Estoy Nueces

It's Saturday and I'm watching Baylor/Utah football while I do stuff in the house. I used to be a big follower of Baylor because my nephews were students there and they were really good with RGIII as their quarterback. I really liked their coach Art Briles then, too. I even WENT to one game. I guess that was the last football game I saw. I continued to follow them, but soon after that there was a lot of national scandal because Baylor players raped and assaulted girls and the school and Art Briles and the athletic department hushed things up and gave no help to the girls at all. That has soured me on them for years. I don't care if they win or lose anymore, but it is on TV today just for background noise.

Most of the year I do NOT like any background noise, not music, not anything. But with football it gives me a sense of SOMETHING.... comfort, involvement, excitement? I don't know, but I'm following this game with one ear and won't remember tonight who wins.

Now, tonight, University of Texas plays Alabama and I WILL watch that one with great interest and be pulling for the Horns, but that's only because I lived there and enjoyed the excitement when they were national champions, etc. I'm not CRAZY about them -- I don't own any clothes in burnt orange or with the Bevo head on them -- but I am "fond" of them. But when they start losing, I bail on them. Yeah, I am THAT kind of fan.

Last weekend was Labor Day and I had a lovely three days of contact with no one except by text or message. I hope for the same this weekend!

I've been scanning a lot of family photos. Most are photos I've seen and probably already have them digitally, but I'm making sure. These were a couple of boxes of photos Mother had in her place and I've looked through them before. But, I had a BIG surprise! You've heard of people discovering great letters or photos or something when a parent dies. I don't expect any revelations with Mother's things since I've helped downsize her and move her maybe five times. But the very first picture I pulled out of the box was a new print of a very old photo of her father (my grandfather) when he was about one year old with his parents. So the picture was made in 1900 and my great-grandparents were around twenty years old. This was a photo I have NEVER seen before. I am always looking for things like this and most everyone in the family has sent me any pictures they have like this, but this was NEW. So strange for it to happen at all and for it to be the very first picture that I find. Since it was a new print and had one of my aunt's handwriting on the back, I suppose one of them sent it to Mother in the last 10 years or so and she forgot to tell me about it. Amazing.

We might discover more surprises when we finally go through her cedar chest. All our lives the important documents of the family were in the cedar chest. Mother stressed that to us many times. Also some memorabilia is in there, we know. The cedar chest is one thing we haven't really looked through in all these moves. Maybe a year ago we were trying to find some of Daddy's military papers and my sister and I dug through it just to see if we could find them there. We didn't really look at each and every thing. We didn't look long and we gave up. So it may still hold surprises. I know when we were looking we found some sympathy cards and the book from the funeral of my older brother who died at two months old in 1953. We were surprised we'd never seen them before. So -- one of these days -- my sister and I are going to sort through it. Won't we be happy when we find stock certificates or wads of cash? Solid gold bars or a deed to an oil field? Yes, happy and shocked.

For some reason I have felt in control and "okay" all this week. I didn't necessarily accomplish much, but I felt like it was all okay if I didn't. I did get some things done, like returning some things that didn't work to Amazon, but certainly not everything I would have liked to have accomplished. But not being stressed about it is lovely. I hope that lasts through this weekend, too.