Dad

Tomorrow is my dad's 59th birthday.  He is a Leo... and has many "typical" Leo personality traits.  He's outgoing, intelligent, smart and easy going.   He is, and always has been, a very giving person.  He worked hard as a CPA to earn a living and provide for his family (me, my brother & sister, my mom and himself).   I had a great childhood.  I was never abused in any way... I was rarely yelled at.  I was often hugged.  I had a cheering squad at every sporting or chorus event I participated in.  I had everything I needed and just about everything I ever wanted.  He tried his darnedest to teach us financial responsibility, though it took me about 27 years to finally figure it out...  He is very self-less as a father.  

And for every positive attribute I could rattle off for him as a dad, he has twice that as a grandpa.  He is as active with my boys as they could want.  He takes them to the park, takes them to play golf with him (his one true passion), is quick to ask them about what's going on in their lives.  He calls just to talk to them.  He spends vacation time here in Colorado and flies us to wherever they are when we can't afford to do it ourselves... whether it's home in Indiana or the condo in Gulf Shores.  He doesn't complain *too much* when Mom spends way more on Christmas gifts than he asked her to.  

Dad takes care of his mom (my Grammy).  He calls her every day on his way to work.  When she recently broke her arm, he was there every day in the hospital.  He opened his home to her when she couldn't stay at her own.  He was also close to his own father... he was there when he died and before he did, he spent much of his free time with him.  From playing cards (which was not easy as Grandpa was practically blind and you had to yell out each card that was played on the table) to playing golf with him (and helping him keep track of any lost balls - again not easy with a man who was almost blind) to taking care of the things around the house that needed to be taken care of.  I know someday I'll have the same opportunity to care for my own parents and I hope I can do it with the same selfless abandon as he does.  

Unfortunately, I've never been as close to my dad as I would have liked.  While I find many things to admire about him and emulate, I find few things that we have in common.  I am liberal to his conservative.  I am un-religious to his staunch Catholicism.  I am uneducated to his world of smart people.  He is old fashioned and stead fast in his beliefs to my open minded "to each his own" attitude.  Only in recent months when I finally started taking care of myself and my body did we find common ground... something we could do together in exercise.  On our recent vacation we jogged, lifted and played tennis together.  It reminded me of the days of my youth when, in trying to find common ground, he did everything he could to get us to spend time together as a family going on long (agonizing to my teenage selfish self) bike rides together.

Regardless, I can definitely say I appreciate him for who he is and who I am, because of him.  He's probably not reading today - he rarely stops by my blog - but just in case... Happy Birthday, Dad.