TMI Questions: Father’s Day Questionnaire 2014

TMI Questions: Father’s Day Questionnaire 2014

“I could never look in my father’s eyes,

For fear of finding something of myself

Or perhaps, it was out of fear

Of finding something else…”

-written by me, age 17

TMI QUESTIONS:

Questions designed to reveal Too Much Information

Link: http://tmiquestions.blogspot.com/

TMI Questions: Father’s Day Questionnaire 2014

My dad's name is Maynard. 

Love his name.  Always have.

He is 79 years old. 

He hits the big 8-0 this September.

He is as big as the heart that beats inside him and all the love that it can hold.

He has no hair and pale, pale sky blue eyes.

His favorite food is rice and applesauce.

His favorite color is blue.

He likes to go to sleep.

For fun he likes to watch cartoons.  Favorites include: Peppa Pig, Sponge Bob Square Pants, Tom and Jerry, Franklin the Turtle, and Max and Ruby.  His favorite movie used to be‘Happy Feet’.

My favorite thing to do with my dad is sit and feed him, watch cartoons.

I love my dad because he loves me.

At my lowest point, he accepted me as I am and let me know that he loved me.

Throughout my life, even though he didn’t ‘like’ me, I know he loved me.  I know I was a disappointment to him – not the son he had wished for, but my older brother was everything he could have hoped for and more, so the pressure was off. 

He never failed to bail me out, no matter what kind of mess I had managed to make of things.  He kept his distance when I needed him to and was there when there was no one else.  He celebrated me at my best and took care of me during my worst. 

We’ve been dealing with his Alzheimer’s for the past seventeen years.  Six years ago, he began failing, and my mother was having difficulty caring for him by herself.  The house across the street from me had gone into foreclosure.  With the help of my youngest sister and my (now) ex, we purchased it and rehabbed it, and moved them in.

 

I see him for at least an hour and fifteen minutes every day.  I sit with him as often as needed.  I clean their house, mow their lawn, shovel their snow, and make sure my mother gets time away.  Sometimes he forgets how to swallow.  If we get a smile out of him or he pays attention to his cartoons, then we term that ‘a good day’. Some days he remains asleep most of the day.  We have been told we can expect him to live for another year, but I am thinking he will linger much longer.

If you’re asking me who my dad was: he loved to hunt and fish.  He worked very hard all his life and had an excellent work ethic.  He loved cowboys and country western music (on occasion he still responds to music).  I think he was a kind man, in many ways.  He put up with my mother throughout all her ‘difficulties’ and laughed like Popeye.

He once cried for me, right in front of me, because he was afraid for me. He was scared, and I knew in that moment that he would do anything to spare me pain.  And that is how I know he loves me.

Bonus

Who's your daddy?

Hmmm… sometimes the boyfriend is ‘Sir’, sometimes I think of him as “my boy”, and sometimes I call him ‘kid’.  We are very fluid with one another.

Are you into daddies?

I appreciate them.  At a distance, these days.

How do you define daddy?

You want to be the daddy? Okay by me.  I can play that game.  Role playing is super fun, and at my age, a necessity.  Defying reality (and gravity), no problem. 

As far as a ‘true daddy’, I would think they are bald or have salt and pepper or silver hair/fur.  If they are taller than me (a rarity) that sells the illusion more.  They may be worked-out, muscled, thin and wiry, or have a delicious perfectly round hard belly.  I like them furry or smooth.   A ‘true daddy’ can either be dominant, an educator, or a cuddler.

Are you a daddy?

I have been in the past and have blogged about it.  On occasion, that meant I would flip them. Physically?  I am not my ideal daddy type. 

Literally?  I could be.  I slept with a lot of women and survived a couple of pregnancy scares (yeah, I wanted babies and would have married a woman if they were pregnant with my kid).  But, to my knowledge, the only ‘kids’ I have are my three dogs, who are kind enough to allow me to live in their home.