Father's Day

Father's Day makes me a little grumpy. 

It's weird to think of having no father, when he was always such a potent force in my life and then to have no father-in-law when he and I had become such good buddies. 

My life is better for having had as much of the two of them to enjoy as I did.

Here are some funny things about my pop, in no particular order:

1. When I was in college, he let himself into my house in order to leave a birthday cake in the refrigerator for me. Luckily he didn't run into my roomate, who liked to wander around the house in only boxers
2. He would put funny dad-like stuff in my Christmas stocking, like squeegees and copies of the National Enquirer
3. When he tried to fix things (my bike, my car) he would invariably break them
4. He would write his greetings on post-its so I could reuse the card
5. He decided that I had a thing for John Wayne, so he bought he a huge, shrink-wrapped poster of him and put a post-it on it that said "Love, Duke". I kept it for years
6. He taught me how to can apricots
7. When I wanted to fly a kite, he attached it to fishing line and had me fly it from a fishing rod. Ingenious, but mortifying
8.  He bought me a push lawn mower for my 16th birthday
9. A guy outside my apartment tried to sell him a silk dress and the Encyclopedia Britannica from a shopping cart, and he thought it was funny instead of insisting I move home

Miss you, Pop.