Taking A Day Or Three

Yes, it's Father's Day...again.

[Sheesh! So many holidays this month...and we completely missed Flag Day!]

As per usual, my family has not bothered to ask me what, if anything, I'd prefer to do today to celebrate my own fatherhood. In fact, they are all soundly sleeping (as usual) while I was awakened at the crack of dawn to feed and water the beagles. Probably (once they awaken) they'll have me make tea and do dishes and make a run to the store for some missing item or other. And they'll complain bitterly if I, say, want to spend time in solitude working on my laptop (ah! the time I must steal!).

So it goes. Some fathers will use the day as an excuse to play18 holes away from their family (I'm sure that's what my father is doing in his California retirement community). My children make me take them to the Green Lake Pitch-and-Putt for nine, mind-numbingly slow holes while being eaten by mosquitoes (as happens when you stick your fairways next to a lake...standing water, you know?).

A few years back, our family rented a house outside Bilbao with a couple other families (friends of ours). In talking over wine and grilled meat, one of the fathers commented how much he disliked Peppa Pig (a staple of all our children at the time), because the Papa Pig is always made to look like a fool by the rest of his family. "But that's what fatherhood IS," we all told him...and it's true. Parenthood is what it is, regardless of the culture or circumstance of the family. The mother is (for the most part) the emotional support/crutch for the children. And the father is (for the most part) the comic relief. Both parents are punching bags in their own fashion.

It just may be a bit tougher for the male ego to find acceptance of the fact.

SO...I will not be "checking out" of my family today. My in-laws are in town from Mexico right now...the first we've seen them since November of 2019 which is waaaay too long. They'll be with us for a few weeks, and we have a good sized road trip to Yellowstone planned, which should be...well, a bit of a logistical nightmare, but I'm sure it will work out in the end. 

But I plan to be too busy over the next month to do much in the way of blogging...certainly not as much as the last couple months...and this next week will probably see very little posting as we gear up for our trip and settle all the stuff that needs to be settled around the house. 

Just so folks know. 

Anyway. Have a good one folks. Don't take yourselves too seriously. Enjoy your families (and your lives) as best you can. And if I don't talk to you before the 4th of July, please don't blow your fingers off.

; )