On Wednesday Brian and I went down to Scarborough High in a U-Haul cargo van and picked up a bunch of shelving they were giving away because they had reduced their non-fiction collection because adolescents apparently do not read non-fiction in book form, but find references online instead. Schools are highly bureaucratic and libraries are also full of rules. The librarian could not get a custodian to help us load the stuff because she would have had to put in a request a week ago. She did let us use a couple of AV carts. There were a few able-bodied adults around but no one offered to help us load. Brian and I were quite capable of managing that, but still I was shocked at the contrast to the ways of the small town. Here, even people who didn't like us would have helped. I never want to live in a world that bureaucratic. When we got back to Unity, Melissa had a crew ready to unload us. Now we have to figure out the puzzle of putting it together and placing it in the main room.

Yay for Juneteenth at last. Teachers always teach the holiday, so this will provide a yearly reminder to teach the real history, not the white washed one. And Americans work too much; let's have more holidays.

The next phase of library development is a capital campaign in three phases, and donor software, and the world of fund raising. I'm starting right in on that. It's also full blown spring, fittin' to be summer. Historical note: this is the summer of the brown tail moth explosion which I participated in until the doc gave me a couple of scripts. Central Maine is full of itching people.

How much do I love this NormanRockwellian picture that Dorothy took of Annie's grandkid with the voting card at the meeting yesterday. Organizing and strategy worked. Roberts Rules was our friend. Once we passed the motion to consider the library article first, I knew we were ok, and after two hours of discussion we called the question, and the article passed by roughly 60 to 30. Emily called for a 15 minute break and we did some high fiving and hugging. Our supporters turned out big time. I love it that there were children there who will grow up using our library. We are not done yet; Penny will still fight this, but she cannot overturn a town meeting vote with that kind of support. The tension of that meeting and the lead up to and anticipation of it were very stressful to me. It's taking a long time to wind down from it. It's a beautiful June day and we are off to find a beach.