Operation AXIOM: Be My Anti-Valentine
I came downstairs this morning to discover a Valentine's Day card & a bag of peanut M&M's sitting at my place at the kitchen table, gifts from my sainted mother. Even disdaining Valentine's Day as I do, I couldn't do nothing; so, when I heard her automobile start outside—remote started from upstairs—I put on my boots & coat & brushed the overnight snowfall, an inch of so, off my motorcar. She came out just as I was finishing, thanked me, received my thanks for her traditional boon, & then was off. When I returned home in the evening, I found a card & a toy car from my father, day-of shopping being his M.O. The habitual tardiness doesn't make his gesture any less heartfelt, the old curmudgeon. Also, proving myself yet more the hypocrite, I could not help but share a bag of fundraising candy with my fellow's at the afternoon's History Club meeting. I can't really be opposed to spreading a little goodwill amongst men, can I?

If it makes you feel better, tell yourself I did it not for virtue but to spite the dark bastard.

The Queue
This weekend, my pop spied me reading Tarzan of the Apes. I remarked that I'd recently read A Princess of Mars & he mentioned that he had the whole Barsoom series squirreled away in the basement. This was jolly news, as my local library's collection of Edgar Rice Burroughs is shamefully skimpy. Without any prompting from me, he searched his massive book collection, but in vain. He was frustrated, as he was sure he'd seen the books in the none-too-distant past, but struggled to remember when & where they'd last been spied. He eventually called off the search, muttering bitterly about possibly having been forced my Mom to unload the books at a garage sale back in the Big '80s. He had a brainwave sometime this afternoon & found all eleven volumes, from A Princess of Mars to John Carter of Mars. Huzzah! I meant to read more of the Barsoom books, & may now do so sooner rather than later.