Sunday 

Good morning! 10:15 or so on this cloudy Sunday. It's also Father's Day. I'm enjoying the fact that Facebook is refreshingly bereft of political posts today, what with all of us honoring our Dads. 

Mine checked out in March of 1992, just shy of his 65th birthday. He retired at 60, and got to enjoy four years of it before Cancer took him. Lung Cancer-specifically Oat Cell Carcinoma. Strangely enough, this was the same Cancer that took my Father-in-Law. By the time Dad got checked out, it had travelled to the Liver and Brain. 

He kept his sense of humor to the end. After a battery of tests he told me, "well son, my Liver's just fine!" Gallows humor, but still humor. I would stop by every day after work to watch Jeopardy with him in those dark days. Felt fortunate that there wasn't anything to repair between us, as in so many family relationships.

I think the reason some Fathers and Sons, and likewise Mothers and Daughters, have trouble getting along is that they're so much alike. As I get older I see more and more of my Dad in me. Music, obviously, but also his love of language- and his sociability, coupled with the need for solitude.

My Dad probably seemed like an extrovert to the outside world, but at home he would hole up in his back room recharging those batteries. Except for the occasional Poker games, we didn't see many people around the house. He had a million acquaintances, but very few close friends. 

I was lucky to be able to bail from the workforce a year early. Just shy of my 59th birthday. In the back of my mind, though, I always wondered if I'd get four good years of retirement and then come down with something that'd take me out of the game just like Dad. An irrational fear perhaps, but one I couldn't quite shake. 

At the ripe old age of 66, going on 67, I've long since passed that point. It came and went, but was noted. Still here. I take this to mean that I have more to do in my own life. 

Dad has been gone from this realm of existence for 29 years, but is still around in spirit. I'm just gonna leave things there and not elaborate- lest we have a whole 'nother post on our hands here. 

So. Happy Fathers Day, whoever-reads-this! Thanks as ever for stopping in and reading. I do appreciate it. For now, I'm outa here. More later. PS Today's tune is a thing called Blues on a Hot Fudge Sunday. It has a melody in 3-part harmony, something akin to Western Swing maybe. Sorry, but here comes the plug: it's on my CD Jazz Guitar. Operators are standing by to take your order...

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