My dad turned 70-years-young late last year. For as long as I can remember, this is the way I saw my dad a lot of the time—always behind the wheel (or levers) driving something. In the beginning and although our roots were in Texas, we spent a lot of time moving between Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri. We also lived in Pennsylvania for a stint, but I was too young to remember. I spent every year from Kindergarten to 5th grade in a different classroom in a different state. By the time I was ten, I bet I had traveled well over ten thousands miles.

We began Dad’s day in the life session as he ate his lunch and stayed until he had prepared his dinner. He either eats at his breakfast table or in his recliner. But where ever he’s enjoying a meal, the TV is turned up… way up. He refuses to admit (and I might get in trouble for saying this) but, I think the years of operating heavy equipment without hearing protection have made hearing clearly difficult for my dad.

He enjoys spending time on his front porch. He says the sound of the traffic is music to his ears. Throughout the day, he may make two or three visits to the front porch to watch the traffic, relax and check Facebooks (that’s what he calls the social network).

He generally takes a morning and an afternoon trip around the property feeding wild turkey and ducks, baiting and checking hog traps, and checking if repairs on the roads or fence lines are needed. He has a fond love for classic cars and drag racing and recently, he unofficially combined the two with his ’67 Ford Fairlane. He might pop in unexpected and unannounced to someone’s house—sometimes he just doesn’t knock. He enjoys being around people… especially if they have an interest in volleyball or if they are female. Even at 70, Dad still loves to flirt and sometimes it’s embarrassing.

Here are a few quirky things about my father:

• When he was a kid, he put a washing machine motor on a bike, engineered it to run off of rubbing alcohol and made his own dirt bike.
• He loves sign language—not the universal kind, but the kind that he’s developed over the years.
• He’s the King of Gadgets and Jimmy Riggin’!
• He loves sharing his Facebooks feed and YouTube videos with people—sometimes with people he’s known less than five minutes.
• He can operate a $1M dollar piece of heavy equipment, but struggles with a washing machine.
• Growing up he said he felt a lot of joy from being able to hunt and put food on the table for his family. Now, he can hardly stand to kill an animal.
• He loves all kind of birds… especially wild turkeys.
• He has mastered the art of hoarding.
• He may own one of the dustiest trucks in the world. Not kidding.

Day in the Life

Here are a few of my favorite images from the day I spent with my dad.

I love my dad. I need to have more days in his life. 🙂 This is what a day in my dad’s life looks like!

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