I lost my dad on 9/18 of 2003
It has been a full decade now since my very first best friend left and I do miss him so much.
He was a quiet and yes, even a shy man who had a brain that was outstanding. He was Macguyver before there was a Macguyver.
If there was something he wanted to do or to know he taught himself.
Everything from Computers to day trading to creating and building a furnace out of old water heaters.
For instance: This man once read an article on hydroponic planting once.
That’s all. It was just an article in a magazine that said “Hey there is a way to plant stuff without dirt.” It interested him so he built his own.
There wasn’t a schematic and there wasn’t a formula. There was just this idea.
He then proceeded to build his own hydroponic system out of some PVC tubes and an old sump pump. And it worked beautifully. We had tomatoes, cucumbers and various other plants growing out of that beast for the longest time. And that is just a small, tiny example.
This man never met a single mechanical problem that he couldn’t either fix or find his way around.
When we first moved to Kansas he was starting a new position where he didn’t know anyone. I found out later from my mother that every morning for 2 weeks he would get up at 4am and puke his guts out. Why? Because he was shy and this, moving to a new place, new job and knowing exactly 0 people in the entire state (outside of his immediate family, with us it brought the tally up to a whopping 3) This was a very hard step for him to take. Shoot this would be a hard step for ANYONE to take. But he did it to take care of his family.
The job was there and the money was there and so we moved from California to Kansas. Of course I didn’t know this at the time I was to busy being a kid wrapped up in my own preteen/teen world. But he still taught so much. He taught me that sometimes no matter how much something sucks to you; you still have to do it. Not for you but for them. It taught me that being brave doesn’t mean not being scared, it means being scared and doing it anyway.
I miss you dad.
