Family.
I feel so fortunate to be a small part of my family. I mean, who else would put up with me? Only family.
I find my dad to be the most amazing, hard-working, complaint-less, handy, stubborn, frustrating man on this planet. The man can do anything....and if he can't, he'll find a way regardless. He doesn't do anything half-assed. Me, I'm fine with things not lining up perfectly, or jamming a square peg into a round hole whereas Dad will make the hole square to fit the peg. He starts a job and finishes it. I start a job and say.....we'll finish it later; I'm too tired; we've done enough today. He finds a reserve of strength I didn't know existed. He makes me dig deep and find my own. Until I tell him, "Enough! I can't take anymore!" And then he smiles, laughs and says, "Amy's the boss..." just as it should be.
I woke up Thursday morning ready to spend the morning in the yard. But before that, as I flushed the toilet, I felt the handle break and thought, "That's not good". I knew Mom & Dad were in the city so I hurriedly called them to ask if Dad could pick up a part. And of course he did because that's my dad. Was it the right part? No, but he couldn't know that. And when he realized it was the wrong fit, he drove to little A and bought a different one. I wonder....if I had kids, would I do the same for them? Run around all over kingdom come to fix their toilet? I wonder....
And not only that, he spent all afternoon in the dirty, bug-infested, creepy-crawly, crawl space under the floor to wrap my washer pipes so they won't freeze this winter. I recall saying I would do that - I just required a Haz-Mat suit to get it done. Boy, am I glad it was him & not me because the job was a lot more work than I thought. Me? I would have wrapped the pipes, duct-taped them shut and that would be that. Nope. Not Dad. If he's going to do something, he's going to do it all the way. He bought more insulation to wrap around the brick walls of the crawl space to add another layer of protection from the North winds. He bought 2" styrofoam insulation to glue onto the walls of the staircase leading from my garage to my basement to further protect the pipes from the cold & wind. Granted, after measuring, cutting, ramming that damn piece of styrofoam into place....the door wouldn't close. Not to worry, though, because Dad's on the job! He simply moved the handrail down one step and when the door still wouldn't close because now it was hitting the insulation, he trimmed the insulation down so the door would finally close.
Whew! And was the week done? Hardly!
Friday he picked me up at the mechanic's shop so I wouldn't have to sit & wait for my car's oil change. *eye roll at myself* I probably could have walked. In fact, when I called to see if my car was done (earlier than I had told Dad, because I got it in my head I wanted to run to big A to get groceries & hit the bank) I debated about walking to pick up my car. But I had on flip flops and it was warm out and I had to carry my purse and, and, and. I did try to call Mom to see if she could take me so I wouldn't have to disturb Dad's work but she was at an appointment....so I sighed and called Dad.....and he gladly drove me to the shop.
Oh, but that's not all. Oooooooh no!
Saturday, we spent all day at my brother's house trimming trees. Dad's up & down the ladder, carrying the chainsaw, straddling a big 'ol limb to reach even further, crawling around on the roof...doing things I will never be able (nor want to) do. Even frowning at my brother & I when he came back from dumping a load of limbs and found we were a little too adventurous in his absence. Not to worry, though, because he took care of our little mishap. And then showed us how to carefully & methodically cut a limb bigger than all of us combined without doing any damage to property. Well, not much damage anyway.
And he finds time to visit those in need and write a sermon and walk the dogs and have coffee with friends and watch our favorite shows. I'm lucky if I shower. It's a great day if I find the energy to mow!
My Dad. Amazing.
