Once upon a time, in the mysterious land of Pennsylvania, was born a boy named Papala (OK... fine. He was actually named Dave Whale but I'm the one telling the story, so deal with it.) He grew up. He became the smartest person I know. He married my mom. He had 3 girls (probably so that we wouldn't pass on the name) and now he's a grandpa, or "Papa," as the grand-kiddos call him.
He looks like Steve Martin.
He surfed every morning BEFORE early morning seminary.
He could probably perform brain surgery on me without even studying for it.
He has been to 8 of the 9 planets, because I'm sorry, Pluto is still a planet to me -- dwarf or not. (OK.... this is obviously an exaggeration. He has been to 7. OK... that's a lie, too. He's only been to 1.... BUT he did show me the others through our telescope, so THERE!)
He has excellent survival skills since he was in the scouting program for 5 bazillion years. To prove it I could tell you countless tales of when he tried to wake me up in the morning. OK, close your eyes and envision my patient dad vs. a bed-headed Medusa with smeared mascara and that's a pretty close comparison.
He and my mom let us move in with them when we were unemployed. May I mention that Lily was still in her "Hurricane Lily" phase and Skyler still wasn't sleeping through the night (and he didn't learn how to do that until we moved to our new house a few months ago). There was a lot of lost sleep for everybody.
The man is amazing. I'm lucky I got him as a daddy. If you don't know him, you should. If you hate the crusts on your sandwiches, he'll eat them. If you want to go swimming in the afternoon, he'll go to work a few hours early so he can come home a few hours early to take you. If you can't figure out your biology homework, he'll go over the lesson with you 5 times even though you're not really paying attention (sorry, Daddy). If you're not very computery and something's wrong with your laptop, he won't make fun of you. He'll use easy words a preschooler would understand and guide you through the fixing process.
Happy Father's Day, Daddy. I love you. Like even more than I loved dancing with you during movie credits when I was 8.
5 comments:
I want to know who this other guy is that has been posing as your father (and apparently doing a far better job at it than I did)? Don't I (the guy that was born in Wilkinsburg, PA) get any credit at all? I think I do get partial credit for some of what you wrote - apparently marrying Mom makes me the smartest guy in the world, and I would agree that that was a VERY smart thing to do. Of course you and your sisters made being a father a wonderful and joyous experience (except maybe those first 6 months with Becca ;-) )
And I'm number 1! I made him a daddy! I've known him longer :P, so there. And it was math for me, not biology where I obviously didn't pay attention, and gave my favorite answer of "2."
He is pretty cool.
adorable.
I always told you that your Dad was one father in a billion!
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