cogdog on A Levine family thing, well mine, was when asked what I wanted for a gift. Cleverly I strategized a means to get many gifts; I would request “A big box full of a whole bunch of little toys.” My parents always obliged. The calendar and later in the day my older system reminded me that […]
cogdog on The do it every year. There are three adjacent houses in Strawberry, Arizona, where Wingfield Way turns into Tonto Rim Drive and the north edge of town folds into the forest. Each Christmas, whomever lives there, sets up a huge display of lights. Of course it’s not novel, it happens everywhere. And it’s not anywhere […]
cogdog on My calendar reminders were set; it was my memory that somehow put August 27 into tomorrow. My sister’s text message corrected the off by one error. Today marks the same calendar date that my Dad passed away, 16 years ago, and my mom went, ten years later. If you take a mathematical approach (and stop […]
cogdog on Fatherless Father’s days, round 16. Of course I do have a father, I just can’t call him on the phone as I last did in 2011. I can still write, and think, and remember. I continue to come across small things of his that I have in my home, or my tool shed. Those two […]
cogdog on Cancer took Dad in August 2001. I don’t want to do the arithmetic on how long ago that was. Yet I did. Where is that point of the trailing off of grief and the acceptance of the norm where your parent is gone? It’s not defined at all I think of him when the calendar […]
cogdog on Dear Mom and Dad, I knew August 27 was looming. It was not going to not get here. While walking the dog his morning I looked at the ground. And there it was. This blog post is being written on the 26th, scheduled to publish on the 27th, because I will be off camping in […]
cogdog on My Dad spent a lot of time in the yard. Pushing the lawnmower. Raking leaves. Trimming the forsythia bushes. I want to say I pondered him doing that and wondered what he thought about spending all those hours out there, but maybe that is more hindsight memory. But he definitely found his own rewards from […]
cogdog on May 2 could have been my Dad’s 90th birthday, but the only notched 75. Just fathoming that the last birthday he saw, and I saw, was fifteen years ago. I was planning to visit him in Florida for a special birthday, but no one in the family expected that birthday would be in the hospital. […]
cogdog on They sure made the anniversary math easy by getting married in 1950. Today. 66 years ago. All I got was a calendar pop-up reminder. And a happy quick mind memory trip, with some rummaging through what feels like too small a set of digital photos. It can be hard to really imagine your parents as […]
cogdog on Four years ago today, it was just another one on part of my 15,000 mile “Odyssey” Road trip. I was leaving Welland Ontario after a very special one week visit with Giulia Forsythe. I called my Mom (in Florida) in the morning for our usual quick touching base calls, just another call where we teased […]