I made a few important connections.

Onward, to the Alaska State Fairgrounds where we met up with Pam Meekins, who will get Pete tickets so that he can get into the fair and get books in the newspaper boxes. We also said hello to our friend Bill.

We went to talk with Becky, the state fair gardener, and got to see some of her gardening artwork. This included two horse sculptures. The woman is amazing – she captured the essence of horse in her design work. On this, a bright sunny day, I was blown away.

Next: 218. 8/11/22: Har Ha