Day 1...

This is not the first time that I have attempted a blog.  It probably will not be the last.  I have this need to write about life, but then life gets in the way.  I am going to try again. Here goes...

Today, my son and I were out playing in the yard.  He smacked the baseball almost to the street and as I turned to chase it I heard his laugh.  It was a full on belly laugh.  Pure joy.  He ran and panted and laughed; I slowed my run down just to make him have to run all the bases.  I didn't want his laughter to stop.  It made me warm inside.  I chased him down at home plate and he dove on the ground rolling in the mud and leaves. He seemed so carefree and in turn, so was I.

I remember a time when I was a kid.  I was about 11 years old.  I was riding with my Dad in the car.  We were on one of his road trips for work.  I had been talking his ear off.  He turned to me and said that I was really getting to be fun to hang around with.  At the time, it made me happy to hear this.  I was at that age where I was just starting to have an opinion and was happy that there was someone to listen to me.

That trip was the first Dad and Larry time that I can remember.  For a long time he traveled a lot.  He worked for an oil company building gas stations up and down the east coast.  I think back on that time in my life a lot, and it has a lot to do with the dad that I am today.  I don't remember a time when my Dad was not around, but I remember how great it was when he was around.

Thinking back on that today, I was struck by that statement, "...you are really getting to be fun to hang around with."  Was there a time that I was not fun to hang around with?  Maybe I was a little a-hole.  (There are some that would say no, but I grew up to be a big one.)  The idea of that transition from not fun to hang around with, to fun to hang around with stuck me as funny.  All at once I laughed at the idea, then could understand that moment where you relate to your child.  I have always looked at my kids as fun to hang out with, but there are moments where I don't "get" them.  When that happens sometimes I think crap, I've lost them.  Then reality steps in.  I am not always going to understand them, they do not want me to understand them all the time, but no matter what, I love them.