please return as soon as possible

too young

it's father's day again. it seems like it was just father's day but then i am getting old enough where the years seem to merge into each other. i haven't celebrated father's day since 1989. you see my dad died at age 56 in January of 1990. i was only 29 years old. too young. he died too young and i was too young to lose my dad.

my dad was 'kookie' (yes it's a real word)

Adj.

1.

kookie - informal or slang terms for mentally irregular

yep- that was my dad. crooked glasses, goofy grin and all.

he fathered 10 kids- 3 sons and 7 daughters. i am in the middle of the daughters. dad worked hard and put in a lot of hours to make sure there was food on the table and a roof over our heads. i remember the first time dad took all of us girls fishing at the lagoon. last thing mom said to us was "KEEP YOUR SHOES ON!"
 the shoes came off as soon as we got to the waters edge - we were like a herd of cats going off in 6 different directions. Melanie, Cecelia and i were more interested in the tadpoles and catching a frog than fishing, Susan, Jackie and Rosemarie actually put their bamboo poles in the water to fish. at about the same time two shouts went out- Melanie cut her foot and Rosemarie caught a fish.

 fishing trip over....

and then there was the time Melanie and i went golfing with dad- i am not much of a golfer- all i remember about that outing was dad telling me to keep my head down with some exasperation as i hit the 5th ball into the pond....

...and there were the family picnics and the long card rides to see grandma and grandpa after we moved away from Des Moines and trips to see our brother Timmy and moving me to college and the next thing i know he's walking me down the aisle and then he's holding my first born- a daughter and then he was gone....miss you dad. a lot.

coloring outside the lines? YES!

so, officially it's only the second day of summer. the weekend doesn't count. already i have a To-Do list that is pretty long. sometimes i think i should make a "To Don't" list because it would be easier and faster to check the items off.

coloring outside the lines is what i do. it's why i am here in this place at this time. i think we all need a little more outside the lines time in our lives.