Father

So let’s talk about Father’s day.

My dad died in 1995, six weeks after I earned my PhD.

When the University called and said my dissertation had passed the review process the first person I called was Sharon. I told her, “You’ve reached the dreams of all nurses, because you’ve married a doctor.”

My next call was to my parent’s house in Carefree. I couldn’t tell you the last time dad answered the phone.

That day he answered and I told him he finally had a son who was a doctor.

Over the last ten years of his life, my rough and tough dad slowly changed. The new version was milder, and caring.

We always made a yearly trip to see my mom and dad and those last years he hugged me, kissed me and told me he loved me. Quite a change from the dad I grew up that could always find fault with my effort.

Shortly after telling him about the PhD, we went to see them over the Christmas holiday. For the first time in my life, my dad told me he was proud of me. I guess it’s better late than never to hear those words.

His death three weeks later hit me hard. It took me a few years to accept that he was gone from this earth.

Because of the tough love, dad showed me, I always bent over backwards to tell my kids how proud I was when they put out a good effort. This included hugs, kisses, and assurance of how proud I was of their efforts.

In the last few years, the relationship between my kids and I has subtly changed. Maybe I should say the change has occurred between my daughters and me. They were always daddy’s little girls growing up. Now, they hug, kiss their mom, tell her they love her and I get a hug and a soft, I love you.

Time to change subjects and talk about something else.

I celebrated my one-month being prescription drug free on the 16th.

My body is slowly returning to normal. My sleep pattern has changed for the better. I can’t believe how much energy I have today compared to three months ago. I bounce around like a kid with ADD, no jokes please.

I’ve lost 56 pounds simply by decreasing my food intake and increasing my exercise. Typically, I work out three times a week. I do 20 minutes of hard cardio vascular and then 30-40 minutes of weight training.

I started out wearing a 42 waist, today I bought a pair of 34’s, and they fit. My wife made me turn around 4 times when I tried them on at home. I finally realized she was just looking at my butt, I feel exploited and used, not.

Act-houston’s accepted me into their alternative certificate-teaching program. I took the Watson Glaser Critical Thinking test and my counselor told me I blew the top off with a super high score.

My overall GPA for my Bachelor’s and Master’s degree is 3.7 and I’ve always done well on tests.

I actually graduated in the bottom half of my high school class. Yes, it took a great deal of effort to be such an underachiever.

Later this summer I’ll attend a two-week institute over subjects that I know, but that’s how they play the game.

My writing, I haven’t written a word in weeks. I stare at the screen and nothing comes to my head. I did talk to a division of Random House about publishing my volume one of my anthologies of short stories, “God’s Songs”.

I might have more to report in three months.

My summer motorcycle trip is on hold until my bike is finished. When he finishes rebuilding the carburetors I’ll take five days and do a Dallas-Clifton-Phoenix-Dallas trip. In the meantime, I continue to sulk and be depressed over the bike.

In Peace,

Dan

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