You woke up last night at 2 a.m.; you were brought to consciousness by intense itching in one, then the other ear canal. The itching was so intense that you put the pillowcase cover between your teeth, to keep from screaming. You finally got up, went downstairs, put a hot cloth against your ear, and whimpering, took two Ibuprofen.

You exclaimed to Pete that you never before felt anything like this. Then you recalled that when you were a teenager you got a case of hives – if this is what it was, welts appeared in various parts of your body, disappeared, then disappeared and reappeared.

Alys with three pallets of wearhouse books

You’d scratch one area, they’d go away and then appear in another. Your mother suggested you put Calamine lotion on the spots – in a short amount of time your entire body was covered in pink blotches.

The Ibuprofen plus doing breathing exercises enabled you to get back to sleep. Understandably you overslept. During the day, your ear itched some, but nothing like last night.

Which was a good thing because you had things to do. You were scheduled to sort and box up books at the Mat-Su School District warehouse, and as well, put away the books out on the table at the Palmer Senior Center. And oh yes, you had distributing to do.

You were anxious because between six and eight inches of snow fell in the previous two days and last night. You’d never driven the Great White Hope in inclement conditions before, so you weren’t sure how it was going to go.

You drove slow, so the drive to the warehouse was uneventful.

The guys who work at the warehouse had advertised the fact that books were available, but there were no takers. So you had first crack at (again) an amazing assortment of books. They also had set the boxes of books on tables, and as well, set aside bankers boxes and handcarts, so you were able to work in an organized fashion.

Salvaging books is your favorite activity. There is nothing (besides riding or doing agility with horses) that’s as satisfying. Add to this, you have established a network, so you are able to envision who the future readers might be.

You took a lunch break, distributed books, then headed to town where you met a board member and the owner of a local building. He showed you the available space and talked some about rental specifics. You went into this meeting thinking that, because of financial and logistical drawbacks, this site would not work. But you came out of the meeting feeling energized. The bottom line is that there is not enough available space where you are now, and it is stressing you out.

You returned to the warehouse, and happily sorted more books, refraining of, course, from categorizing them because this would take too much time. All the while, you envisioned categorizing books in the new space.

You seldom see how far you’ve come in such a short amount of time. Today you did, and it felt good.

Next 304. 11/5/22: Oh, It’s You Again