{"id":400,"date":"2009-04-28T04:30:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-28T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=400"},"modified":"2009-04-28T04:30:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-28T08:30:00","slug":"hey-dad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=400","title":{"rendered":"Hey, Dad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, April 28, is the date when my father died so many years ago. I remember that day clearly, though I’d rather not. And it was a Tuesday… just like today. My sister woke me up, told me the news about how he had died a few hours earlier at the hospital, and took me and my siblings who were at home to her house.<\/p>\n

Rather than be morose, I decided that today of all days, I would remember my Dad and the things he liked to do and share with us kids. <\/p>\n

I made arrangements a few weeks ago to eat lunch at his old office, though I don’t know anyone there now. I will go visit the reservoir where we used to go fishing, and skip a rock. I will sit in our garden and admire God’s handiwork. My Dad didn’t have much of a green thumb, but he loved to spend time in the garden. He would love what my partner has done with ours.<\/p>\n

I will communicate with my family, and share our love. I’ll drop by the cemetery, and bring some flowers that he and Mom liked. I’ll sit cross-legged and have a chat with him about life.<\/p>\n

I have benefited a great deal from my Dad, in learning, loving, caring, thinking, and yeah: smiling. Thanks Dad for everything — especially for sharing your smile and encouraging us to do so, too.<\/p>\n

Life is short: if your Dad is alive, give him a call, pay him a visit and give him a hug, let him know you’re thinking of him. Don’t wait for just Father’s Day: your Dad is your father every day. Say those magic words: “I love you.” It really means a lot.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, April 28, is the date when my father died so many years ago. I remember that day clearly, though I’d rather not. And it was a Tuesday… just like today. My sister woke me up, told me the news … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}