Thank goodness my dad goes back to work this week (he’s a teacher), I think he’s been rather bored.
He was turning into a little old lady watching the house across the street being built and giving me the details about what contractor was coming when, and if the building looked like it was on schedule, and why they’d build something like that when only two people lived there.
He’s had whatever respiratory illness I’ve had and he has a lingering cough.
I’m still learning not to panic when he gets sick, it’s just left over from my mother when every little …read more

Not only is my dad having to get a colonoscopy, his latest visit to the doctor showed he has hypothyroidism.
He called me today to tell me the doctor’s office called, “Go to the drugstore and get the thyroid medication we called in for you.” That’s all I know, he didn’t think to ask any questions.
He starts his medication tomorrow and I was a bit concerned, but then I had to tell myself that he’s not my mother, who would typically have the one side effect of a medication with the .0000001% chance.
The diagnosis does kind …read more

In what I hope doesn’t become another entry for the “What Now?” files, my dad informed me that he has to have a colonoscopy.
Now, while it’s good practice for people of a certain age to get them at prescribed intervals, this came up rather suddenly.
It’s routine-ish, but still, so was my mother’s carotid surgery which launched a 3 year nightmare of complications and lung cancer.
And, it’s scheduled for when I’m out of town and my husband is alone with the kids. While that’s going to be some logistics juggling for him (my husband), I am secretly glad …read more

An aside:
It’s a blessed wonder my father is still alive since he can’t drive worth a darn. That’s not a new development, so don’t worry that I need to have “the talk” with him, yet.
When I became an adult, I realized that his driving skills weren’t great, but had never known any differently because my mother didn’t drive and I had always ridden with him.
God bless the Toyota Prius and it’s reliable braking system.
How in the world did I learn to drive?
I know I dispense a lot of advice here about how to know when your aging …read more

I was talking to my father this evening, and I asked him how his back was doing lately since we are getting ready to go on vacation and there will be steps where we are staying.
Me: “How’s your back been lately?”
Dad: “It’s not my back, it’s my knee.”
Me: “Your knee?”
Dad: “Yes.”
Me: “How long has it been bothering you?”
Dad: “Oh, I’d say since about the beginning of the year.”
Me: “Are you going to have it looked at?”
Dad: “Yeah, I guess I’d better. (pause) Hey, I’ve been riding my bike every morning.”
Me: “Oh, really?”
Coincidence? You decide.
I’ve just decided to let it …read more

I called my dad this evening to check on him as we were having some rather large storms and some serious wind.
Through the howling wind (you could hear it inside the house, and, he’s only a few miles from me) and the frantic weathercastersI was talking to him, and, he, in his own inimitable fashion, says, “What wind?”
Either his auditory acuity is slipping, or, I’m the one that needs checking upon, and, not him.

You guys are kind enough to ask about my dad from time to time.
Despite thinking he was having a back relapse, he continues to do well in that department, and, it’s too cold for him to be riding his bike.
You may recall, he is a high school teacher, and, I have no idea what I would do without them, the faculty, the staff and the students.
To say that my father is well-loved and respected there is an understatement, and, I may or may not take advantage of that fact from time to time, I’ll never tell.
OK, you talked me into …read more

My dad’s neighbor, a man about my age with a young family, invited him to go out to dinner last night.
I was touched by the sentiment since they haven’t been neighbors for very long, but, one part of their “bond” is that they went to the same high school.
My dad is an active alumnus, and, this is a school with a long tradition of turning out some fine gentlemen, and, he’s doing the right thing caring for his neighbor, and, I think they enjoy each other’s company.
Either that, or, the man thinks my dad’s adult daughter is neglecting him and …read more

This may not be as funny to you as it is to me, but, my father the interior decorator is at it again.
If you’re new here, my mother died last year, and, my dad lives alone.
He’s a Marine and a man of few words, but, when the word do come, they have been hilarious (to me, anyway) sometimes.
Remember his silk flowers (which, by the way, he did buy and arrange them himself)?
Well, now he’s in the market for more because: “I’ll need some in Spring colors in a couple of months”.

An old neighbor of my parents called my dad the other day just to say hello, I thought that was so nice.
My mother had known her in the small town they both grew up in and it was a coincidence that they ended up living on the same street many years later.
She moved off the street after her husband died a few years ago, and, they really hadn’t kept in touch, but, she was one of the first people to bring us food and check on us when my mother died.
No, it’s not an “eligible bachelor” thing, she …read more