Today is Father’s Day and while just another day, as a father, or dad, I can say it’s one, if not the most important and rewarding jobs I have. The thing about being a father is even when you’re not parenting or being a dad, your actions, or who you are, and what you do, are being watched by your kids. It’s the old story, if you’re a bad dad or bad parent, chances are your kids will end up the same. We all know the line about, the guy who abused his wife or kids had a dad who did the same. Hence, I know in some sense, I’m always being watched as kids, just like animals, learn from their parents 24 hours a day. Hopefully I’m doing a good job and setting a good example for my boys. Before I had kids, other people with kids would say things like “I’d die for my kids”. Being one who questions almost everything, I always thought about this and wondered if it came down to it, would I really “die” for my kids? Well, the instant each of my sons was born, that became a stupid question as of course I would do anything for my boys, including taking a bullet for them, so to speak. I’m sure every parent here reading this understands what I’m talking about. So, one of my greatest joys in life is being a dad and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the World. Luckily I have a great wife who helps make my job easier and I think, we have two great boys.
Yesterday Lori and I took off for Denver around 9:30 for her mini spa day. I dropped her off at our friends spa after we made a quick stop and then I headed to Neiman Marcus to return two shirts. I then rushed back to pick her up and we headed over to the hair salon where she had her eye lashes tinted. While there, our friend who owns the salon, threw me in the chair and trimmed me up too! Next up it was off to our friends house who own the spa and went to Italy with us last year, Jeff and Tina’s. We hung out for a few hours as we’re pretty close friends. At one point Tina choked up and told us, one of the reasons she loves me so much is for how much I love my wife! This was unexpected and caught me off guard. We think Tina is struggling with a few things in her her life or relationship. Jeff’s a great guy but it sometimes seems like he’s not as supportive of her as he should be. I think he’s threatened by her success as a spa owner and an attractive woman and is worried she might not be totally happy with him so he kind of subconsciously tries to keep her down or “in her place”, if you know what I mean. I’m the opposite as I always try to build Lori up, oh well, every relationship has things to deal with from time to time. We all grow as we age but the great thing about a relationship, or actually what a real relationship is, is the memories you build over time. Every one of us will see things different at some point over a long period of time, but you have to support each other, no matter what. Luckily for us, the good has always outweighed the bad. Tina then said she is heading to Canyon Ranch in Tucson for a week of R&R or basically rehab. We were very happy for her as they flat out are hard core party people. Lori and I are always amazed at how some people our age can still drink and party like they were in their 20’s. Well Tina finally recognized it was time for her to stop too. We’re thrilled for her as you just cannot do things when you’re 50 that you could get away with when you were 20! As I said, we’ve been really close friends for well over 10 years so we’re pretty real and open with each other, and we could tell she was dying to open up and tell us.
Next up we stopped by my Mom’s. The highlight there was she’s had this great old wood box that’s been locked and sitting on a chair in the corner forever that she couldn’t open. I guess they even took it to a locksmith and he couldn’t open it. I told her let’s break it open and see what’s in it but she didn’t want to break the box and then of course, my amazing wife said, “give it to me, I’ll pick the lock”. Well less than 10 minutes later, Lori had it open. Apparently it has been sealed since 1971 as that’s when most things inside were dated, 1971 or earlier. There were anniversary cards from my mom to my dad and vice versa. Also there were letters from my Grandma to my mom, programs from various high school reunions, pictures from when us kids were really young, like under 10, and best of all, a letter to me from my Grandma when I was 14 in 1971. i’m going to try to write the whole thing out one day in the blog as it’s pretty insightful. We left my mom with her time capsule full of stuff from 46 years ago for her to sift through. What fun to find all that stuff.
Today it looks like we’re headed to Aspen for lunch. We’ll head out round 10 and be back around 4 or so. We wanted to get some new outdoor chairs but think we’ll hold off a bit to save the money. Time to get moving so Lori and I can get to the gym. Hope everyone is well, it’s cool up here with the river running strong outside with all the runoff from the winter snow. It’s really nice and therapeutic hearing the sound of rushing water outside your window. One thing though before I go, I would be remiss if I didn’t say, it’s a lot easier to be a better or good father when your kids have a great mother. In other words, it’s a two person full time job to raise kids and I and the boys are lucky Lori is such a good Mom! GB