Probably haven’t gotten to the point that it is a major problem, but I cleaned my closets out recently and am getting a little scared.

I saved almost all of the boxes that I moved with because I want to move again and don’t want to have the hassle of getting more.

I save all the bubble wrap I get and it turns out I have a garbage bag and a medium sized box full. IF you need some let me know.

I save gift bags and tissue paper.

I have a vacuum that I garbage picked but it doesn’t work and I don’t want to throw it out in case somebody can fix it.

I have many of my notebooks and folders from high school and college, despite the fact that I NEVER look at them.

I had a HUGE collection of adapters, cords, wires and crap that I saved in case I ever need it. I got so freaked out that I was hoarding that I am getting rid of a lot of it….

The stuff I plan on getting rid of I also save so that I can find a place to recycle it….

This year was the year of fried chicken and I have about 6 gallons of used oil that I am saving so I can find a place to recycle it.

I save plastics that aren’t recyclable in Buffalo so I can bring them to other municipalities that do recycle more than #1 and #2 plastics.

There are piles of documents that I refuse to deal with. I want to but I never do.

A lot of books I have I will not ever read again or ever and they are still here.

I do keep some clothing for sentimental reasons. Not sure if that is totally abnormal or not.

This is really awful, but there is a box I have of crucifixes and I can’t throw them away. It just seems wrong for so many reasons. My grandparents gave me them and one of them is handmade by my grandfather. They also have my name inscribed in them. So they sit in this shoebox for all eternity because I can’t give them away, I can’t bury them and I definitely will not burn them!

I’m pretty sure that this will get worse as I get older. I think it is something I always have to keep in check and it traces back to when I was much younger. At one time, I saved all of the greeting cards I ever got. Then one day I threw almost all of them out. I guess a real hoarder would never do that, but I can purge and actually would never live like a true hoarder…at least I hope not. I swear to God, I will never have cat shit piling up in a corner.

Fall Clean Up! Buffalo Niagara RIVERKEEPER is calling for citizens to join the Fall Shoreline Sweep to clean up the shorelines in Western New York on Saturday September 25th, 9 a.m. until noon, coinciding with the International Coastal Cleanup and Sunday September 26th, noon until 3 pm, to celebrate World Rivers Day. For a complete list of sites and dates for each and to register, please click here

Mike and I did this in the Spring and I thought it was rewarding. People trash it again right after you clean it up but if I didn't have to work I would do it again. I really wish I had a garbage claw and I would work on cleaning up the trash along the rocks along the Niagara.

I just read this article about the Kenmore West teacher who was killed in an accident. I was really touched until I got to the end and found out that the school organized a balloon release in memoriam. I can't believe the ignorance of such actions and for this to be done as an official act by a school. The article ends with "When a bagpipe player finished the last strains of “Amazing Grace,” the balloons were let loose. Heads turned to watch them dance like free spirits toward the heavens." They are balloons, not spirits and they don't go to the heavens, they go to our water ways and imperil our struggling wildlife and make everything ugly. They get entangled in trees and rocks and there they sit for who knows how long until they photo-degrade and break into smaller pieces which get eaten by plankton and thus passed on up the food chain. Death is sad but adding more death and destruction makes it even sadder.

It is really sad what happened. I really like the beginning of the article where the girl shares her experience about his encouragement. What a huge loss for the school.

School grieves loss of teacher
After football victory, Kenmore West says goodbye, with love
By Matthew Spina
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Published:
September 19, 2010, 12:00 AM

Laura Doxbeck was an insecure sophomore, certain there was no place for her at the Tinsel Ball, Kenmore West High School’s holiday season gala.

She would know no one. She would have no one to talk to. She would stick out like a sore thumb. But she went.

“Mr. Dugan talked me into it,” she said Saturday, almost two years later.

“He said that no matter who you know, you will always meet people. Because, no matter what, people are going to be friendly. Everybody’s friendly. Nobody’s mean. You just have to give them a chance.”

He encouraged her to buy a nice dress—the calming color of green so that if she became nervous she could look at herself and feel at ease. He told her she would look beautiful and would have a great time.

Apparently, she did. She posted a picture of herself at the Tinsel Ball on her Facebook page. And the memory of it all brought a smile to her face on an otherwise sad day.

“That was Mr. Dugan’s whole perspective,” she said. “He was so intelligent, with so much insight into everybody’s life, and with so much intuition that it just blew me away.”

Kenmore West’s football team played Lockport High on Saturday and thrilled the huge home crowd with a come-from-behind victory — 14-13—on the last drive of the game.

The teams congratulated each

other and then several hundred people fell silent.

You could hear only the wind as the players, cheerleaders and about 200 more people assembled at midfield. Balloons in the school colors of blue and white were handed out.

The Kenmore West community was gathering to remember Brian C. Dugan, its “beloved colleague and friend,” as the school superintendent called him.

Dugan, an English teacher at the school since 1995, active over the years in coaching football and basketball, a husband and father to boys ages 7 and 8, and the teacher most likely to pull any young student out of a funk, was hit by a car and killed while jogging Wednesday on Sheridan Drive.

He was just 37.

“He loved kids. He loved being with kids. And he loved the kids he taught,” said Sam Drago, who taught with Dugan in the English department. “Whether in the classroom, or on this football field, he taught by example. He taught with love. With compassion. With honesty. And with sincerity. It’s for all those reasons that he’s a hero to so many kids.”

He taught students in the ninth and 10th grades, young teenagers sprinting toward adulthood and fretting about their place among their peers. Dugan’s students said he taught them to relax and to have a laugh or two while learning.

He would throw a few outlandish choices into his multiple-choice tests. He’d read Shakespeare with his best British accent.

“He taught us to laugh, to make things a joke. Not everything was so serious. He made it OK,” said Haley Lewandowski, now a senior.

When a bagpipe player finished the last strains of “Amazing Grace,” the balloons were let loose. Heads turned to watch them dance like free spirits toward the heavens.

Students will be dismissed early Monday to allow them to attend the Mass of Christian Burial for Dugan, to be offered at 11:30 a. m. in St. Amelia Catholic Church, 2999 Eggert Road, Town of Tonawanda. The Brian C. Dugan Children’s Education Fund—PO Box 2, Buffalo, NY 14223—has been set up for his children.

District Superintendent Mark P. Mondanaro handed a bouquet of flowers — again in blue and white — to Dugan’s widow, Ann Marie. Minutes earlier he had urged everyone to live the way Dugan had lived, with a sense of purpose, passion and heartfelt love to those around him.

Some students were asked later how Dugan had changed their lives.

“I’ll just look at things in a much lighter way,” Doxbeck said. “I’ll find the comedy in the most terrible situation if I can.

“Mr. Dugan told me there’s always a bright side.”

I like Google Chrome. I'm really surprised at how much faster it is than Firefox. It took me a while to get used to but besides being faster it is nicer that Chrome doesn't waste viewing space. It was annoying that when I was downloading a driver I was unable to do it on anything but I.E or Firefox.

I never have seen these before. I think they are so freaking precious.