Water & Heat

5/18/10 Tandem sea kayak and all related equipment, sold for $400; space heater, donated

The heat is on as the countdown of days to the sale of our house clicks near single digits. Time to get rid of big stuff, fast.

Two cherished (but expendable!) items left us today. First, I dropped off an electric space heater at the Oxford Hills Middle School, where it will be part of a charity yard sale to benefit the restoration of a local historic house. A Gingerbread House.

The heater served us well, providing the primary heat for our guest room, which didn't have any other heat source. Hopefully, it will sell for a few dollars in the charity yard sale and therefore benefit another fine home.

Our kayak also floated out of port tonight, as we sold it to my colleague and fine writing teacher, Alison. She and Brian came by our Moving Sale on Sunday to check out our utility trailer, but quickly got swept up in my father's sales pitch for the kayak. Good ol' Dad loves to sell.

The kayak actually belonged to my parents, but we 'borrowed' it when I moved back to Maine and never really had any intentions of returning it. In our defense, we put it to great use, and I actually have a Maine DeLorme atlas in which I've colored in every Maine lake, river, and bay that we've kayaked in over the last six summers. There aren't many bodies of water around our house that haven't been inked.

I trust Ali and Brian will put it to similar use and have a lot of fun with it.

And, make no protests, Dear Readers -- I will be passing along the money for the kayak to Dad.

But, I'm still counting the downsize for myself.

Editor's note, 5/18/10: I just realized that I also downsized two metal carts today. They were some of the many free items I've collected along the side of the road over the years and were used in the Dreaded Shed and Dreaded Basement to make easier for me to pile massive amounts of stuff I didn't need within easy reach. I had them up on craigslist and a guy came by while I wasn't here and picked them up today. I'm getting good at this: I downsize without even realizing it!