Today: my Dad.
- My dad can fix anything. He built our house. He set it up so our stereo system feeds into the kitchen so we can listen to music while cleaning and cooking! He put in a central vacuum. I mean, how amazing is that?
- My dad has had his own company since 1978. He is an electrician, and I love to think if I ever have a faulty plug I could 1) call him and tell him to come fix it, or 2) call him and have him tell me how to fix it. Discounted electrical services for life!
- When I was a kid, I remember going on jobs with him. Once, he wired a Toys R Us and it was an overnight job... we got to stay up all night running around the Toys R Us while dad worked. It was AWESOME!
- At the end of elementary school, I was going through some serious "growing pains" and persuaded my dad to take me to the chiropractor with him. Chiropractors are "worth their weight in gold," dad would say. Afterwards we'd get Arby's for dinner. I felt much better after a year or two of adjustments and roast beef sandwiches.
- While I was in high school, dad had an emergency once and went to the hospital. I was so scared. I realized how much I loved him, and I prayed really hard everything would be OK. I still remember his powerful stories about how the Lord did take care of him.
- Dad was a good example of taking care of our family spiritually. We had Family Home Evenings and as much as we complained, we had family scripture study and prayer. I'm grateful for long talks about Church doctrine.... he may not even remember the times we talked about ghosts and cleansing by fire and all sorts of things, but I do!
- At Christmas dad would always listen to Mannheim Steamroller. It made me crazy for years... I just rolled my teenage eyes and said, "not another Mannheim Steamroller Christmas!" But now that I'm all grown up, it's not Christmas without Mannheim. Dad even bought me tickets to one of their concerts my first winter away from home at BYU!
- I still remember the birthday card dad gave me when I turned 18. I cried for a long time. And now that I have my own son, I can feel a little bit how he felt. Raising a child is tough work. Seeing them turn out OK (I think I'm OK!) is probably pretty rewarding.
- Dad loves milk. For many Christmases, we kids would get him various "moo-juice" mugs, always trying to get the most creative one. The best were the one from Kurt engraved with "Milk Mug" from Things Remembered, or the GINORMOUS ONE (still takes the cake) from the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, or the teeny one from me with the cow and "moo" on it.
- Dad loves Star Trek, Dr. Who, Knight Rider, Voyagers, CBS Sunday Morning with Walter Cronkite, and more. Who else would watch Red Dwarf with me on Saturday night if not my dad?
- I taught my dad to be a good tipper! I loved to complain about rude customers when I worked at the Olive Garden. Now, whatever waitress keeps my dad's milk glass full gets a nice 20% tip!
- Dad was into computers before anyone else I knew was. I was very cool and computer literate in 1994. He had a cell phone back when they plugged into the cigarette lighters. It was huge and hideous, but it was cool! My favorite technology of dad's was his beeper, since we could plug our AA batteries into it to find out if they were going dead. And for a kid who goes through a lot of AAs with various electronic video game toys, that beeper came in handy! (Dad always called it a beeper, never a pager.)
- Dad loves family activities. He isn't afraid of going out to watch a meteor shower at 4 am with his daughter. We'd go camping in rain and wind and bugs and have a great time, even though our tarps wouldn't stay staked down. We'd go to the Home Shows and collect as many free keychains and pencils and ReMax stickers as possible. How else would I ever have gotten to the top of the Space Needle if it wasn't for my dad visiting Seattle and really wanting to go? Thanks for the best $25 lunch-size caesar salad I've ever had, Dad!
- I remember after my first car accident. I was completely horrified at what had happened. I wrecked a car, I split my thumb, I was in desperate need for help. My dad rescued me. I felt so grateful for him, even though I knew he was a little mad at me for wrecking his car (don't worry, it was old and cheap, although still a car) and probably driving too fast. I wanted to be defensive, but I knew at that point I needed to be humble.
- Dad always gets the best deals! He loves woot.com, he shopped at Sam's before people knew what Sam's was, and he has like 800 credit cards and a strict formula on what he buys with what so he gets the best rebate. Is that impressive or what?
- I'm so grateful for you, dad. You give so much time to me. All those memories I have, I'll cherish forever.
6 comments:
Dad enjoyed your birthday card with his Wheaties for breakfast. Hey that's what birthday boy wanted 'the breakfast of champions'. I have printed out your entry and will leave it on his keyboard for him to enjoy when he get home.
I thinks he's pretty special too and he looks really hot for an old fart!
Happy 53 to KB!!!
That was awesome! Happy Birthday to your dad!
You stole it from my sister, actually. :) I posted a link to her blog when she did her post on me.
We had New Beginnings last night...I need to edit photos, but I'll have a post up about it sometime this week.
Stolen or not, it was a great read! Thank you, dear daughter -- you made my day! <3 <3
I thought I might offer a few more comments on some of your points:
That Toys R Us job lasted 16 nights -- a complete replacement of all the store lighting! They locked us inside each night at 10 PM, and then came back at 7AM the next morning to let us out! We never had any time to play with the displays ...
That trip to the hospital was preceded by an administration by a faithful home teacher. It was the literal fulfillment of his words that made it powerful and memorable.
I wonder how much of the embellishments of those Book of Mormon stories you remember when we read it through completely as a family. I know that doing so increased you kids' ability to read and comprehend.
Do you remember choosing your allowance based on what Federal Reserve letter was printed on the bills? You always liked the "A" ones!
Mannheim Steamroller was an 80's sensation. I never had them when I was growing up. I seem to remember that you learned how to drive a stick shift from attending that concert!
My favorite moo juice glass is the tiny one with the cow on it even to this day! (Moo!)
Sunday Morning was hosted by Charles Kuralt ... Red Dwarf came on before Dr. Who on MPT late on Saturday nights. In those days, we did not have cable, only 3 channels were normally available. Those were the days ... (sigh) ...
You're right about tipping. I never tipped very well until after I heard what it was like to be on the receiving end. Keeping my glass of moo juice full will earn a good waitress a handsome tip ;)
Funny thing about computers. I never had one, nor the desire to get one, as they were quite expensive back in the early 90's. In fact, it was my folks who bought an upgrade and gave me their old one that got me started in computers. It was an "XT" -- not to be confused with Windows XP -- a basic machine that operated on DOS 3.3 with 640K of memory, and a hard drive that was a whopping 30 mega-bytes! Huge in those days.
My so-called beeper did exactly that: Beeped! It did not have a silent setting, and was in fact a voice pager. Started using one back in 1984. We still use it for testing AA batteries!
I'm ready for another hundred dollar burger and $25 salad at the top of the space needle! Any takers?
That car accident -- sheesh! I had JUST gotten that car tagged and on the road, when it got wrecked. I was probably more upset about that aspect than anything else. I know it wasn't your fault, either. The gal who hit you was a piece of work. She ended up working for (of all places --> ready for this?) ... a body shop!! Talk about job security! LOL
After years of paying interest to the credit card companies, the tables are now turned: I only use "rewards" cards, and they now pay me to use `em! We get hundreds of $$$ in rewards, rebates, etc every year these days. It took me years to learn that it doesn't take years to learn fiscal responsibility. I hope that you have benefited from that experience.
Thanks again for the trip down memory lane, we need to do this more often.
Love,
Daddio
How can you roll your eyes at Mannheim Steamroller???? Oh, Angela....
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