Hooray for Dads

Happy Fathers' Day to :

• my brothers Michael, Brian and Roy, fathers to Michael, Sarah, and The Roy respectively.
• my brother-in-law, Michael, father to Niko, Elyse and Mary Kate.
• Bryan Wallie, my best friend's husband, and father to my Godson, Dan.

Lastly, Happy Fathers' Day to my own father, Jake, whose sense of humor was apparently passed on to his children, because we are some damn goofy folks. Don't you love the daisy behind the ear? Goon.
Some random musings about Jake:

• He can sing and loves him some Battle Hymn of the Republic. They used to sing it a lot in our church at the end of mass and Dad would belt it out like it was his job. (For years I thought the chorus was "Laurie, Laurie, Hallelujah.")
• His real name isn't Jake. It's Martin. Or maybe Marlin? There's some confusion around that, but Jake is what everyone has called him for forever. Anyway, it makes for some great opportunities to drop a "Forget it, Jake; It's (insert town name here)" into any given situation.
• He would dance in the grocery store aisles and sing to the music playing, which makes you laugh when you're five but makes you want to die when you're 19 and he's singing and dancing to Bruce Springsteen and you know the cashier.
• The grocery store? No quick trips for my dad. He knew EVERYONE in our town (it's small) and would have to stop in each aisle to shoot the shit for a while. I swear trips to the store with Dad took hours.
  
• The goofiness!? Oh, it's a public spectacle. Besides the singing and dancing, he has been known to adopt a speech impediment, a limp, and various other affectations while in public places purely for my amusement/ embarrassment. Not to be outdone, I then am forced to embarrass him--like the time we passed a corral of goats outside the feed store and I asked, "Did that goat just call you Daaaaaad?"Or when I told him very loudly in the General Store, "Hey Dad, they have that issue of Jugs you've been looking for."
  
• Without getting into old wounds about his not being around a lot after the divorce and all, I will say that Dad gave me some very sage advice when he was around. I'm not saying I always followed his advice (because I'm stubborn) but looking back I see that he was right and I should have followed it.

So, since I know Daddy reads my blog now and then and I hate trying to find an appropriate card, I'll use this as my Fathers' Day card and say, "I love you, even though...because of...no matter what."