Dia de los Padres

No, I'm not referring to a particular baseball team from San Diego. Today is Father's Day. While it certainly is easy to get caught up in sending Dad a card, or taking Leah's dad out to lunch after church, I sometimes think about folks who have lost their dad, particular those who might've had it come recently. Jennifer Rushing comes to mind, whose father died only a couple of weeks ago. Or Steve and Kristi; Uncle Mike left us in '96, about 6 months before Steve's 21st birthday, and when a 17-year old Kristi was a month or two from graduating high school. My mom lost her father at age 59--I was in 3rd grade at the time, and thought that grandparents were old and were supposed to die, but later realized that he too was taken way too early. To these folks, I say that today must be extremely hard, but I'm sure that there are tons of memories that you have to cherish today and for many more Father's Days. And it was because of your father that you are here, allowing you to have children and most likely teach them the things that your dad taught you (whether it's discipline or money advice or how to bait a hook!). You will see your father again, and next time, he'll be in much better condition than when you saw him last.

Of course, today brings a bit more meaning to our household, too. Sure, our baby isn't here yet, but in a sense, I am already a father, because there is a child that, even though has no name and as is an undetermined sex, I absolutely adore. I think about holding, falling asleep with, or coming home to that childish smile. To use the pet/child analogy, our puppy Calle is so excited when I walk in the door--that burst of energy, that innocent zeal to let me know in her own way that she's glad to see me. I can only imagine that it'll be 10 times that when our little tike gets old enough (and ten times LESS than that once they become a teenager!).

In honor of father's day, Leah requested that I take yesterday off from Kroger so that we'd have some time to spend together. She wanted me to go play golf, and she would accompany me. We made a bright and early tee time of 6:00AM, and I returned to Audubon (the place of my previous personal record-setting 84) to see if the good karma was still there. There wasn't any other folks teeing off, so it was just me and my one-woman gallery setting off from the teebox. I played the 18 holes in 3 hours, and shot a 91. Not too bad (for my skill level), and I was happy with it. Throw in 2 lost-ball penalties, and a few missed putts, and I would've been in the 80's, proving that maybe I've tweaked my game to the point that 105's and 110's are in the past. Only time will tell. We then came home, took a nap, and then went and grabbed a bite of lunch at Roly Poly, went to Bass Pro Shops to get a gift card for Leah's dad (shhhh....heck, he doesn't read this because he's scared of computers and has the "why do I need to mess with them?" mentale), shopped for maternity clothes and browsed baby stuff at Sears and SuperTarget, and then came home briefly before having a nice little casual dinner at El Porton.

Leah doesn't blog (her name's on it, she has an ID, but leaves it up to me to be the author and technical engineer of our online presence), so here are pictures of our dads when they were both well-dressed and well-behaved--at our wedding. We love you guys--thanks for everything you've given us and taught us, and for making sacrifices that probably started before we were ever born. Hopefully as new parents, we'll make you proud, because we're gonna strive very hard to duplicate your success in child-raising.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, Dad and Mike!!