RaisingDad

Today my father found out I have a water floss machine.      I love that floss machine. It's my favorite toy. He heard me using it and asked my wife what I was doing.      "What's your husband doing in the bathroom?"      "I don't know, Dad. Why do you ask?"      "Because I hear something vibrating."      I don't think the water floss machine is especially loud, but my father's hearing is selective. One moment he can't hear me when I'm standing right in front of him, and the next he's like Superman and can hear a fly farting halfway around the world. He either thought I was in the bathroom having a good time or that his hearing aid was acting up again.      My wife, on the other hand, knew I was flossing my teeth with my new state-of-the-art contraption and asked my father if he wanted to try it. ...

Remember when I told you how my wife and I went to Yosemite last week?      You don't?      That's okay, because I didn't tell you. I just wanted to give you an idea of what it's like talking to my father.      If I did tell you, I would have told you that I had booked a room at a historical hotel that was over one hundred years old. A hundred years old! It was built just a few years before my father was born, if you can imagine, but I was hoping it was in better shape.      The hotel is so old that when it was first built, none of the rooms had a bathroom. Since then, to accommodate the newer generation, a generation used to comfort and convenience, they have installed bathrooms in fifty of the rooms.  Not fifty per cent of the rooms, but fifty of the rooms, as in the age I'm never going to see again. You know what that meant,...

After my grandson and I left the White Sands Bataan Death March Memorial Marathon, we went to my sister's house to visit her and her family. They live in the house we grew up in. When our father and mother got older, they moved in to help them out, and they never moved out. Now the house is theirs. There are a lot of ways to get a house. That's the hardest way I know.      Hmm... let me backtrack on my story a bit first:      When we left for the Death March, my grandson and I were wearing clothes that were freshly laundered. My wife made sure of that. Three days later, we're still wearing the same clothes and neither of us are quite so fresh.      My grandson and I, we like to sightsee and take our time. We got to the White Sands Missile Range on Friday, the Death March is on Sunday, and, after we completed that, we left. There are showers available, but they're all together in one big room, ...