Dear Friends,
Today is my dad’s birthday. I started off last year’s blog on this day with the exact same sentence. I encourage you to go back and read it again if you want to know my dad a little bit better. He’s been dealing with a lot lately, so if you are so inclined, send him some positive birthday love today.
I feel very lucky that he seems to be in pretty good health. I hope to have a lot more birthdays with him, so here’s to taking good care of ourselves. I’m proud to be my dad’s son and I’m so glad that my own children have a wonderful love and respect for him, too.
Being a dad is not an easy thing. It’s wonderful a lot of the time and terribly hard sometimes and painful and amazing and all the other adjectives, too. I love that I know my dad in a way that nobody else knows him. It’s a small part of life, I guess, but those moments that only he and I have shared over the years, are huge to me.
One night, many years ago, we were on a trip to San Francisco, I think, and we were somewhere up north in California. I could be getting this wrong, but I remember him getting us a pizza and we found a good, quiet, and safe place to park for the night and camp out in the car. We just had some pizza and conked out before getting up the next day and heading into San Francisco.
Things like that are what I mean about time only I got to share with him. I love that he figured out ways to make things work for us. We didn’t have a lot, but we had what we needed. We always had what we needed. I’ve tried to keep that going for my own kids, too, and I learned it from my dad.
After work today, we are going to head over and do a little celebration. A little Tuesday night food and such and I’m excited about it. I’m very thankful we can do that for him. Many of the people I love don’t have this opportunity anymore, so I am not about to take it for granted.
*****
For Dad –
To borrow a line from Nilsson,
Would make so much sense right now.
“I’ll pour myself a cup of tea,
And think about the bubbles.”
I wouldn’t know those words without you.
They helped me so many times when I had troubles, too.
I could wrap myself up with Oblio and Arrow
And remember eight track tapes.
I can remember long drives
And baseball practice.
Dinner at Gramma and Grampa’s
And Soap on the TV.
C-5.
Fred.
So many things inside my head.
I’ll pour myself a cup of tea
And think about the bubbles
And think about how my troubles
Seemed so small when you would put your arm around me.
“It’ll be all right. You know what I mean, chili bean?”
I do now.
I love you, dad.
*****
See you tomorrow.
For many of us Arizona kids, seeing this dinosaur meant fun was just an hour or so away. The first time I remember seeing this guy was with my dad when I was just a wee pup.
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