Take That, Dad

Many of you know that my dad passed away over two years ago (my goodness, has it been that long). Oh gosh, it will be 3 years in February. Where does the time go. Anyway, my dad was a bit of a prankster. He especially liked to pull pranks on my mom. My sisters and I? Well we figured him out when we were pretty young - probably because he passed along what we call his "shithead" gene to us girls and we thought too much like him to fall victim. Heck, one winter, my youngest sister came home from school to find my mom sitting on the floor by the wood burning fireplace crunching pieces of newspaper into a very neat, specific shape. She was making extreme efforts to start at one corner, roll them ever so tightly at a diagonal as she scrunched it all to the center. Oh, she apparently had quite the pile of these pieces of paper. "Why?", you ask, was she doing such a ridiculous thing? Dad. Yep, dad had told her that if she rolled them that way they would burn better, thus starting the fire better. Now, you all must realize that my mother had been married to my father for over 20 years at that point. Needless to say, she was quite gullable. My dad came into the house with an armfull of wood as my sister gave a sideways glace my mother's direction. My dad gave my sister his signature shit eating grin and a wink - which was a sign not to let on to my mom that she (my sister) knew what he was up to. Of course, my sister let my mom finish her project before she informed her that dad had just played a joke on her.

So why am I retelling all of this? Because this morning I was dusting my fireplace mantle and I remembered that story. And on my fireplace mantle I have this wood carving of a man with crazy-ass hair on a motorcyle that my daughter gave me for mother's day the year before dad passed away. On that wood carving is a necklace that my daughter braided. On that necklace is a locket that has some of dad's ashes in it (I know, gross - but it made my mother happy). My dad was a bike rider - so we couldn't help but to put that necklace on the carving. Next to that carving is another wood carving of a giraffe that I bought in the Virgin Islands. You know, because there are ever so many giraffes running wild in the Virgin Islands. So, as I was remembering dad and his antics, I thought I would put that giraffe's butt right up against the motorcyle rider. Try to fix that, dad. LOL Now, if that fucking giraffe is moved tomorrow morning - well I guess then dad is still the king of pranksters.