Two legged kids. Four legged kids.

dadeddddy ccloudddeee babygoats

 

Today was full.  From start to finish.  We had people here most all day long.  My brother and sister-in-law were the first.  Grandkids.  Kids.  Friends.

Wouldn’t you know.  We had to take the all of them…. every single one…. to the petting zoo.    And after they all held a baby goat…  we plopped them  in the pool.   The people, not the goats.

I fixed dinner.   In my tremendously adept style.   I picked up the phone and called the Fabulous 4J’s in Camden, Ohio.  Pizza doesn’t get any better than that, I’ll tell you.  Thanks Denise Richmond-Hudson.

Yep. We started here early in the morning.  And.  The last to leave tonight were our youngest grandsons, Isaac and Titus.  We were on our way back outdoors to round up the geese for the night, when their mom showed up. They were not quite ready to leave us, I  don’t think.  In fact I am pretty sure of it.  So when the oldest boy,  Isaac , saw their Mom… he exclaimed… “Titus.  Your Mom is here to pick you up.”

I’ll tell you.  The day was filled with little spectacular moments like that one.

Like this evening, we were out to see the barnyard… again…  and the baby goats were doing that jumping around thing that goats do on Facebook.  Holy crap.  I thought baby goats ONLY did that on Facebook. Like it is some sort of a contract with Zuckerberg, or something.  But there they were, bigger than life… jumping around in our very own yard.

Spectacular.

And hey, did I mention the pizza?

Oh it is true.  Today was one of those “wear you out to the bone” kind of days.  Just a whole lotta “goings on” for an introverted me.

So busy in fact, one might forget that it was Father’s Day, or something.

But the thing of it is….. THAT is what I thought about for the better part of the day.  This is the third year, without my Dad here on Father’s Day.  I didn’t mean to think about it.  But.  I miss him so much.  When someone you love dies… people tell you it will get easier with time.  I am not entirely sure this is true.   I think “easier” might be the wrong word for it.

It gets different.  It gets further away, and your memories start to fade.   It just seems more distant, that’s all.  I don’t miss him any less.  I don’t love him any less.   I just…  wish…   he were here.

I can only tell you this…. about all of THAT.  My dad was a pretty spectacular man.  He lived his life in such a way that he truly made a difference to a lot of people’s lives.  And now that he is gone, all those people miss him.    So.  This is a good lesson for me.  About life.  About living.

Being kind and caring and compassionate is definitely a good thing to do while we are alive.  And as far as I can tell, it keeps going long after we are gone.

 

Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring, and integrity, they think of you. — H. Jackson Brown, Jr.