William Carlos Williams, he said this. I think he was referring to the importance of objects in literature, the red wheelbarrow poem, for example. The problem is, or maybe it isn’t a problem, is that an object, like a wheelbarrow, is a noun. This is a signifier. So the red wheelbarrow isn’t just a wheelbarrow, which is too bad because wheelbarrows are a very important item. They are not as important, say, as a wheel, but they are important. Actually, wheelbarrows do have wheels, some have two wheels, and some have one wheel, so there, the wheel is as important as the barrow.

Alys and Tyra

I remember once riding Raudi up Jim’s Road. There was an overturned one-wheel wheelbarrow on the trail. I thought she might do one of her famous spins and unseat me. I recalled that I had taught her to go up to wheelbarrows and spin the wheel. So I says “touch,” and she went up to that wheelbarrow, and with her nose she began turning the wheel.

And once we came upon bicyclists. I asked the bicyclist to turn her bicycle over and Raudi went up to it and began spinning the front wheel.

So, no ideas but in things. And no things but in stories.

Yesterday I either had a stroke or aphasia or both. I do not know. I woke up realizing that I had no idea what I was going to do that day. My mind drew a blank. There was no short-term memory. Pete was getting ready to go to Juneau – I could not even explain to him what had happened because his mind was elsewhere.

So after he left, I grabbed a pen and slowly began constructing my day. It was very difficult. I had to begin with a single image – this was of my car keys. I pictured them (because I could not find them), and then I wrote down the words, on an already scrawled upon piece of paper – car keys. I next pictured the Salvation Army building and wrote down the words Lions Club meeting. I continued on in this fashion, making the day’s list. I took this list with me when I went to town, looked at the list periodically, and brought to mind where I was going and where I was going next.

I accepted what I had to do as a matter of course. It could have happened because I was feeling so overwhelmed with Book Project ups and downs, and as well, with the added task of having to take care of everything here on the home front.

It now amazes me that I didn’t panic – I simply did what had to be done. I kept the wheels turning.

Today I attempted to avoid some of the problems inherent to the book project by staying home. Still, my damn cellphone rang a few times and there were a few not so good emails.

I did take the horses and dogs for walks. The dogs ran off and chased the Crowley Oil Truck. They did not get killed – they came back to me. I praised them for coming back. The horses stuck close after plunging into the off-trail/off snowmobile tracks. Smart animals.

Lots of nouns here. Nouns make the wheels go around.

Next: 25. 1/25/24: Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr