Game on!

11/20/09 Game of Pacardy, given away

As the holidays descend upon public schools, a spirit of giving pervades the air. Don't let it be said that teachers aren't a giving lot.

Our Parent/Teacher Organization has organized a number of "Family" baskets to be raffled off, with the proceeds to benefit the school. Teachers were encouraged to donate items for the baskets, each of which had a theme. Ah, a chance to downsize!

For quite some time, I've been eyeing a cardboard box in our basement labeled Games. Given that one of the baskets at school was for "Family Night," it seemed a game would make a perfect donation.

I pulled the box off the shelf, shoveled off three inches of dust, and opened it up. Inside were games that ranged from the classic (Trivial Pursuit!) to the sublime (Trivial Pursuit - Star Wars Edition!).

There was also a game called Pacardy that was distinct in 3 ways:

1) I have never played this game.

2) I have never even heard of this game.

3) The game had never been opened.

Yep, it was still sealed in the original box. How perfect is this?!? I didn't even need to feel guilty about donating a used game -- it doesn't even count as used.

Somehow, I don't think I'll even miss having that Pacardy game around. After all, I've still got Star Wars Trivial Pursuit.

Electronic cat toy

11/19/09 Cell phone charger, trashed

Ugh. We've reached a point in human history where we're nearly drowning under the flotsam and jetsam of electronic gadgets.

I've downsized electro gizmos via donation (this time), recycling (this time), and the trash (this time). But they still keep popping up.

Tonight, I opened a drawer and a Verizon cell phone charger leaped out at me. I don't have a Verizon cell phone anymore. (iPhone rocks, iPhone rocks, iPhone rocks!) I don't even remember using this particular charger.

In fact, I decided that it would be morally wrong -- as if it's not already morally wrong to be throwing all this stuff away -- to toss something before it had ever been used. So, Bird and I spent five minutes playing This could be alive, I should kill it! Cats have a strange affinity for that game.

So, at least Bird got a charge out of it.

Baby questions

11/18/09 Prenatal medications, trashed

Today we had our 32-week check-up with Dr. Wilberg.

These check-ups are rather funny, since the medical part consists of Joanna peeing in a cup and then the doctor listening to the baby's heartbeat for about twenty seconds. It's a total of about one minute of clinical procedures.

Then, he asks us if we have any questions.

Of course we have questions! How do we create a "Birth Plan?" How much will Joanna be able to move around during labor? Can we travel out of state over Thanksgiving? Why in the world didn't Bill Belichick punt the ball on 4th & 2 with a Patriots' lead and only 2 minutes left in the game?!?

Dr. Wilberg is great, answering our questions patiently. His relaxed, confident style matches Joanna's, and we're feeling confident as we enter the last two months.

The most interesting moment of the visit came when Joanna asked if he could tell which way the baby was facing. The next thing we knew, the Doc placed his hand on Joanna's abdomen, squeezed, and said, "Yeah, I think this is his head right here."

Joanna and I looked at each other. Holy crap! The guy is grabbing the kid's head! I sort of wanted Wilberg to make the little guy nod like a puppet. Hey, it might have been funny.

And, of course, downsizing was not out of my mind during the appointment. One of our questions concerned the proper disposal of some left over medications that we no longer needed. Surely, another pregnant mother could use them. Or, perhaps they could be properly disposed of at the medical facility we were currently standing in!

No dice. The answer: take 'em home and toss 'em in the trash.

Why is throwing stuff into a landfill always the default option? Haven't we moved beyond that yet?

Well, no matter. We can pass the buck on the tough questions. They'll be my son's generation's problem soon enough.

Behind that door...

11/17/09 Star Wars die cast model of Boba Fett's ship Slave I, sold on eBay for $5.50.

This morning, as I packed up this unbelievably awesome space ship, I thought about what a cool job it would be to design vehicles for the Star Wars movies.

That, in turn, got me thinking about other dream jobs.

My great friend Jason once commented that one of the most interesting jobs in the world must be working in the storage room at the American Museum of Natural History. Jason always said the best thing would be to get in good with this guy and have him sneak you into the back rooms. He imagined it would go something like this:

Oh, yeah, come on in. Just watch out for all that sand, it gets everywhere whenever we unpack another Pharaoh. Now, let's see. Um, well, these boxes over here have all the extra dinosaur bones in them. Go ahead, take one. Nobody'll miss it. And that gun, there? Yeah, that's what Teddy Roosevelt used to shoot all those animals we got out front. And that over there is the Ark of the Covenant. Careful, it burns.

Yeah, that might be even cooler than working for George Lucas...

Teachers' Room

11/16/09 Eleven food storage containers, given away

Timeline of today's downsizing:

7:43 AM -- Walked into Teachers' Room with box of plastic food containers, labeled with "Free for the taking!"

7:44 AM -- Second grade teacher took two containers.

10:04 AM -- Walked into Teachers' Room; found that only two containers remained.

11:32 AM -- Returned to Teachers' Room; entire box was gone, one lone container still sat on the counter. Put Post-It on container with words, "Please take. FREE."

1:47 PM -- Last check on Teachers' Room; all containers gone.

1:48 PM -- Overwhelmed by the joy that only de-plastification of my life can bring.

Early morning charge

11/15/09 Car-to-car charging cable, given away

Sometimes I get to turn downsizing into an adventure.

While rooting around in the basement, I found a car-to-car charging cable. It HAD to have been given to me by my grandmother. It had the tell-tale Nanna sign: the "AS SEEN ON TV!!!" stamp on the front of the box. It actually looked like a neat device: rather than pulling out the jumper cables when your battery is dead, you connect the dead car to a working one through the cigarette lighters.

Does it work? Who knows.

I threw it up on the free section of craigslist which meant I needed to wait about twelve seconds before I had three different emails from people interested in it.

The first person to contact me wrote that she was working the night shift at the local Big Apple/Dunkin' Donuts until 7AM the next morning. She asked if I'd be willing to bring it down to her.

"Hey, Joanna, you want to go down to the Big Apple tomorrow morning before seven?"

"Sure, it'll be an adventure."

The alarm buzzed at 6:30AM on Sunday, and we crawled out of bed.

"It feels like we're going on some kind of drug-run," Joanna joked as we climbed into the car.

At the Big Apple, I filled up with gas, we handed the Car Charger to Louann, and purchased some delicious coffee and treats at the Dunkin' Donuts counter.

Joanna suggested we drive down to the Naples town causeway and drink our coffee as we watched the day dawn over Long Lake. A water bird (we had a big debate about whether or not it was a loon) swam around right in front of us as the fog lifted.

It was only 7:15AM and we'd already had a busy and delightful start to the day.

Fortunately, after drinking our coffee, the car started again. If I'd had a dead battery, I would have really regretted giving away that car charging cable...

Roll on

11/14/09 Pool cover reel, sold on craigslist for $20

One of these days, I'm going to figure out how to downsize the entire pool.

Until then, I'll have to settle for getting rid of random pool-related items.

When we moved in, I found a pool cover reel under the deck. The solar blanket that was supposed to be wrapped around it was rotted and ripped. I gathered up the decaying pieces of that blanket and took them to the dump years ago, although I still find little blue bubbles under the deck from time to time.

The reel, however, always held such potential that I left it safely stored where it was. Every summer I'd say to myself, "I should get a solar blanket for the pool!" Then, I wouldn't. Why throw good money after bad? (For my take on Maine swimming pools, check out my earlier post.)

The harsh truth, however, is that without the Downsizing Challenge, I would have continued to say that to myself for years into the future. But, now that I'm constantly looking to jettison the excess clutter from my life, I can spot a good craigslist item from across the yard.

A friendly guy with a British -- I think it was British -- accent named Simon came by today and loaded the reel onto his truck. His roller had broken, so this one would replace it. He already had the solar cover, so I know he won't be mumbling I shoulds to himself like I did.

I should have sold that thing long ago.