Happy Father's Day

6-16-12

    We are staying at The Wren in Vail.  Classy place.  I am sitting at the large dining table in the “open” area.  Danielle and Erica just got back from their last assignment of their volleyball tournament, reffing. 
    They did well.  They won one game, they played really well together, and I could tell they were having fun because of all the laughter and the smiles.  I took plenty of video on my iPod, and they had some long rallies.  It will be fun to look at those later. 
    They got to play against last year’s winners during pool play, and they played a respectable match against them, but it really wasn’t close.  One of those girls will be playing at Northern Arizona, and the other at Wingate in North Carolina.  They had experience and size on their side.  The one going to NAU was Cheyenne Mountain’s best player.  Cheyenne Mountain is the team that took state last season beating out Erica’s team Coronado in the championship. 
    Danielle was scrappy, making great passes and playing some super defense.  Erica had her tough floater, smooth sets, and hard hits.  I hope they play together again next year.  They could be formidable!
    Now James, Katie, and Daryl have...

joined me at the table.  They are doing the technology thing.  James found the movie Thor on Netflix, so he and Katie are about to watch that.  Daryl is on Facebook.  Daryl and Katie did not break pool yesterday in their part of the tournament, the co-ed. 
    James and Daryl did break pool this morning, though!  I won’t say how, but it doesn’t really matter.  Just like golf, it doesn’t matter how you make a birdie or a par, just that you did.  They will play in their tournament tomorrow at the same time Danielle and I will be playing in our father-daughter tournament.
    I want to write about my father now.  Tomorrow is Father’s Day, so the timing for this is just right.  He’s been sending me articles about golf through snail mail for the past several months, and they’ve been great.  Most of them are written by John Paul Newport from the Wall Street Journal.  I also have one from Jason Gay, though, also from the Wall Street Journal, and one other from Barry Svrluga of the Denver Post.
    What is so special about this is that Dad could really care less about golf.   He is choosing to love.  He knows that I like golf, and that I like reading and writing about golf, so he cuts them out, folds them, fills out the envelopes, puts stamps on them and sends them all my way.
    I had a wonderful father-son moment with my dad the weekend of James‘s graduation.  Dad hugged me just before leaving, and as we hugged he whispered in my ear, “I’m proud of you.”
    Tears welled up in my eyes, and a couple spilled out.  My family noticed, and I blamed Dad for starting it all.  We laughed. 
    After he left, B was sitting with James out on our couch, and I remembered what Dad had just told me, and I realized the reason he had said it was because of James, so I immediately went out into the living room to tell James that, and how proud I was (and still am) of him.  I told James that I realized that Dad was proud of me because of how well he had turned out (and for just being proud of me, too, I bet), and it felt wonderful when I heard it.  I knew James would like to hear that from me, too, so I told him.  He teared up, and Belinda did also.  So did I...again.
    I was just able to spend some quality time with my dad this past week, too.  When we do errands and chores, those are some of the best times together.  We had quite a bit of that type of quality time on Thursday.  We had already cleared out the storage shed the day before, so these errands were not related to the whole storage shed thing.  Instead, we went to Home Depot to get a new light bulb for the spot above their kitchen sink.  Then it was to the store to get groceries for the backyard barbecue.  After that, it was an “emergency” run to take their classic Ford truck over to Dad’s mechanic Ray because the gas tank was leaking. 
    In all instances, it was just time being together getting stuff done.  Getting the stuff done is important, but to me it does not come close to the quality time together.  That’s why I asked the family to wash and wax the vehicles together before my surgery last summer.  Sure, it was swell to have that done, but the best part was the time together, the time spent as a family.
    So, here’s to you, Dad!  Happy Father’s Day.  I am proud to be your son.