Steve’s Journal #21-06. Dad And I.

Hi everyone and welcome to another entry from my journal. I figure we need something from the summer this time and something with a bit of humor as well. So here is something that fits perfectly. Let’s see how our day went…

It was a beautiful summer day, the sun was shining and it was warm at 80F (about 27C). A perfect day for dad and I to be out working on our shared cottage. It was all closed in by this time so it was all inside work left. We were putting up the walls separating the bedrooms from the rest of the cottage. Very simple work for us and we should be able to get things done quickly enough. Unfortunately we left in a hurry last time so there was quite a mess inside. Dad decided to sweep up while I brought in some 2×4’s for the walls. Okay with me. I left the door open to make it easier coming back inside, but when I got there the door was closed, though not tightly. I pushed on the door, but it wouldn’t open. Dad must have put something in front of the door as he was sweeping.

So I gave a really good push and the door opened nicely for me and in I went. I turned around and dad was lying on the floor with his head in a pile of sawdust. “If you’re tired, why not lie down on the bed,” I said to him. He lifted his head out of the sawdust and began wiping it off him. All he said was, “bonehead!” Then he explained that it was him standing in front of the door when I came ramming my way inside. Actually I was just pushing, dad always liked to exaggerate. “You should be more careful,” I said, “after all, you knew I was coming in with the wood.” Dad just looked at me. “Bring in some more and put them over there,” he pointed. Off I went and while outside the gray jays came by and since our lunch was in the cooler outside I quickly got part of a wiener out to feed them.

Off they went and I picked up my wood and came up to the door which was open this time. Then dad came and stood in the doorway, but I didn’t have time to stop myself and ‘whump’, right in the stomach. Dad groaned a bit and sat down on the floor. Apparently he came to the door to see what was taking me so long. “You should be more careful,” I said again. “Bonehead!”, was all that dad said. I told dad I was feeding the gray jays. “Good idea, let’s eat,” he said. I got out my sandwiches and coffee, dad had his own coffee which he poured himself. We sat on opposite sides of the picnic table. “Where’s my sandwiches?”, asked dad. “You wanted hot dogs,” I reminded him. “I said it would be nice to have hot dogs, but I took the camp stove home last time, how will I cook these?”, he asked. Too dry for a bonfire. “And there’s nothing to put on the hot dogs,” he said. “I figured you would get that, I didn’t know what you wanted,” I said.

“I wanted sandwiches,” he said. “You wanted hot dogs,” I reminded him. Dad just put his head down. He decided to take one of my sandwiches. “What is on this sandwich?”, he asked. “Banana and peanut butter,” I said. Dad just stared at me like this was some kind of strange food. He did manage to eat it though. No other mishaps and we each picked up some 2×4’s to take inside. Dad was ahead of me. I swung around while I stood up, but the wood caught dad right behind the knees causing his legs to buckle and he sat down right in front of me. “You should be more careful, I might have hit you on the head,” I said as I kept on walking. Dad followed right inside and said to put mine against a different wall. Fine.

Then he told me to finish sweeping. Fine. I picked up the broom and I’m not sure how this happened, but somehow the broom hit the side of dad’s glasses and knocked them flying right out the door and onto the ground. “My glasses!”, dad yelled. “I’ll get them,” I said, with dad yelling no, no, no, in the background. He came running down the steps and…crunch. It was bound to happen, he was always losing those glasses, and the frame broke right in half. “At least the lenses are okay,” I said. “Bonehead!”, was all that dad said. We did have a nice drive home. Mom just shook her head and told dad he needed to be more careful. Dad broke out into hysterical laughter at that point….

Well, I do hope you enjoyed our fun afternoon, and yes, dad did get a good laugh at this later as well. I hope you all have a most wonderful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2021 Steve McLeod.