paddywhacking

It's my mom's birthday today.

Each year the event poses not so serious soul searching about what to get her. The same goes for my dad, but it's her time right now.

The thing is I know what she likes: crafts and collectables. The thing also is I know how much stuff of this stuff she has: literal tons.

For nearly ten years now my folks have been living in a series of apartments... moving four times in that period. They've gone from good size ones in nice communities but with bad location to good size ones with good location in not-so-nice communities to small size ones in nice communities with bad location to what appears to be the best size one so far in a community they like in a bad location (not a quarter of a mile from their first apartment and only about a hundred feet from train tracks) but the apartment construction effectively cut down the noise. So...

It's still an apartment though... and I worry that each knick-knack, while initially a thing of joy to receive, eventually becomes a reminder that she still only has a fraction of the space from their house owning days.

Maybe I worry too much. Maybe the gift is the thing which makes that all o.k. Maybe knick knacks just give ME a rash and I'm reacting to that, who knows.

I'm sure salt & pepper shakers shaped like blue lightbulbs will be just what she wanted.