Some Saturday Random

I'm not sure there are enough thoughts in my brain to even warrant a Saturday random post, but it's been long enough that there's just a tiny bit of guilt that says, "Psst. Go blog something." And so I will.

• Dad has been slowly going through things and doing some of the unboxing/cleaning/purging activities that I know he'd been wanting to do for years but Mom had a hard time letting go of things. We can trace the psychology of it to growing up poorer than dirt with a mother who lived through the depression, so you really might need that scrap of cardboard to redo the seat of your chair some day. It's going much faster now and Dad sets things aside if he thinks I might want them (or my sister), but I appreciate that sometimes he' just recycles it and tells me (e.g. my 12th grade final report card. Because why would I want that? Why did Mom keep it to start with? Also, I got a B- and a C in the first two quarters of Calculus. Then I switched teachers to someone who actually taught and got As the last two.)
• That first Calc teacher? She'd let kids teach the class for extra credit. Who needs extra credit? The kids who don't understand and are therefore not doing well on their homework and tests. Anyone else see the self-fulfilling issue here? I got a lot of grief for begging to switch classes mid-year, but I still thumb my nose at my guidance counselor. Because I was right, it was not me, it was the dorky teacher. Or not teacher as the case was.
• One of the things Dad set aside was like a Nativity set. Except it was for Easter. It had a triumphal entry set of figures, then an empty tomb, and I think maybe Peter with a big garden arch. It was one of those things that just made me smile, because I can totally see Mom buying it and thinking of all the ways she'd use it with the boys. And as nice as that is, I don't need the thing because I know I am not going to use it (lily white Jesus anyone? I mean, I don't get that -- Jesus was from Israel, His skin was not lily white.)
• Also included in yesterday's "haul" was a David and Goliath set of action figures. I hadn't planned to keep those, but little one glommed onto them and there have been several gory battles between David and Goliath over the last 12 hours. So I guess that's a win.
• He also stabbed his brother in the eye with Goliath's spear. Less of a win.
• There's a lovely chill in the air. It makes me want to get down my teapot and brew something up. So I might.
• I'm rather disappointed with our maples this year. The only reason I don't curse their existence (we have 10 of them on our lot and they cause me abject misery every spring) is their usual fall show. This year, though, they went from green to mostly brown and on the lawn with no real yellow or red phase at all. Earn your keep, maples! (I suspect it's because of how wet the summer was? Except our neighbor's maple was a lovely, firey red for several weeks before dropping its leaves to blow into our yard.)
• Tim's grandmother passed last Saturday. I have spent off moments for a week trying to think of one good memory I have of the woman. I have yet to come up with one. I'm glad he has some, but me and the boys? Not so much.
• We'll still be trekking to the memorial service in December. His granddad passed earlier this year and this will be a joint service and we all have many lovely memories of him. So there's that.
• I suspect Tim and I may end up remembered much the same way. Me as the one everyone hated and him as the one everyone wondered what he'd been thinking of when he married me. Ah well.