It has been awhile since I’ve posted anything. Life is become very busy with summer here and child number three arriving, but even with all the busyness of everyday life, I find myself thinking of dad a lot. Sometimes the memories are of those last days when he was very sick and everything seemed so unfair. Although those memories are sad, it was a growing point for me and my family’s faith in God. It was a growing point in all of our lives and I find comfort in knowing that it was part of Gods plan for us.
The memories I truly relish are the good times I had with dad before the cancer, and if you haven’t noticed from this blog, dad created many great memories for all of his family and friends. Because it is hard for me to get on the blog and post a memory as soon as I have it, Tammy gave me the good idea of putting a note of the memory in my phone and coming back and posting them later when I have time.
The first note I have in my phone is the memory of shooting bats in our back yard off the roof of the house. We did it a few times that I can remember but were only successful once. Still sitting on that roof, throwing a sock with a tennis ball in it up in the air, and shooting at bats that swooped at it with a shotgun was a memory I will never forget. Guess that’s where I got my redneck side from.
Second, I remember the times we would go to the warehouse at dads work in the winter and shoot our bows. Dad would set up an old tack board behind the target in case there was a terrible shot that missed the target (which of course none of us ever made that terrible of shots). We would scavenge the warehouse looking for things we could shoot. It was usually plastic silverware or tacks. Then we would see who could hit them first. It was stupid but I loved it.
Third, I remember the trips to check the back on Sunday nights, when I was just a young boy. Dad would have to do a walk through to make sure everything was in order and he would attempt to make it as scary as possible. He even created a scary sound track for the walk through the tunnel (Do do….Do do….Do do). He always made things so much fun for us kids.
Finally, I always enjoyed the random calls to see if I wanted to go to Gander Mountain. Sometimes we would go with a purchase in mind and leave empty handed and other times we would go just to browse and leave with bags full of stuff, but no matter the outcome of our trip, we always enjoyed going and talking about our favorite hobbies (hunting and fishing).
Even more than memories, I find myself having thoughts of how great it would be if dad was still around for certain things. For example, dad would love to be able to help with projects at Chad’s new house and Tammy’s new house, he would love to see our pigs and help out with me and Chad’s hobbie farms, he would love to work on our old Case tractor with us (or at least give us grief), and most of all he would have loved to have met my new baby boy, Sullivan Richard. I also miss being able to tap his knowledge when I have a project I want to do or when something breaks.
The family got together on dads birthday at his grave site and it was just nice to pay our respects to the greatest man we’ve ever known. I hope we continue to do this for years to come. Maybe even share some good memories together (as if we don’t do that all the time anyway).
