Somehow I neglected to give Dad a special birthday post (or special birthday comments, as was the case with Megan). I'm sure he's been really down about it, so here you go!
Here's a list of things I love about Daddy:
1. I can always tell when he's home alone by how chatty he is on the phone. If Mom is around, I get handed straight over.
2. He's a funny guy. And he recognizes good humor when he sees it. This is why I work so hard to cultivate my own wit, so that I can get him to do the laugh with no sound. It's one life's greatest rewards.
3. He's a great grandpa. I guess I can't speak for everyone, but I know at least one little girl who is totally smitten with her grandpa.
4. He worked so hard to teach me binary numbers as a youth. I'm sure he's still disappointed. (How fortunate that he has three other children with sharper minds...)
5. He has a great ear for music, and he's pretty much the best I know at tracking dynamics and encouraging a greater range of body movement in young pianists.
6. He was really good at choosing his wife. And he is a good example of trying to make her happy by collecting leaves for her, singing with her, listening to Will Ackerman and stuff with her... the list goes on.
7. He knows how to choose the lesser of two weevils.
8. He was always the cool dad at the swimming pool reading his C++ books or whatever they were.
9. He is a great cook and inspires me to go on brave new culinary adventures.
10. He has great faith in the Lord and in his family. Both of those things have been a great strength to me in my life.
I love you, Dad! Happy (late) Birthday!
And finally--a piece of poetry to end on. It might be an odd choice on these hot days, but I rediscovered this poem recently and found great meaning. And I can't read anything by this poet without thinking of Dad.
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
--Robert Frost
3 comments:
Oh Rachel, you are so clever. I claim ditto on all of these, and if I might add a couple of my own:
11) He can go through the same comic bits over and over again, and they're never not funny (his watch, what really goes on at Priesthood session).
12) He taught me how to win friends and influence people by saying things like "If you're lucky, and I'm careless."
I was just reading the list again, and I guess I should amend: he did have great success at teaching me the binary numbers. It was the rest of the binary code and stuff, and the conversions from base 10 to binary, that I never really got.
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