Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful men out there who have influenced and nurtured me along the way.  Now that I am a parent, I can really appreciate a lot of the things my dad has done for me along the way.  Here are just a couple of fond memories:

• When I was about 7 or 8, I was obsessed with lizards.  I would catch them all the time and build them little terrariums.  I didn't know this until later, but they would often die in my temporary little houses that I would make for them.  And my dad, being awesome, would pluck the dead ones out, catch new identical ones, replace them in the terrarium, and encourage me to let them go outside before they perished. 
• Around the same time, I was a pretty bad student in school.  We had parent teacher conferences a lot and finally figured out that I wasn't doing well in my classes because I was never doing my homework.  My parents were dumbfounded because as far as they knew, I never even had homework.  That's a little lesson not to trust an 8 year old.  So, my dad took matters into his own hands, and completed helped me complete the next two projects for with me.  I got F's on both of them.
• I had a terrible habit of leaving my bike in the driveway, causing my dad to have to get out and move it before paring his car when he came home from work. After many times of telling me that if I left my bike out in the driveway it could be stolen, one day it simply disappeared.  He was right, and I was heart broken for a week. Until he pulled it out of the back of truck, that is.  Lesson learned.
• One of the more tender memories I have is when our dog, Duchess, passed away.  I had been home alone and there were workmen at the house completing a renovation.  One of the men asked if I could call my dad because he had a question, and although this was odd, I complied. My dad rushed home, and told me to take our dog, Sydney, for a walk.  He looked like a completely different man to me--serious, sad, and gentle all at the same time. When I came home he explained to me that Duchess has passed away and he had buried her under the orange trees.  We made a tombstone for her.  Many years later Sydney was buried there also and he made her a white cross tombstone.
• He used to take me all over the state of Florida for day trips--Eggmont key, Coconut Grove Arts Festival, The Webster Pepper Festical to name a few.

I love you, Charlie!