Dad

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the death of my Dad. I could write about how its hard to beleieve that 7 years have passed, but really, I don't feel that way. Many, many things have changed in our family during that time and it does feel like seven long years to me.

Dad images come to me at the wierdest times. Today I was cleaning out a drawer and an old wooden ruler, his old wooden ruler feel to the floor. And his entire ritual with that ruler came flooding into my mind like a little slide show. First he went into the kitchen and got himself a little snack. Now that could range between a stack of really cheap cookies and a cup of coffee or sometimes, if was later in the day, a diet pepsi and whatever was left on the stove, nothing too chewy--his teeth were at a minimum.
He then got himself situated at the table with the phone behind him (a wall phone with, yes, a cord!!) Then he got out a pad of paper and the wooden ruler and he made his columns (yes, like a human Excel spread sheet). He then listed all the games for that day and the point spreads and dollars and whatever else. It was all color coded.
Next the phone starts to ring. Call waiting was the best thing that ever happened to my dad. Each time another call came in he would reach behind him to the wall phone and hit the cradle to get the call on the other line. And he would write and spoke in short sentences, "yeah, yeah, ok, I gotta take this call, no , yeah, Hammy what's the point spread on Miami..." and it would go on for a few hours like that, the bang of the reciever to switch to the other line, the "yeah, yeah, ok, and so on".

His whole business was in that 3 foot span of our kitchen.

You had to pass under the phone wire to get to the steps or to the refrigerator. That was ok. But heaven forbid if anyone else got a call on that line. Eventually we had two lines, but there was always someone who didn't know the house rules...

Cell phones had just started to get popular when he passed, but I know he would of loved that technology. I can just see him with a diet pepsi, bluetooth attached! Now that makes me laugh!!