Reamed out

6/7/10 Four reams of copy paper, donated to Guy E. Rowe Elementary School

There now is a valued machine,
Whose malfunction does make teachers mean.
All through the day,
It labors away,
Making copies crisp and pristine.

In the staffroom corner it does stand,
Tree are felled, clearing the land.
Yes, how far we come,
Those old days are done,
When the monks had to do it by hand.

The world was not always this way,
Before, teachers planned the whole day,
No paper to waste,
A reality they faced,
Sloppy teaching led to naught but dismay.

Now, all one needs is the button to touch.
Copies by the bushel are never too much.
Color, cut, and clip,
Keep your mouth zipped,
Has the machine become a bit of a crutch?

And there are some who still long to laugh,
At those pages, filled with writing and math,
When one little sniff,
Could give you a lift,
Those were the days of the beloved mimeograph.

Now the Xerox rules the teacher's prep time.
"I just need five copies, may I cut in line?"
It's widely well known,
As the teaching cornerstone,
Without it, learning would stop on a dime.

And so, the teaching Gods I placate,
With five days left, there is no time to wait,
With budgets so tight,
This downsize is right
To the school, much paper I donate.

Fan club

6/6/10 Oscillating fan, given away

This weekend, The Great Chase Farewell Tour took us from Sebago Lake to Penobscot Bay and back through the Capital City.

With only a few days left before Joanna and Chase head to Connecticut (and then Denver), everyone wants to steal a few moments with the Brilliant Boy, and who can blame them.

Amanda came up Friday night and spent twenty-four hours with us in our lakeside rental. Highlight had to be finding the two of them asleep together on our coach. Cuteness factor = 10.

We then drove over to my Grammie's house on Saturday morning, who had not yet met her youngest great-grandchild. Chase was a true charmer, smiling and laughing as he entertained not only Grammie but my aunts and uncles, as well.

With that brief visit over, we headed home on Sunday morning, with a brief stop-in at my folks' place in Winthrop. This was the last chance for Chase to chill with his cousins James and Estelle, who -- as always -- were good role models of what we'd like him to become in a few years.

The Winthrop stop also allowed us to get a big of downsizing in, as I game Mom a fan we no longer needed. (Central air conditioning, here we come!)

We don't know when Chase will see all of these relatives again, as most of the continent is about to get in between us, but we know he left on a high note. The guy was all smiles and laughs this weekend.

Yep, the little fella knows how to make a lasting impression. Hey, I'm a fan.

Xmas X-ing

6/5/10 Five Christmas mice, two Christmas candle holders, Christmas salt & pepper shakers, and a Disney Christmas music box, trashed

I understand, Dear Readers, how harsh it seems that I have thrown away so many holiday trinkets today.

In my defense I merely submit:

1) Most of today's downsizes were broken or damaged in some way.

2) The POD is currently packed with AT LEAST six bins of Christmas decorations.

3) I would rather give away or sell this stuff, but there comes a point when tossing it in the garbage is the only reasonable solution. We almost convinced Amanda, for example, to take the Christmas mice, since she was up in Maine enjoying a final visit with Chase before our move. In the end, however, she said, "No," and I had to give them the heave.

4) I am scrambling like mad to sell what I can. In the last twenty-four hours, I put fifteen items up for auction on eBay, ten of them Christmas related. Still there are some items that just don't justify the time and energy required to sell them.

5) Besides, it's June! Who can fault a guy for doing a little Christmas culling in June?

Crystal-clear coffee

6/4/10 Gallon of vinegar, given away

For reasons no more complex than A) I love coffee, and B) I love special routines, this year I instituted Coffee Thursday. Each Thursday I made a pot of coffee in the Reading Room outside of my office and offered some to any and all interested adults.

On some days I drank alone; other times the teachers pretty well drained it. (Sara and Steve were highly dependable, Sherry and Claudette grabbed some occasionally, and Jason rarely indulged, but always greeted the brewing pot with cries of, "Ah, special blend!")

After the dust cleared on the vacating and cleaning of our home, I was left with an unopened gallon of vinegar. Today, I took it into school and used a fair amount to clean the Reading Room coffee maker. That didn't use it all up, so next week I'll make the rounds of the school, offering up my vinegar and cleaning services to all other java brewers in the building.

One more Coffee Thursday left in my Guy E. Rowe Elementary School career. With that clean pot, I bet the special blend will taste pretty good.

Poster child

6/3/10 Two posters (Larry Bird & Yoda), given away

Posters are the purview of the young, which is a true shame for the rest of us. One of the more unfortunate moments of last week's POD packing was when I discovered a poster tube with two marvelous prints in it: a Yoda photo-mosaic and a Larry Bird tribute.

But such items are not for a 38-year-old to display in his house. No, for me it's all framed art from here on out. So, I did the grown-up thing and set the posters aside, fighting the urge to squirrel them away in some little POD cranny.

One of the many joys of working in an elementary school is that I am surrounded by children who love all those things I'm not really supposed to love anymore. Sports jerseys can be seen in every classroom every day and I witness (and occasionally participate in) mock light saber battles at recess each noon. Ah, to be a boy again!

Today the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers kick off their twelfth showdown in the NBA Finals. It's been a beautiful and improbably run for the Celts, so to celebrate their powerful play, I gave away that Larry Bird poster to a budding young sportsman, Matthew. He was, after all, properly outfitted in his Kevin Garnett jersey and shall cheer for the good guys throughout this series.

And then, because every day is a good day to celebrate Star Wars, I gave away my Yoda poster to fourth grader and budding Sith Lord, Harrison. (Yes, Dear Readers, this is the second Yoda photo-mosaic I've given away -- one can never have enough of such things.) He got in the spirit by doing his best Yoda face for the camera.

Keep it up, boys. May your love for childish things stay with you no matter how hold you get.

Paper trail

6/2/10 Pile of house paperwork, recycled

I clearly live a charmed life, and I credit the good karma related to the Downsizing Challenge for only about 85% of my good fortune.

Whatever the cause, Joanna, Chase, and I find ourselves, after selling our house, in a temporary rental that could well be described as luxurious. We're staying in the basement apartment of an amazing lake home, with views from every room out onto Maine's famous Sebago Lake. We've lived within ten minutes of this spot for nearly seven years and never had diggs like this.

Hey, good things happen to good people

Settling into this vacation-like flat has made the transition out of our home surprisingly easy, so tonight I attacked the six-inch stack of house-related paperwork that had accumulated in six years of domicile ownership. A document hoarder by nature, I feared that I'd be reluctant to trash much from such vitally labeled folders as Home Improvement, Road, Log Cabin, Mortgage, House Insurance, and Title File.

Ah, how I underestimate myself.

Within ten minutes I reduced the pile to about a dozen sheets of paper, and had time left over to watch the final strands of light fade over the water.

And even better? As Joanna pointed out, we currently have not a debt in the world.

Who needs a mortgage and all the related paperwork? I could get use to this lakeside rental deal.

Adoption on TV

6/1/10 Television, two lamps, and a box of other highly sale-able items, donated

The first day of Downsizing Challenge month #11 and I am reduced to typing this on my iPhone, since our shaky Internet connection in our rental apartment has decided to take the night off. I get no nights off from the challenge, however, so I shall try my best to make a go of it on a 3-inch screen using only my thumbs.

Some things just turn out to be harder than they should be.

Here's a better example.

Why is adoption, for a loving and committed couple, a cost-prohibitive undertaking? I agree that anyone assuming responsibility for a child should be able to demonstrate financial responsibility, but the costs of adoption far exceed that. $20,000, $30,000, even $50,000 to adopt a child? That's abusive in and of itself.

Joanna and I have talked about the possibility of adoption and even been to an information session about it, but I have to admit that the costs make me all but rule it out. Should giving a child a proper life of love and opportunity really be based on someone's access to tens of thousands in excess cash?

My colleague Jeff has not let such moral arguments sidetrack him and his family from sharing their love. On two teachers' salaries, he and his wife have already adopted one daughter from China and are in the process of adopting another. Unsurprisingly, their bank account doesn't stretch as far as their hearts, so they have had to get creative about raising funds.

This weekend they will be having a benefit yard sale to support the cause, so Jeff asked the teachers at school to look around for possible sale items.

My most prominent donation was our giant old TV which, while perfectly functional, was not worth taking to Denver since it would have used up half the space in the POD.

I realize that the things I gave Jeff today aren't likely to net him very much towards the adoption goal, but maybe they will help a little.

Of course, thankfully, there are people in the world like Jeff, who aren't going to let the whole money thing stand in the way of doing the right thing.

I just think it's a shame that it has to be an issue in the first place.