happy father's day!

my sister had to remind me that it's father's day today. i can't even plead that it's an american holiday because we also have father's day here in denmark (tho' it may not be today). i'll admit i'm pretty rubbish at remembering these things.  i'm not sure if it makes me a bad daughter tho'. and we didn't really do anything for the father in this house today either and all three of his daughters were present.

sabin and her grandfather in kongs have in copenhagen, august 2008

dad was last here in denmark in august 2008 for our housewarming at our old house - the housewarming of our addition, as we'd lived there for a good 7 years by then. we were frantically trying to finish up the last things so we could hold the party and happily, dad volunteered to get up on a ladder (the wisdom of sending a 75-year-old man up a ladder could be discussed, but we won't get into that here and all's well that ends well) and clean the windows.

dad washing the windows at our old house.

i think he and mom knew something about a vinegar solution and as i recall, they wiped them down with old newspapers. they'd never been so clean and i'm sure they also haven't been since. in fact, it wouldn't hurt if they came for a visit and cleaned the windows around here. they sure could use it and they're much closer to the ground.

look how happy he was to be up on that ladder!

here's dad, helping with a wheelbarrow of driftwood. sadly, he had encountered a rather large step and that explains the exasperation on his face. i was happy that husband was the cause of that look, because i'd been the cause of it plenty of times myself.

this is a rather typical exasperated look on my father's face.
goodness knows i've given him enough cause for exasperation over the years.

some of the things i inherit from my dad are my liberal leanings (he is one of about 4 democrats in south dakota), my love of reading and keeping up with the news, my ability to write (you can't learn it, you either have it or you don't, or so he once told me), my lack of patience for many things, but especially stupid people, making fun of people and things for comic effect, my tendency to be a bit too loud...

but also a generous spirit, a curiosity about the world, an interest in other places and things, a love of playing cards, competitiveness, an easy ability to laugh and appreciate humor. those are some of the things i love about my dad.

dad, mom and a much smaller sabin in august 2008.

so a big happy father's day to you, dad!!! sorry we weren't there to go fishing and cook up a mess of walleye and a big batch of asparagus from your garden!