And it’s all downhill from here. Now the days will be getting darker, and in the blink of an eye, it will again be winter. But winter’s okay. It keeps more people from settling here. Pete says right now the housing market here is bad – the interest rates are high as are prices. I hope they go through the roof.

Today, parted company (isn’t that a nice phrase?) with books at the Palmer Senior Center – some oddball books in fact. One on cursive writing – the sentences that are in this book, which students imitate, made me realize that even though school

Sorting at the School District Warehouse

curriculums are thought to be innocuous, they are not. There were very pro-America sentiments embedded here and there.

I went from the Palmer Senior Center to the Mat-Su School District Warehouse. This time, rather than being in the warehouse proper, the books were in the loading bay area. The entire area was full. I was told that the library books were on the far table. I went over to it, there they were. Other books were mixed in with the curriculum books.

There were two other women, going through and taking books. I grew anxious seeing them – odd, because there were enough books for us all. They seemed to grow anxious also. I did give them a Bright Lights Book Project bookmark – this did not seem to reduce what felt to me like high anxiety.

I gathered up the boxes that came with lids, not the fold over part, because I have learned that dealing with those flaps is a real pain in the ass. I then packed the books carefully, and put them on a cart, that when full of boxes, towered over my head.

I asked and was provided with an area to store the boxes, so Pete can pick them up tomorrow.

I realized something very important before leaving the building. I was shown the contents of the warehouse – it is packed with curriculum materials that, for one reason or another, are no longer of interest to school district teachers. There was so much material that James, who is in charge of moving books in and out, is having a hard time accessing the outgoing (happy, happy) curriculum books.

The woman in charge told me that the recycling center told James that they don’t have the room for any more books, which are those that are to be shredded for mixed paper. She also intimated that one fellow who works at the warehouse suggested to a friend that he take the books and incinerate them.

Now I then realized that as far as excess goes, that our story does not really exclusively center around VCRS. This is of course where our story began. But the BLBP story really centers around all the places that have an excess of books and don’t have a clue as to what to do with them. VCRS can only take in so many curriculum books. They are a repository.

I would like to find an overseas market for the textbooks. This is a part of my vision.

Next: 199. 7/21/23: Doing it All