This One Is For You, Dad

“Get up early and get there first, you’ll have the whole day ahead of you” echoes my dad’s voice of wisdom in my head.  

Jumping out of bed this morning, I prepped two rooms in my house to keep my three cats out of the way of the guy doing some work in our basement.  I proceeded to drive my car to the repair shop and got there before the “Open” sign was turned on in the window.  I left it there to have them look at my brakes and rotate my tires.  Living close enough to the repair shop, I took advantage of the beautiful sunny morning of my day off from work, and walked home.  It felt good not to be one of the cars zooming by heading to work today.  

I stopped into the coffee shop in my neighborhood and found out they do not carry dairy-free French Vanilla flavored creamer, so I made a stop to the corner grocer and picked out some decaf coffee beans, ground them, and grabbed a container of my dairy-free creamer.  I brewed my own pot of coffee and sipped it while sharing my scrambled eggs with my cat, Mojo.  

As I was walking around my house, tinkering around actually, I noticed a sqeak in my shoe.  I paused and made that same step in my shoe and heard that squeak.  I smiled as memories flooded my mind.

My dad never wore jeans; he said he didn’t like the feel of them.  So he always wore black polyester pants, belted.  When he worked around the house, tinkering around the house actually, he would wear the black pants that had paint drips on them along with a white T-shirt with slightly yellowed armpits despite my mom’s attempts to whiten them with her secret laundry powers.  He also wore these beat up, old black slippers.  

When I was very young, I thought the kitchen floor itself was squeaky because it sqeaked when dad walked through.  The floor didn’t squeak when I walked the same path and I concluded it was because I was very thin and didn’t carry enough weight.  

I remember when I was a few years older, I needed to get something from outside and I couldn’t find my shoes, but dad’s beat up, old black slippers were there at the ready.  I slipped in them and headed out the door.  Then I heard the familiar kitchen floor squeak, but I was out in the driveway.  I would step a certain way and the slipper would squeak.  I made a little song of it with my feet.  It was fun.

So this morning, I heeded my dad’s advice and got a lot accomplished before 8:00am.  And I squeaked my shoe in the kitchen and of course made a little song out of it.  It was fun.

Happy early Father’s Day, dad.  I love you and miss you dearly.  

Ephesians 6:1-3 

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” 

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