Random thoughts

Hello all,

First of all, those of you who know the situation, thank you for your continuous, loving support. It has meant so much to me and the rest of my family. Your kind words and hugs have helped keep me moving when I had wanted to stop.

My task tonight was to just let my mind wander through the last thirty years and come up with some good memories of my dad. Here are a few that I came up with in the last hour.

On my wedding day, the guys in Jen and my wedding golfed at Hodge Park. I was up at 4:30 AM ready to hit the course at 7:00 sharp. It had rained hard the night before so the course was wet. I was the first to tee off. I had the whole group behind me watching. I shanked it to the right. My dad walked up and tosses another ball on the teebox and says "Try it again, I think your feet slipped." Good thing CBS was not watching because I shanked it again. Oh well. The point is, that was a great morning. The clouds opened up on us several times that morning, but we kept playing.

Another memory is of my last basketball game in high school. We just had lost to Nisha Valley. It was a hard way to go out, but I did it with class. My dad walked to the front of the bleachers and he gave me a big hug. It was and end to a long journey. I was glad that we ended it together.

The next year I started school at Northwest Missouri State University. I was trying to adjust to college life. That meant not going home every weekend. I received a call from my sister Danna saying that Mom and Dad really missed me being around the house. So I through my laundry into Sam and headed North on Hwy 71. I parked my truck in the corn crib so that mom and dad would not see it. My sister Danna had me hide in behind the basement door when Mom got home from school. When she passed by, I opened the door and said "Surprise". The big surprise came when Dad came home from work. As he parked his truck out front, I walked out the West door to greet him. He just smiled and said it was good to see me and how was school. I could tell in his face that it was a welcome surprise.

-Andy