Jewells of Thought

Today I spent the morning with my Dad. Both of my parents had appointments in different directions. My brother was all too happy to go with Mom and so I went with Daddy. Mom just had therapy, but Dad was having a checkup on his eyes.

This morning I was unsure what to expect of this Clinic where interns worked for the doctors and were literally coming and going throughout the year. The intern I met was extremely well versed in her education of ophthalmology. She seemed so much younger than she looked, funny, others have said the same of me. We got there early, but their systems had shut down and caused some disruption. The appointment took longer than we had expected it to.

It was nice having some father daughter time today. Dad wanted to eat at Golden Corral, but we were both dismayed when we noticed it wasn’t there and instead a Mexican Restaurant had taken over that location. In Dad-like fashion he recoiled from Mexican and we then turned around and looked for our second choice. He mentioned KFC so I agreed that would be good. We don’t have one anywhere less than 45 minutes away from us now so it’s more of a treat.

When we got home we noticed Mom and James treated themselves to Long John Silvers. So which of us got the better deal out of this? I think we both came out good. When Dad was checking through the stations as we drove through Bloomington it was comforting to hear Toby’s songs one right after another almost 75% of the music we heard before we got back to the Church radio was his songs on the stations. I found myself singing the lyrics I knew so well. I wanted to cry… this American legend is now gone.

Not until I got home did I actually find the tears leaving my eyes. My teenage years were rolling through my mind of singing these songs and listening to them, but the ardent love and appreciation of this man for his country and it’s Veterans was dynamic and bold.

Talk about a roller-coaster. Today has been 19 years since Grandpa Freddy died so I leapt at the opportunity to have a little date with Dad. This death of Toby’s also brought that fact on me hard. Don’t take things for granted. Parents and Grandparents are so very special take the little opportunities God grants you with them.