Ode to my Dad

Today is my dad's birthday. I don't think he ever looks at this blog, but he still deserves a shout out for being so great. We've been friends ever since I was young.
Favorite memories of my dad include, but are not limited to the following:

• My earliest memories are reading the "Jesus Book" (Illustrated New Testament stories) and singing "Love at Home" with my dad before bed and how he would sometimes fall asleep in the middle of the song or reading.

• Learning how to swim. My dad would let my sisters and I ride on his back for a bit, then he would stand up and we would "fly" off.
• When I was in sixth grade our family got a paper route. It was supposed to be something that us kids could do to earn spending money. My dad got up every day and did most of the work,which believe me, was tough. We lived in North Dakota and it was cold!! For the next few years, whenever I wanted something I'd ask my parents to pay for it with the "paper route money." They got tired of that.
  
• My dad let me raid his closet and wear his old clothes when baggy sweaters and flannels were in style. Today I'm mostly grateful that was before the age of the digital camera--pictures of me in that era are disgusting and (thankfully) a bit harder to find.
  
• My dad puts up with being seriously outnumbered pretty well. Driving cross country with six female bladders would put any man to the test, but Dad was very practical about things. He made sure to tie a bucket to the top of the van/station wagon to ease the inevitable pit stops.
• When my dad's company moved buildings I went with him one night to pick up a few things they were getting rid of. It was the dead of night and we were driving a van with tinted windows and using a dolly going in and out of a deserted office building. I felt very sketchy and that is the night we became "Horace and Jasper."

Happy Birthday, Dad!!!!!!