First things first – Hi Fran, this dispatch is for you.

Fran is a long time friend and dispatch reader. I am going to Fairbanks on Sunday and will get together with her on Tuesday. I am so looking forward to this. Tonight, in an email, Fran reminded me that she does read the dispatches. One reader is enough reader to keep writing these dispatches.

Seasonal Frenzy: It’s usually a few months after the fact, when everyone’s energy level rises and more things (supposedly) get done. Additional light and warmer temperatures have something to do with this. This year, the seasonal frenzy seems to be happening earlier.

Or it could be that I’m projecting my thoughts about this onto others. Or maybe I’m precocious. This year, it has hit me early. Go, go, go, I think for the same reason dogs lick their balls – because they can.

Pete and I both woke up early and are going to bed late. And in between these hours are tearing around like do gooders on steroids.

So today, first thing, we worked on inside stuff, me getting packets ready for the upcoming Reading Rendezvous, Pete making tomato sauce for the dehydrator and coring apples for the same.

We then took off for town, first stopping at the Palmer Senior Center so that I might pick up books I left there yesterday. If I left them there, they’d be tossed by the weekend cleaning crew.

We next met with Laura, who works for the Mat-Su School District. There were exclusively positive vibes at this meeting. Laura was aware of the Bright Lights Book Project because she saw me get an award at the Science of Reading Symposium. She, Pete, and I talked for an hour-and-a-half about the book project and how it might dovetail with the district’s literacy program.

Then the BLBP board met, and a motion was made to go ahead and proceed with our relocating, that is moving the BLBP base of operations to the Eagle Hotel Banquet room.

Pete and I will both be away (first I am going to Fairbanks and then he is going to California) until June 7th. So I will work, packing up boxes of books, until his return. I can’t imagine that he’ll be packing up books in my absence.

Everyone on the BLBP board was excited about the potential move. There were some who had reservations and therefore kept coming up with questions, some of which had no easy answers. Robert, Pete, and I had answers to these, and to questions that did not get asked.

Pete and I came home and went for a horseback ride. I rode Hrimmi and he rode Raudi on Peaches and Siggi’s Trails. Then I took Tyra for a ride. Yes, the smell of the cottonwood trees is again in the air. As I said in yesterday’s dispatch, I want for time to slow down. . .

Next: 138. 5/20/23: Enough