On 10/13/1993 my father suddenly and unexpectedly past away. After 17 years this date is always a bit melancholy. It seems like a lot of people have lost loved ones recently and although I know that time really does heal all wounds and the pain will eventually start to subside for those people, I also know that the feeling of loss really never goes away.

I always spend this day remembering things about my dad - his quirky sense of humor is definitely the first thing I think of. He used to LOVE to mess with my mom and tell her she had NO sense of humor, which even to this day still gets her riled up when I say it. Both my parents were avid readers and sometimes when my mom wasn't around my dad would pick up her book and flip through to the back and find names of people or places specific to the book. Later, randomly during dinner or a discussion he would tell a story about a guy at work or something her saw and start interjecting the tid bits from my Moms book. the whole time my mom was getting excited saying "the so weird, thats the name of the main character in my book!"...etc... Dad would keep that going for days and not until later would he ever fess up to it.

Another of my favorite memories was when we would be driving somewhere together, just us, and he would tell me stories about when he was in the airforce or stories about crazy stuff he did as a kid. Sometimes it was stuff he never even told my mom about and it made me feel really special and close to him. On many occasions my dad would look at me and say "ya know happyhippos, you don't have to live like a refugee". Totally straight faced. And I was soooo confused every time he said this "what does that mean???" and he would just repeat it "you dont have to live like a refugee". I NEVER understood it and he never explained it. I would say about ten years ago I was listening to a classic rock station and a TOM PETTY song came on singing "you don't have to live like a refugee"!! I laughed and cried at the same time! It was just another one of his weird "jokes" and it took so many years for me to get it. I know he would hae laughed his ass off if he could of seen my face.

It makes me happy to remember my dad but I wish the sad feelings didnt wash over me. I know it doesn't do any good but I hate knowing that my 11 month old nephew will never know his grandfather. Or that my fiancee could never meet my dad. It's not something I dwell on or anything, just something I think about from time to time.

Anyway, some years on this day I might go through old pictures or watch one of my dads favorite movies. This year I decided to share it here. My dad was such an awesome person and I will always miss him.