[Grammar] I remembered you and Rebecca got solar panels installed last year.

[kadioguy]

[In an example e-mail]

Hey Niko!

How's everything going? Still skiing every weekend?

I remembered you and Rebecca got solar panels installed last year. Vicki and I are thinking about doing the same thing, but we wanted to hear more from people
who've already lived with them for a while. Do you have time to talk later this week? Text me when you're free one night. Thanks!

Hi to Rebecca.

Adam
-------
As you can see:

a. I remembered you and Rebecca got solar panels installed last year. [past tense]
b. Vicki and I are thinking about doing the same thing, [present tense]
c. but we wanted to hear more from people who've already lived with them for a while.[past tense]
d. Do you have time to talk later this week? [present tense]

Question: Why are (a) and (c) in the past tense, rather than in the present tense?

I have two possible answers:

1. (a) and (c) simply suggest that "remembered" and "wanted" happened in a past context.
2. (a) and (c) are intended to make things more indirect, i.e., more polite, by softening and distancing with the past tense.

What do you think?
----
Source
At 0:24

 

[jutfrank]

I think remembered is best understood as referring to a past time and wanted is best understood as softening.