Father's Day

I've been forgetting all day that it's Father's Day. And yes, I did call and speak with my father. So in light of this momentous day I would like to share with you some memories that I have of my father:

• We were at Lasqueti once, when I was probably around 12 years old, and we had kayaked out to our speedboat which was moored in the bay to pump some water out of it and I asked my dad what we were going to do about the leak and he said that we would have to sleep in the boat all night and take turns pumping the water out. I started to cry, but it turned out that he had only been joking and so he gave me a hug because I was so upset.
• My dad and Michael and I kayaked out to one of the Finnerties and made a little fire to cook some hotdogs for our lunch and I said, "um, maybe we should get some water in case the fire gets out of hand" and he said it would be fine, but I didn't think it would be because it was so dry so I went and gathered up some seawater in a bottle and almost right when I arrived back at the fire it had jumped out of the pit and caught some dry grass on fire and I was able to quench it immediately with the seawater I had just collected. So then we re-created the scene for posterity, with Michael taking the photos. I still have them and I laugh my ass off every time I look at them.
• When my dad discovered that, at age 15, I had taken the family car out for a joy ride (obviously I didn't have my license), I thought I was going to be flogged within an inch of my life. Instead, he just sat me down and calmly explained how, had I gotten into an accident and hurt someone, I could have cost our family everything because of my stupidity. Somehow, his calm, measured way of explaining just how badly I had messed up was far more terrifying than anything else he could have inflicted on me.
• I remember, when I was little (before my brother was born), he used to rub the bottoms of my feet on his beard and it tickled so much it was almost unbearable.
• When I was in elementary school I had really wanted a kitten for my birthday one year. My dad had a tugboat at the time and he had been out on a trip on the tug and we weren't even sure if he was going to make it back in time for my birthday, but he did make it back and he had this big, wrapped box for me. It wasn't a kitten, but I opened up and it was a life sized, plush, long haired cat and it was allllmost as good as the real thing.
• I remember running through the brush of Yelapa, trying to find the guy that we had rented our palapa from, because my dad had been stung by a scorpion and was having respiratory problems. That was a super fun night. I pushed him off the plane in a wheel chair because the scorpion bite had left his hands and feet numb. My mom was super impressed when she came to pick us up at YVR.