Tumbled Words

My hope today is:

• if your father is alive you are able to connect in some way
• if your father has passed you pull happy memories from your heart and smile

Dad, Bill, and I on the ferry that ran between St. Petersburg and Bahia Beach, Florida, circa 1954. Shirtless, great to be a kid back then! And that was my version of a “blankie” - a dish towel. Shame kids back then didn’t get to wear dark glasses, see how hard Bill is squinting? Or is it that he knows what those Seagulls overhead could do?

My father died years ago - Alzheimers. I was probably never a daddy’s girl, by the stereotyped definition. Dad was quite reserved, very old school, not demonstrative, really, he was already just shy of 40 when I was born. And, he was not one to get outside and “play.”

But, in spite of that, I have many good memories. Dad and Mom taught my brother and I to play golf, we went to Family Nights at the pool in summer, he took us to the beach occasionally, though the key word is occasionally. Doing well in school the first eleven years came naturally for me, and he responded to that. And, Dad went out of his way on several occasions to “rescue” his wimpy daughter, to make sure I was safe, to allow me to feel secure where other young adults would have been told, “Deal with it.” Yes, times were he should have said the latter, for sure, but Dad gave me plenty of good memories by being who he was.

My Dad was one person that stayed true to himself, it took me a long time to get just how significant that was, but it unconsciously laid the groundwork for me to accept me for me. Thanks, Dad.

Tags: childhood memories, Dad, Father's Day, personality

Since it is too hot to go to the beach, for me; we have our first trip to the the Bahamas coming up sometime in the midst of hurricane season, should we chose to go; we went to Carrabbas two nights ago because Leon made it home early; we went to his favorite Thai restaurant and got his beloved sushi last night; NASCAR and The ALASKA EXPERIMENT were both on TV today and we didn’t bring our DVD recorder to Florida; we had tea and carrot cake when we probably should have been eating dinner: We decided not to go out to celebrate our anniversary, but just laze around the rest of the evening instead.

We did squeeze in a bit of time earlier today for Leon to take the laundry to the laundromat (I get too sick in there from the heat this time of year, so he does it, got to love him!); we squeezed in time to do floors; we Skyped his sister; I taught him the basics of using his new MacBook and we loading software and his business files, so he can sell his recently purchased PC that he has basically only played games and watched DVDs on.

And now, we are doing what any thirty-four years married couple would do, grin… no, not that at this moment… he is watching a DVD on the new laptop with his headphones on so I don’t have to hear the violence, I am trying to choose between blogging and playing Freecell and Majong Titans and Spider Solitaire on his PC - while we still have it.

We relaxed… vegged out… laughed… teased… and harassed… a good day.

Tags: anniversary, everyday life

No, not years old, that is long past. Sunday, Leon and I will have been married 34 years - to each other, both our first and only marriages.

Curious how we made it that long?

Have to ask a psychic, I have no clue. I suppose, though, it is because it is something we both want. It sure wouldn’t have gone on this long if we didn’t want it.

Wait, I can’t say that. I know people who got divorces after 40 miserable years of marriage. Hmmm.

OK, ours hasn’t been miserable, though we are both opinionated about what the other does or doesn’t do, because at times we actually hold our tongues and we make each other laugh, though, I’m not sure I love the way I cause him to laugh.

Can you picture that? Holding our tongues, I mean? I tried and got a visual of my tongue fighting valiantly against my hand… Then I got another visual of each of us trying to stop the other’s tongue from wagging… Not a pleasant visual at all!

I guess we both found something in the other we liked, then add chemistry to the mix, perseverance, commitment, a certain amount of “putting up with”, and ultimately accepting of differences and not trying too hard to control each other… See… nothing to it, grin.

But let’s just not talk about child rearing years… we did not see eye to eye… and we are really lucky it didn’t backfire on us… really lucky.

So, 34 years married down, and 56 more to go, since I told him we were heading for 90 years of marriage. Now, I don’t know if I should be happy he didn’t run with that recent announcement or sad that he thought it was laughable enough to ignore, either way, I am dragging him along!

Tags: commitment, compromise, marriage