Round Robin: Odd Behavior

For the "Round Robin Challenge: That's Odd!, I was counting on having, at the very least, access to my computer, with its thousands of recent and archived photo files. But my computer went into the shop yesterday, badly infected with some pretty devastating malware. So the only photos I have for tonight are whatever I can photograph tonight with my iPhone, whatever happens to be on my iPhone already, and whatever is already online. The latter category would smount to reruns, so let's stick with the first two options. As it happens, there's something I can show you that fits the topic two different ways, and illustrates something I wanted to write about anyway.

  

Above you see an odd number of newspapers: three to be exact. My Dad had them in the seat compartment of his walker tonight. After mentioning them several times - not by name; he seldom finds the right noun - he pulled them out and showed them to me. When I offered to take them and recycle them, something I do a couple of times a week, he gave them to me.

He then showed me how he had them in date order, with the dates circled in ink. He had put each one together with a rubber band around it. When he tried to show me that the Thursday paper had a calendar section, that newspaper's rubber band broke. Dad fretted and apologized. 

"It doesn't matter," I told him.

At this stage in his life, my Dad has no idea what I do with the newspapers, what recycling is, that the order and condition of the papers don't matter, that the rubber bands don't matter. He probably thinks, if he has any theory at all, that I take them home, read them, and file them carefully away in date order. This is despite the fact that he often sees newspapers floating around in my car.

I do think it qualifies as odd behavior, the care he takes over these newspapers, circling the dates and keeping them neatly arranged in perfect order, only to relinquish them to me. But the need to be methodical and organized has been part of my Dad's behavior for decades. When I was a kid, my Dad had a numbered list for each family member's Christmas presents - with the corresponding number - K-5 or S-11 or whatever - written on the bottom of the gift's meticulous wrapping. One year when we left on vacation, my Dad checked off three lists - stuff to pack, and the order in which to load them in the car; things to be done to keep the house safe, such as stopping the mail and turning off the thermostat - and I forget what the third list was!

Anyway, that's my main odd photo for the night, showing an odd number of oddly marked used newspapers, oddly obsessed over by an old man. But I can show you two other oddities, if you like. I photographed them 15 months ago - for an identical Round Robin topic, it turns out!

Now let's see what other oddities people have found!

Linking List

As of Saturday, September 7th, 12:17 am MST

Karen
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/mavarin

Carly
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

Karen