How Blessed Am I?!

I think it's about time that I tell you a little bit about the first man that I ever loved. A man whose kindness and caring are insurmountable. A man who has never failed to impress or amaze.

His name is Dad.

This was my dad before he was my dad. Could he have ever guessed at this point in his life just how much a little girl would eventually love and adore him?

It was love at first sight. Regardless of the fact that I was just being born and can't quite recall precisely how I felt at the time, I can tell you that 100%, without a doubt, I loved my father and he loved me. Unconditionally.

The above picture is my absolute favorite. It's so 70's and techie and adorable. He and I have had a few discussions about this before, but I still couldn't even begin to tell you what purpose those instruments serve. Something to do with physics or radiation or something...maybe? My father works for a nuclear plant, and since you can't exactly pop in for a visit, I feel like I've always had an extremely skewed vision of what he does there. In my head, it's somewhere between Homer's job at the Springfield nuclear plant on the Simpsons, and some sort of top-secret, highly-dangerous laboratory that is forever teetering on the edge of destroying us all.

This is what my dad's office looks like in my head.

While that picture of him is definitely one of my favorites, this photograph is the epitome of my father:

If I had to give you a singular image of how I view my dad, this would be the one. This photograph just screams so much of him to me. It tells so much. It reminds me of every little part of him. From the blue "Bingo" grill plate on the wall--which reminds me of his past, and how much of a bad-ass he was growing up, all the way down to the poor, dismantled Teddy Ruxpin--which reminds me of where I get my twisted sense of humor. Not to mention the obvious, which is that my father can build or fix ANYTHING. He has a tool for every need. He is incredible.

I write all of this because I am constantly reminded of how blessed and lucky I am. Reminded of how much this man means to me and just how much he loves me. This past Sunday, my dad drove up to Atlanta to take care of some things in my condo for me. It was his only day off.

Among some of the things that he installed/repaired/fixed/adjusted were: starting the pilot light on my fireplace, fixing my backdoor so that it actually closes now, reversing the hot/cold on my shower so that the correct temperature is now associated with the correct handle position, purchasing and installing two beautiful light fixtures (and there would have been a third if he had an appropriate ladder), installing a towel-bar in my half-bathroom, and installing a TP holder in my bathroom. 

Just look at that handy work! Did I mention that my father is amazing? Incredible? It's honestly the truth. And I don't mean to keep bragging, it's just that he's the greatest and he's mine.

When he does things like this, coming up to fix and install all of the stuff that I'm too stupid to figure out, it always reminds me of an episode of Boy Meets World. Just watch the first minute-and-a-half of this video, because it captures, in a nutshell, just how I feel about my daddy.

"You work all day, then you come and work some more. And then you do my work. You're hogging all the work!"

 

"It's like he's Superman. Superman's my dad."