I am writing this as a stand-in for the type of “year in review” letter people send with holiday cards. It is not much, but some of my friends and family may be interested.
While my life situation is that I am relatively warm, safe and happy, the last couple of years have been challenging, mainly because of the fact that our Friends of the Library suffered an embezzlement in mid-2022, and it has caused me to live in a kind of cloud of anxiety ever since because I am president of the board and have needed to try and lead us out of it.
Recently we also became delinquent in some filings with the IRS and the California Department of Justice, and were threatened with revocation or suspension. The story of how we were able to successfully avoid suspension is kind of remarkable and someday when I am further detached from the issue I will tell a more thorough story. It was a difficult and emotional task.
We are still not completely out of the woods, but we are on track.
To be clear, the Friends of the Library is all volunteer work, and many hours of it. Although generally most people are very kind and supportive, I am the subject of some petty and unfair sniping. No good deed goes unpunished. I’ll forgive them, but it is not fun to listen to.
The better news I have about what I do with my life also has to do with the library. I am a contract technical consultant and I teach technology workshops and do individual help sessions for people of Mariposa County, mostly seniors. Every time I help someone, I learn something important which then helps me be better for the next client.
Mariposa County is hill country, and there are lots of small communities in remote pockets and lots of rural poverty. One of the library grants pays for me to travel to these communities to do tech help. It makes a big difference in some people’s otherwise isolated lives to get reliable access to the internet, which includes help in showing people how to do ordinary tasks on the internet. To a significant extent, this also matters to the physical welfare of people since so many medical appointments are done remotely these days. All in all it is very rewarding.
I am also proud to say I was recently elected to another local board, the Mariposa County Schools Foundation with the nickname KidsFirst. We raise money in a big yearly outdoor banquet, and then funds are distributed to teachers who apply for grants. It pays for lots of additional project resources like science equipment, art supplies, etc. It is a great organization and I learn a lot from a well run board which I can apply to improve how we run Friends of the Library.
I don’t do hardly anything recreationally. I never travel at all, but it’s not that bad because I live in a place where people from all over the world spend thousands of dollars to visit. The library has two branches in Yosemite; I get to go quite often on business and Yosemite never gets old!
I try to keep up working out, but crisis management for the last 4-5 months had forced me to stop. Recently I restarted — a combination of gym workouts and light jogging. It feels great to rediscover my old self!
I’m not sure if 2025 is going to allow for me to do any traveling, but I have a niece and nephew in Oregon and I haven’t seen either of them for a while so likely that will be a place I go if I can carve out the time. My cousin Joel also now lives in Lodi. We chat on Facebook, but I would like to visit him and meet his wife at some point.
Thanks for reading, I wish you all the best in 2025!!
Merry Christmas, Jon – and thanks for the update!
Just wanted to comment: your work traveling to the remote areas to provide internet support reminds me of the packhorse librarians of Appalachia in the early 20th century. A similar mission: bringing knowledge to people who otherwise wouldn’t have access due to remoteness!
I think of it the same way. I mean to some extent it is ridiculous to compare my situation — after all I have a car not a horse, but it is the same principle, and I kind of honor those packhorse librarians in my mind
Thanks Jon. This was very interesting and glad you shared it. You are very resourceful and I’m sure most of the residents feel the same about you. I’m sure only a very few are the gripers and snipers . Your mom would be glad and proud that you have made a good life for yourself in the boonies, but it sure would be nice if you could get out and travel more. We’d love to see you in Tomahawk sometime!
I would definitely like to get back to Tomahawk. I need a “new” car and I have this weird idea of flying there, spend a couple weeks, buy a car from Tim and drive it back. He has fantastic deals all the time and I know I can trust him as a mechanic. I could use a good long road trip, I haven’t done one in a while.