Dad... One Picture, Many Trips

So I said I'd be getting back to my dad later, and since I've scanned only about 5% of my photos, I suppose that there will be many 'laters' in the posts that follow.

In the interim, I offer this pic which in many ways is vignette of my father.... no one appears in the photo, but all of his sons are present.

There is a bit of history here.  Dad loved his sons and he loved cars.

My second oldest brother designed the building in the background.  My oldest brother built it.  My younger brother and I both worked within the building.

In the foreground is our 1969 pickup that Dad and I built (or had a mechanic build), and our Dodge Aspen station wagon. 

I had asked Dad to find me a station wagon because the old men I worked with at the time drove wagons to go fishing.  (You could leave all your gear in the car and lock the doors.)

Dad interpreted my request to be for a hot rod (I was in my 20's).  The fact that I wanted a station wagon was one of my personality quirks.

But Geeze that car fast (V-8 with a hemi.)  I know that this was a compromise between what Dad and I wanted, but it held all my fishing gear and left the lights flashing behind me. 

Thanks to my father, I was left with a love for either pickup trucks or station wagons.  Most of the vehicles I have driven have been one or the other.

…

Omegadaughter spent the afternoon detailing our third hand Ford Freestyle Wagon.  I could not have been more proud.

A Gazillion Years Ago

We often don't realize the points where our lives take a turn and matter more.  For most, time slips through our hands like sand.  Some memories though, some sands, are wet and stick between our fingers. This is my story of sand stuck, washed away, only to be stuck again.

My trip started with this...  My wife and I as undergrads in Los Alamos...

This was followed by my aunt handing off her trailer for me to live in during grad school.  I named the trailer "La Mancha".  (Anyone headed off to west Texas has windmills to slay.)

During school, I grew to love and adore my mother-in-law, Granny J.,  who approached life with a good degree of humorous humility.

A few years later, my wife and I were lucky enough to adopt Omegadaughter, who is more organized than both of us combined.

Before I knew it, years passed, and I found myself watching Omegadaughter steering Betsy, our wooden canoe, across the wilds of our lawn in Arizona.

In bits and spurts, I came to enjoy the company of my wife's Uncle Bill, seen below bobsledding across a parking lot in Arizona...

And Omegadaughter skiing behind our house in Alaska...  (I'll explain how we got to Alaska later.)

Our poor kid had to learn to fish in Alaska... (Where I grew up, "Dolly Varden", "Sockeye" or "Char" were our dreams as we plugged along for catfish. [We still caught some damned nice catfish.])

We traded glaciers for red rock as we ended up back home in the Southwest.

 Omegadaughter was willing to take on what life offers...

For years it offered gymnastics.... but three hours a day five days a week hit her grades at school.  (I was able to turn my head at this, but she was not.  She realized the tradeoff between talent and a normal life and made a wise decision. It took me five decades to realize that normal life could be a talent.)

This was about the time that my Dad died.   I'm still trying to figure out how to upload pictures from this trip.  It is a story in and of itself, and I'll make a  post in due time.  For now, I hope that he remembers his granddaughter, her life, and the life of her family for all that we are now.

Last summer, we spent some time volunteering to remove fences for one of our country's newest national preserves.   I wished for, but did not have, a tractor.  (Still, the Science Director at the Preserve is a good friend who does more for my spirits than I do for his preserve.)

Now we're at home, and so this is my family, and these are our trips.

There is more to come.... I'll fill in the blanks as time allows (and as I scan in tons of photos.)