On Father’s Day, I’d like to tell you about my dad. All my life, he’s been someone I could count on for advice or help with a variety of problems. And he’s not just there for his kids. Over the years I’ve seen many friends and neighbors call on my dad for help. Here are a few reasons people (including me) call my dad.
The Guy You Call When You Need a Handyman
My dad has a wide variety of skills which have saved our family a lot of money on repairs. He does many car repairs, appliance repairs, installing light fixtures and faucets, lots of things that people call a handyman for. Even when we’ve visited friends on vacation, I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard, “Mel, do you think you could take a look at…” My dad has changed a light bulb in an unusual fixture, hooked up an entertainment system, fixed a faucet that had the hot and cold switched, and fixed a broken oven door. In my house, he’s installed light fixtures, rewired an antique lamp, glued furniture back together after being knocked over and broken by my dog, fixed rods and shelves in my closets, helped me patch plaster after I removed wallpaper, and replaced the mechanism in a grandfather clock. Most recently he helped me fix my stove when I couldn’t get a repairman to do it.
When I was a kid, he fixed my dollhouse furniture when it got broken. As a young adult living halfway across the country, he walked me through some simple repairs on my car. Now that I have a giant old house that needs lots of help, I couldn’t do it without my dad.
The Guy You Call When You Need a Ride, or a Driver
My dad was a truck driver for many years when he was younger, so he’s really practiced at driving long distances and pulling a trailer. When I was in college, my parents drove me out to Utah and back each school year, my dad doing the majority of the driving. When I decided to move back to Wisconsin, he and my mom were more than willing to come out so my dad could drive the moving truck. He drove a suburban with a trailer out to Utah for some friends who were moving there. And when my parents’ neighbors’ car broke down when they were on vacation, my dad was the guy they called to come get them. Not only did he bring them home, he also found a car dolly to tow their car home too.
As I’ve been furnishing my Victorian home, I’ve requested my dad’s van and his help to pick up tables, hutches, beds, and armoires. (I have three armoires now, maybe four, depending on your definition.) One night he helped me pick up two free pianos to turn into desks, which is a story for another day. He also picks things up for me from stores that I don’t have in my small town. Nearly every time my parents come to my house, they bring a bill for something, or several things I’ve asked them to pick up for me. My dad typically runs those errands.
The Guy You Call For a Creative Solution to a Problem
My dad is a great problem solver. He’s always coming up with a simpler way to accomplish a task. Like when I got a dump truck load of dirt for a raised garden and raised flower beds all around my house, it was my dad’s idea to move the dirt with a trailer pulled by a 4-wheeler (borrowed from my uncle) and then to hook up a trailer hitch on my riding mower (with help from another uncle). This was a much more efficient idea than moving the dirt in a small, rickety wheelbarrow.
One of my dad’s signature phrases is, “You know, what you should do is…” He’s always there with advice, whether you want it or not. Some of his suggestions are facetious, but many are quite clever.
My dad and I make a good problem solving team. Usually I come up with a problem or a project, one of us will think of a possible solution, the other will tweak it a little and the other will add something else, until we have an idea that really works. Case in point: I wanted to remove two 4-inch square wood posts, each about eight feet tall, with more in the ground. They weren’t cemented in, but that’s still a big chunk of wood to pull straight up out of the ground, or dig out. I thought of drilling holes through the posts and putting rope through the holes, to make a handle. My dad suggested that a pipe would be easier to hold than a rope, and voile, we had an easy solution for removing the posts.
The Guy You Call When You Want to Laugh or Play
My mom would disagree with this, but I think my dad is a funny guy. You can always count on him for a joke to lighten the mood. He loves messing with check-out cashiers, calling them by name like he knows them. When asked if he found everything today, he replies, “No, I wasn’t looking for everything.” His humor isn’t sarcastic and it’s never used to put anyone down, it’s always good-natured and light-hearted.
With one parent who is highly focused on finishing the work (my mom), my dad balances the scale with his willingness to take a break a play anytime. He enjoys playing board games and card games, which I really appreciate. He’s also really into water sports. He used to love waterskiing when he was younger, then got into sailing when I was in my teens, which I really enjoyed too. Now he loves to kayak, and we often go as a family. His enthusiasm for these hobbies is contagious. He loves sharing his interests with others which is why my parents own four kayaks, not just two. Many friends and family members have bought their own kayaks after going with my dad.
So, there’s an introduction to my dad. For those of you who already know him, you probably could add some other examples to mine. His love, support, and willingness to lift those around him make it easy to me to believe in a Heavenly Father who loves all of His children unconditionally, and I’m really blessed to have him in my life. Happy Father’s Day, Dad!
Trish that was really sweet your dad sounds like an awesome dad! Hope your doing well!
I remember his trip kayaking down the Yellowstone grandpa and I drove to Livingston to bring him his other glasses after he lost his in the river he was totally blind till we could get there and had to be led by someone else in the group
Everything you said about Mel is so true except you forgot one very important detail. He is one of the most humble men I know. He is a man of service and when thanked, he just kind of smiles and actually look a bit embarrassed.