My father is my hero.
Today is my father’s birthday and today I wanted to take the time to share with you how much I love, admire, and respect him. I want to share with you why my father is my hero.
As some of you may know my dad recently decided to leave his wife behind and come spend Thanksgiving at my place. Thanks, mom for letting Dad go for the week. [GRIN]
He arrived the morning before Thanksgiving and we hung out the first night and had a great steak dinner. . .that I did not cook. Thank goodness for Longhorn steakhouse.
Thanksgiving morning we both woke up early, oh, about 4 AM. Without an alarm! Now I know where I get my early rising habit from. We had breakfast and then we got ready to go run/walk in the Feaster Five annual road race. You see, before my father told me he was coming to visit I had already signed up for the race thinking it would be a good way to work off the day’s food before I even ate it.
My father, being the good man that he is, he agreed to do the walk with me. Well, okay, I coerced him into it by signing him up. See the picture to the left of him standing on the corner in Andover waiting for the race to begin. Now something you should know is that my parents live in Florida so dad is not exactly used to the chilly mornings or winters that we have up here. And Thanksgiving morning was definitely a wee bit cold. Okay, it was dang blustery.
But the holiday music was playing, the hot cocoa was flowing, and the number of runners dressed in various if not freaky attire was growing. A great place to people watch!
When the gun went off signifying the start of the race, we inched our way up to the start line. Seriously, ten thousand people crawled, shoulder-to-shoulder to the start line on their to an end goal of receiving a free apple pie at the end. Yup, anyone who finished the race received their dessert for the holiday table.
Dad and I crossed the finish line, hand-in-hand. What a great way to kickoff a visit with my father and a holiday. Now if I can convince him to make this an annual event. HINT! HINT!
After that wonderful Thanksgiving, the rest of my father’s visit was spent on my “Daddy Do” list. Yes, I had a list.
He got up in the crawly area of my attic and put in more insulation for me. This is the space that I tried to get up in and freaked out once I found out how small it really was. Then, of course, he helped me re-do the other part of the attic cuz I did it wrong. Sheesh! We put insulation in every outlet throughout the house.
Dad changed the ceiling fan out in the master bedroom. This is no easy task when the ceiling is 13 feet tall and he’s sitting on a ladder doing this. He fixed my garage door opener do-hickey that allows me to open the garage from the outside while playing in the yard. He’s so smart, he even taped the instructions on getting it to work to the garage door opener. . .just in case.
He replaced the outdoor light above the garage. This light now illuminates my driveway and part of my yard. It will prevent friendly visitors from running over flowers that I leave in my driveway before planting them. Uh, yes, that has happened. I have squished mums. But not no more! At least I hope.
Last winter I had the carpet in the spare bedroom replaced and when the wood swelled, guess what happened? The bottom of the closet door would scrape along my beautiful new floors. Yikes! Ah, here is where dad comes in. Dad took the door off and sanded it down for me. Voila! No more scraping.
OH! And one of the best things dad did was build a TV riser. I have been wanting one for months and months but could never find one that was the right size. Who needs to buy one when you have a handy dandy dad! Dad is a regular artist when it comes to woodworking. Seriously! You should see some of the things he has made. Dressers, nightstands, jewelry boxes, game boards, headboards, grandfather clocks. He’s a true genius.
So what does dad do? He built a TV riser out of maple. It is wonderful!
Speaking of wood. . .my father is a true guy. He saw my tree limb pile in the backyard from the tree that crashed against the house this summer and my firepit. So what does he want to do? He wants to get out the chainsaw and cut some wood for my firepit. Not kidding! Power tools!! Such a guy!
And of course, after we cut some wood we then had to start a fire and share a bottle of wine. Yup, we did, two nights in a row. It was fantastic!
This is my dad. Is it any wonder I think he is my hero?
Happy birthday, Dad!
Hugs and kisses - XOXOXO
My last read of the year will be Future Perfect by Suzanne Brockmann.
