Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my dad's Birthday. I am sure he will not see this until later as my cousin is also getting married today, but, Happy Birthday Dad! So, off with a few facts about my dad:

• My Dad, like my mom, is the middle child. Only he is the middle of three boys, where my mom is middle of three girls.
• When my father was a child, his dad made him wear boxing gloves to fight his brother at least once. He likes to make people think he is a lion, but he is really a big teddy bear under any huff that he does make.
• My Dad loves to work with wood. He has had all sorts of wood working tools some of which have been passed onto my older brother.

Here is the Shop Smith that he still has. Mike went out to help him fix something "really quick" one day over Thanksgiving and instead the spring was lost as it shot out of wherever it was. We won't say whose fault it was, but lets just say, my Dad may have thought he had not found the right repair partner. They found a part that would work after a "little" searching at some stores. It was a quick fix after that. A few months later Mike went to pick up his dry-cleaning and the owner was working on a machine that he had been struggling with for hours to get the spring in. Mike went over and helped him get it in instantly. The owner was amazed. So, Mike learned from my dad. I asked Mike if he got a discount for helping out...he didn't. But he felt pretty awesome about it.

• He built the house we lived in in Pennsylvania. While he was building that house, I was allowed to go up with him on the top floor (we lived the basement). I was only two at the time and had always followed him and stayed away from the dangerous areas. One time that I went up with him I stepped into the insulation that was covering the unfinished stairwell. It was not solid and I fell head first to the tile floor below. They rushed me to the hospital where he gave me a blessing and miraculously I was just fine. (Okay, stop snickering, I am just weird naturally.) Needless to say, I don't think I was allowed up there again until there were no places to fall through.
• He loves to play games. He really enjoys playing games when he wins. Many times we would hear "I don't want to play that game, I never win". Which was followed by him beating all of us the majority of the time.
• He is very mathematically and computer-ly talented. His job has always involved computers and because of that we grew up with computers starting with the ones that basically looked like a keyboard hooked up to your television set.
• He loves his kids. Whenever one of us would get married he would be fairly put out that day and be a grump at times. Being the fifth child in the family I figured out what was going on. I let him know that I knew it was hard to let me go, but he better put on a happy face about it and not be grumpy about losing me to my Mike. He just chuckled. He is just so dang cute when he gets sheepish. :)
• He has a high pain tolerance. Really quite impressive really. This was not inherited by me.
• When one of the grandchildren prefers grandpa to grandma, he not so secretly relishes that fact. He positively glows. He loves it when the grand kids only want to be held by him or have asked, "Where is Grandpa?", as soon as they walk through the door. He loves it.
• His torso is longer than average, which Christian totally inherited.
• If you get Dad on the phone when Mom isn't home or is busy making dinner, you can really get quite a conversation out of him. The kids really like to talk to him too. Christian especially, will out of the blue say, "I am going to call Grandpa now".
• He really likes to travel and go on cruises with my mom now that all of the kids are out of the house.

Dad, I'm so glad you pulled through your surgery last year and are still here with us. What a blessing to still have you here with us. Katie and Christian regularly ask how you are doing and I know they love you very much. Happy Birthday! I hope it is wonderful.