And in this corner...

Dad would have been 74 on Wednesday, the 18th. I have been thinking about him a lot lately. Today there was a crazy burst of rain on a burning hot day and a truck made a quick turn and spun out. I immediately thought, "If Dad had taught you to drive, you would have known better."
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We watch a crazy reality show and we were discussing how shocked this one broad will be when she sees herself and I said, "You never know how you looked until you had your picture took." It was one of Dad's favorite sayings and it's not really about photography.
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I can't begin to describe how much I love that picture up there, because Dad absolutely lived in that corner of his kitchen. He was a stand in the corner dude. I ran across an old picture from maybe 1990 when I was married to my second husband and he was standing just like that in our house! I couldn't believe it.
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I miss Dad all the time. When I hear a funny joke, I want to call him and tell him. Or if I have a gap in a childhood memory, I want to call him and ask him. When Duke wins a basketball game I want to call him and discuss it.
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My best friend and I met through Dad but became best friends after he died. Dad would have been so tickled by that. Here's a bit of that history from an old post:
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In case anyone doesn't know the history of Lo and Me, we had met once for about 20 minutes at my Dad's house while he was napping in his recliner and then we smoked together by the bar at my Dad's retirement party (and she also drove us there). She was very helpful that next week, because my Dad died at his retirement party and I was staying at his house working on funeral arrangements and stuff with my brother. This was October 1998. In May or June of 1999, I was still suffering from post-traumatic stress from Dad's death and DREADING the anniversary of his death, so I called Lo and told her how I felt and asked if she'd like a trip to Vegas for that week. We didn't really know each other, but she had known Dad for years - she was a neighbor, and had been so helpful after his death, it just seemed like a good idea to me. We have a 14 year age difference, but I didn't even think about that. She flew into DFW and we flew together to Vegas and made a memory to last forever. It was just the beginning of many trips and a very long friendship.
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Dad left me with so much, and I appreciate all of it - but I sure miss him.