Remembrance Day

My Dad very rarely talked about the war. From what I understand he traveled right from the boot of Italy all the way through Europe and ended up in Holland when the war ended.  He was the radio operator in an armored car. One of my cousins is a WWII history buff and spent a fair bit of time talking to my Dad about his experiences in the war. I learned from my cousin a couple of years ago that my dad had two of his commanders die in his arms, you see the commander is usually standing up with the upper part of his body or at least his head out of the turret, and so, he is vulnerable. The radio operator sits a little to the side of the opening for the turret. They were shot by snipers and fell down into Dad's lap. Dad would have been 19 or 20 when he joined up in 1940, and he spent the next 5 years of his life fighting in the war. In the picture below Dad is on the left.

Mom and Dad had an opportunity to go to Holland for the big celebration of the liberation of Holland a number of years ago, this next picture is of the two of them standing in front of one of the houses in which they stayed.

I love my Dad a lot and every now and then I am overcome with waves of sadness, wishing to see him... hear him. "Hey Johnnie-boy" he'd call me, with that tone of fatherly love and affection in his voice.
We have a video of Dad, playing with D3, she was under a year old at the time, he was lying on the floor with her sitting up in front of him, and he was singing to her about how he loved her...
Each of my daughters has a picture that Grandpa painted for them...
Dad, you'd be so proud of your granddaughters, they have grown up to be marvelous wonderful women...

I miss you Dad...

Trip Report – for those of you who want more detail.

We had an amazing time. D3 helped me pick the resort, we checked out a number of sites that had travel reviews and this resort got good reviews and seemed to be a winner.


The resort was the adults only side of a much larger resort. The nice thing about the adults only side was that it was quite quiet and the beach area was identified as for our side of the resort. The adult side of the resort also has a 5 star rating. Adult side identified as the Royal, other side just the Bavarro. One of the perks of the Royal is not having to make reservations for the a la carte restaurants, and you could go multiple times, the Bavarro had Japanese, Mexican, American, and Italian, on the Royal side Thalassa a Mediterranean restaurant and Cata Tapa, which we didn’t try. We could have gone to a different a la carte every night or the same one every night. Usually, at most resorts you have two chances for an a la carte and finito. We usually headed to the buffet on the Bavarro side because we really enjoyed the variety available and the food was very good.
We had also purchased snorkels and fins, and so were anxious to test them out, snorkeling was fun but the beach was shallow for quite a distance out, we found that the fins weren't that much of a help because you could always stand up. Deeper waters would have been a better test of the fins. D3 and S2, lent us their underwater camera, and we had a blast trying to get some pictures of the fish. I’d try to feed them bread and LifeWife would snap madly away at them, we got a few good shots, nothing for National Geographic, but we were happy with them. Concrete tubes of what looked to me like drainage piping had been laid down about 25 yards out from shore, they had been placed there as a sort of a artificial reef, holes had been drilled in the concrete tubes and they weren’t placed right end to end, each section was about 3 feet long and the gaps between sections and the holes made it very fish friendly.
Towards the end of our week there, the waves got quite large as we were getting the tail end wave action from hurricane Igor. We didn't experience anything other than increased winds, (noticeable but not threatening in any way) and the waves generated by the hurricane hundreds of miles away.

We wouldn't have any qualms about going there again.

Click on the following pictures for larger size...

This is the whole resort, nice that it isn't crammed in with resorts packed in on either side, good for long walks on the beach.

At the extreme left is the entrance to the resort, you drive in and there is this long driveway lined with majestic royal palms, on either side is a golf course. Beautiful entrance.

 The black line is the dividing line between the two sides to the resort, the adult side is to the right..

 X marks the spot. That is the building we were in. 2 minute walk to the beach.

Two things about this picture, from building in the bottom left draw a straight line following the edge of the building to the beach everything on the right is for the adult side, to the left is the main resort, (we had better loungers!). The other thing, in the water outlined by the square the diagonal line that you see are the concrete tubes I described above.

If you know us, LifeWife has lots of pics on FB.

We're back!

Well, we're back from our República Dominicana vacaciones. S2 picked us up last night, D3 was at a friend's party last night, she is the matron/maid (do you just have to be married to become a matron of honour or do you have to have children to be the matron of honour, one of the burning questions the answer to which I really don't care, it was just a passing thought) of honour so it really wouldn't have flown if she wasn't there. I gotta say that LifeWife and I are really so thankful for S2. We are appreciating him more and more all the time. It is really quite a blast to watch as people you know and love grow and expand and develop.

We had an absolutely wonderful time, hot, humid wonderful weather. Rain didn't matter, rained twice, hardly noticed it. Fantastic resort, absolutely beautiful room, immaculate grounds, lovely beach, lovely lady by my side.

A List

• D1
• GS1
• D2
• D3 Trip
• Trip

OK. OK. I know it is a little lame but I had to put that list there because I didn't want to forget about any of those items.

D1
Ah my sweet daughter, as always and as I have learned. She continues to be an inspiration to me. How can a father talk about his daughter who is literally in a battle for her life, without having some of his emotions overcome him. The strength, courage and tenacity shown by her consistently fills me with awe and admiration.

Damocles - ever heard of him?
Cicero tells the story of the Sword of Damocles in his Tusculan Disputations. The story is based on a legend about the Syracusan tyrant Dionysius II and the fawning Damocles, who called Dionysius the most fortunate person ever. Dionysius offered him the opportunity to try out his lucky life, and Damocles readily agreed. Amid all the gold and luxuries that Damocles could enjoy, there was a sharp sword hanging from a slender thread (and in imminent danger of dropping) above Damocles' head. Damocles quickly wished to go back to his less fortunate life.

From this story are two morals: First, "Uneasy rests the head that wears the crown." Second, and perhaps more significantly, "The value of the sword is not that it fall, but rather, that it hangs."

I have difficulty imagining what D1's day-to-day life is like with that sword above her head. Yet from all I've seen and heard, she maintains a positive outlook and attitude. D1 is the kind of friend to her friends, that we all would cherish.

I praise my daughter, I ask God to bless her and give her peace, I ask God to fill her heart and mind with confidence and joy, I ask God to give her the real desires of her heart.

GS1
As I wrote in my last entry, GS1 and I are now great buddies, and he continues to fill me with joy and delight, just watching him and seeing him with his Mom, is a balm to my soul.

D2
What a wonderful Mom she is, it is hard to describe what happens when I watch D2 and GS1. It's like I'm in a dark room and gently and softly a warm light begins to shine filling the room and me with illumination... (I've told you before of my regard and affection for S1) He is an integral part of the team, and his contribution illuminates GS1. Quick short story - S1 brought home a bike that his Dad gave him, I was there and he took it out for a ride, I was carrying GS1, well the first approach from a distance was watched gleefully by GS1, however when S1 began to ride away to do another pass, GS1 burst into tears and stretched his arm out to his dad, and wasn't consoled until dad came back and held him.

D3 Trip
I have maintained for a long time that I have no interest whatsoever in going on a cruise. LifeWife has mentioned a number of times how she thinks she would really enjoy it, has friends who have gone and loved it, I remained unmoved. THEN, D3 and S2 came up with this this trip (on a cruise ship) first you fly to Spain, then you board ship go to Greece Turkey Egypt, taking two weeks to do it. OK I'm sold now that would be a trip. So the upshot is this. November 2011 - LifeWife and I and D3 and S2 are going! We have already put a deposit down.

Trip
2 days from now on Saturday the 11th LifeWife and I fly to the Republica Dominicana. We bought snorkel gear, and we are going to learn to use it. We are ready for this vacation. Really ready...

Illumination

I may have mentioned that I am father to three amazing women. I am also a grandfather.

I have to tell you  though that GS1 and I did not always get along. Hey, I was perfectly willing to  be nice and to hug and cuddle and kiss him, but strangely enough it seemed that  whenever he saw me he would burst into tears! Strange, I know! Hard to believe ain't it?

So I decided that I had two options open to me, one would be to try to convince him that  I was a nice guy and he didn't need to scream hysterically whenever he saw me. But that would involve too much face time, me terrifying the little guy over and over again, and somehow the dubious benefits seemed outweighed by the damage to my ear drums. Plus potentially emotionally scarring him for life!

The other approach was basically to let him see me but to make no approaches to him at all, let him observe the interactions I would have with the people that he had a positive interaction with. Then, hopefully, over time, he would come to see that I'm not such a bad guy after all. Our family trip to the Dominican back in April really helped with this, probably because he saw me every day. Since then he slowly warmed up to me.

I am incredibly delighted to be able to say that when he sees me now a big smile lights up his face, matched only by the resultant joy and delight I feel on seeing him react to me that way.

Hey Grandpa, isn't this just SO MUCH FUN!

Positive Reinforcement

It has been quite hot, well hot for Southern Ontario anyway, for the past few days. GuruBri is off to India, having a backpack adventure with his son and significant other. How hot is it there? Probably hotter than here.

We all have situations and circumstances that try us and cause us grief and sadness. My younger sister, LadyJudy, has been teaching me some things lately, and she doesn't even know it. (Well she will if she reads this.) She has her own blog, and I've been reading it, she seems to post once a week or so, and lately she has been posting some really good stuff! Things we probably know already but it sure helps when a clear erudite reminder is presented. Check it out here.

Now I gotta tell ya, a little sister is always a little sister, no matter how old she is. You know, someone that you look out for and try and protect right? PLUS the added bonus of an assumed right to tease unmercifully! Well I really don't do THAT, well not lately anyways... Love ya, LadyJudy.

Learning

You know somethin'?

It is so cool when instead of being the teacher, you become the taught.

It's been happening for quite a while now, probably the last ten years or so. As a parent you teach your children, right? So that is what LifeWife and I did. We taught our children. Then over a period of time we found that instead of being the teachers, we were becoming the taught!

What have they taught me you ask? Well, let's see. They taught me that wearing black socks with running shoes was definitely uncool! They taught me that my role as a parent never ends, my job as "Dad" never ends, they still need me. Sometimes it will be a totally different aspect of Dadishness that they will need, sometimes it will be typical Dadishness that they need. Sometimes it will be Dad in a way I'd never quite thought of before. They taught me that it is possible to move from Father to Friend, yet still be Father. (Now that is totally amazing! I revel in that.)

On Father's day we all got together, and celebrated, BBQ in the backyard, hanging out together, relaxing, enjoying each other. BUT Fathers day for me was really yesterday, a week after the official "event". Why you ask? Well I'll tell you why. Yesterday my three daughters took me out to see "Harry Potter The Exhibit", at the Science Center.

Which brings me back to being taught, I love to read, I believe I have taught my daughters, the joy of reading, but here is where the teaching comes in, (I used to suggest books for them to read) now I'm having books suggested to me, by them! Way cool! In fact, there was a day that the older two and I went around to about three or four used bookstores and I was making suggestions to them about books they should have in their libraries. That was a fun day, exploring, looking for books. Now since then D3 has discovered the JOY and she and I have a plan to do the same thing at some unspecified point in the future. (Actually if they are available, D1 and D2 would be quite out out if they weren't invited along.) I would probably never have read the Harry Potter books if they hadn't suggested them to me. Totally enjoyable reads, each book. It's probably a time for a re-read.

It started with all three of them putting on the Sorting Hat, which was kinda cool. We had a great time wandering around the exhibit, looking at the costumes and props. They had some monitors with some clips from the movies, which brought back a lot of memories and we wistfully commented what an awesome thing it would be to watch all the movies in one day, what a marathon that would be. Marketing being what it is of course on the way out of the exhibit there was a "Harry Potter Store" with all kinds of "gear", they had the books and the movies and chess sets and pencils and coffee mugs, some of which revealed hidden images when hot liquids were poured into them, tshirts hoodies, fridge magnets, wands, HP glasses, some of the Weasley twins weird candy, they had just about anything you could think of. So as "Dad", I bought them each a bookmark, and a fridge magnet.

Then we went out for dinner at Spring Rolls, one of our favourite restaurants. We all were taking it easy and no one was in a rush and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Me an ma gals!

Now THAT was a Father's Day!