Our Actions Impact Others

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Parent/teacher conferences are over and my weeklong Thanksgiving break is officially here.  Unfortunately... I've spent the majority of this past weekend indoors due to the really poor air quality caused by the Butte County's Camp Fire.  The smoke has been so thick that I'm unable to see the hills that are less than a mile away from my house.

Obviously this inconvenience is nothing compared to the 70+ lives that have been lost and over 1,300 people who are still unaccounted for.  The entire town of Paradise has been destroyed in what is considered the most destructive wildfire in California history.  Outside of the poor air quality, I don't know anyone personally who has been affected by the fires, however I've seen a few people on Facebook write about their friends and family members.

My thoughts go out to everyone affected by the fire.

Part of the curriculum I've designed focuses on building character and having the students see that their actions can have an impact on their surroundings.  That's why my number one priority when I return to my classroom next week is to see how the students, teachers, and administration at my site can help out our neighbors to the north.  In the meantime, I'll be doing a little research to determine the best way our school can help.

I'll also be taking the time to recharge my batteries, catching up with friends and family, and definitely spending some time with my #1 hobby.

To help get the ball rolling... Ryan over at Japanese Sumo Wrestling Cards and Menko sent me another very generous care package earlier in the week.  When I finally got around to opening it last night, I discovered that it was jam packed with variety.

I'm going to use Ryan's own words to describe the contents of the package, since he took time out of his busy schedule to hand write an amazing and much appreciated letter.

So without further ado...

Ritter Sport is one of my favorite brands of chocolate.  I've never tried these three flavors, but I'm sure they won't disappoint.

Last year, Ryan hooked me up with some 2016-17 packs of BBM Fast Break.  This year he sent me two 1st Half packs and two 2nd Half packs.  I'll be opening up one of each, while keeping the other two sealed for my unopened Japanese pack collection.

There's always at least one oddball item in Ryan's care packages.  This one happens to be animal related.

I'm not exactly fluent in French, but thankfully I don't need to be to appreciate the really cool vintage animal stickers in this album.

I'm sure some of you know that outside of collecting trading cards, I also enjoy building Lego sets.  Star Wars is by far my favorite genre.  This collecting kit is awesome!  I immediately looked online to see if Lego offers this magazine in the States, but it looks like it might be exclusive to Europe and possibly Russia.

Ryan introduced me to these airport trading cards a few years ago.

Looks like he wants me to start my own collection.  Sadly I've tried to find copies of SJC for both of our collections on multiple occasions and have come up short.  Hopefully our luck will change sooner than later.

Another pack for my unopened Japanese pack collection.  I haven't counted, but I'm guessing he has contributed at least 20 to 30 packs over the past few years.

Here's a sampling of what he included in this Topps Baseball Card Collector's Kit:

There was a nice mixture of Oakland A's, Japanese athletes, and the really cool Heritage moon shot insert.  But the bulk of the binder was made up of...

We've all seen puzzle backs before, but this is the first time I've seen them create a hand print.  These are so awesome!

The best part about them is they fit perfectly into a 9-pocket page.  It'd be nice if Topps did something like this.

This isn't the first time Ryan has sent me one of these chocolate oddball issues.  This past summer, I opened the pack.  That means that I'll be able to keep this one intact for my unopened pack collection.  I realize it's not a Japanese pack, but that's okay.  I have no problem calling it an unopened international pack collection.

This 13" x 20" piece of kimono cloth is gorgeous.  I'm actually thinking about framing it and hanging it up in my family room.

Last, but certainly not least were ten singles from the Stranger Things set Topps recently released.  It's perfect timing, because I just purchased two blaster boxes a few days ago that I plan on busting this week in hopes of building a set.  He also included two unopened packs to help the cause.

Thank you so much Ryan for this awesome care package!  It really helped brighten my day.  I know you said didn't expect anything in return... but that's not how I roll.  I actually have two things already set aside for you.

Well that's it for today.  I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable week with your loved ones.

Happy Monday and sayonara!