Trying to find fodder

I’m skimming Maggie’s book, No One Cares What You Had for Lunch, searching and searching for a topic for today. I have just over an hour before I have to abandon my post so this is becoming a frantic search.

But now, having linked to both Maggie and her book, I’m realizing that she had a great post today, and one that I can sponge off and talk about.

My father was a carpenter. He wanted to be in the Air Force, and he was for four years (technically he was in for eight, but he had to get out after four to run the family farm and was just on ready reserve for the final four). He was an Air Traffic Controller. As anyone knows, an ATC is the most stressful job in the world. Watch Pushing Tin if you really want to know.

But I think the ATC background and his youth on the farm helped him to really find a niche. He was the most meticulous carpenter I knew. He took pride in all of his work. He wasn’t a detail carpenter but the basic form – setting the foundation, putting up the structure, etc. He understood the pressures of making sure everything was right, but also understood that people are human and make mistakes but that there’s always regrowth and rebuilding. He was truly a rare individual – rarely cross, always loving, always patient, always Dad.

I wish I could channel his determinedness, his patience (especially his patience) and his joy of building something literally from the ground up. I wish he was here to help me through life. I miss him.