Beginning of April

All right! Now we are looking large. This is the point at which people just look at my chin and shudder, often inquiring, "...so, how long are you going to keep that up?" Many of my students are suggesting I should grow a mustache next, which is their way of saying "OK, just shave that thing already!" No such luck. This was their challenge and what kind of teacher would I be if I gave up on it so easily.

I must confess, however, that I do look forward to the end of the time with this overgrown chin-rat. Last year's full-beard challenge ran from November to July and that is just about the same amount of time I have been cultivating this chin-pube garden. The waviness of the Goat at its southern terminus is actually a point of amusement to me, especially since its unpredictable, ivy-like reach for all points of space, regardless of gravitational pull, causes many people to ask me if I ever comb it. The answer to that is ALL THE TIME!

In fact, I was recently accused of clogging the sink drain in our bathroom because large wads of hair emerge when we coat-hanger dredged the drain. Lest we be confused, I live with three females, so none can pin this entire clogging on me. Plus, the only hairs I send down the drain are the ones from shaving the rest of my face and, since I never allow those to get too long (in the spirit of Goat-dom) I doubt those blocked much of anything. To be honest, I used to comb my chin above the sink, just to see how many hairs I lost each day, but I always tried to sweep them out of the sink bowl and into the trash before they latched their tenterhooks to the inner-workings of our drainpipe.

With about two months to go, here is a look at seven months of Goat-growth. Enjoy!

Mid-March

My daughter's pre-school had a Special Friends Day and, for some odd reason, they allowed a Goat to visit her for her third and final tour through the school (she's off the Kindergarten next year!)

How strange that a school would allow such a creature to enter their confines. What would have happened if this beast were to eat the books, or the numerous paper crafts and projects on display around the room? If you are unable to see the poor girl hiding beneath the flank of said Goat, you are not alone--she is easy to miss.

Not only did they allow this Goat into their midst, but they allowed it to play with other children, stage a read-aloud for all the Special Friends also in attendance that day, and even invited it back for a storytelling next month, on a Friday when he is not doing the daily tour of his own school.

As for my students, they are still in full denial that this could possibly be the same Goat they asked me to grow at the beginning of the year. So confused are they, in fact, that many of them have forgotten why the Goat is still a daily presence in their classroom, as they ask me a few times a week when I am going to shave. When I tell them, "After school is out," they just seem confused, the poor souls. Such is the efffect of the massive Goat, at times.

Here is another view of the Goat's visit to Special Friends Day. Look at the anguished look on the other girl's face, as she wonders how soon the Goat will depart. (Actually, she was laughing, and probably a bit uncomfortably because, what else can you do when something this ridiculous is attached to the chin of one of your friends/classmates?)