If you’re going to let a little rain spoil your fun, you best not live in Seattle. So, yesterday, Baby Z and I put on our best dinosaur costumes and headed down into Fremont for the Solstice Parade and Fair. We had the fine time you would imagine two dinosaurs with a modded megaphone might have at a parade and fair, carousing up and down the line, amusing ourselves in the spaces between the floats, sweet talking the stilters and generally wagging and dragging our tails through the puddles.
One of the sweetest moments for me, though, was when a woman came out the crowd to wish me an early happy Father’s Day. She gave me a short, from the heart speech about how happy Baby Z looked, and how happy we looked together, and what an important job it was being a father, and I’d be lying if I told you it didn’t bring a tear to my eye. I’m usually not one much for the Hallmark holidays, but I guess she took me off guard, and it got through my cynical armor. I looked over at Baby Z and could practically taste the swell of love and pride.
My plan today is to spend a little quiet time alone with the paper and a cup of coffee, and then hitch up the bike trailer, strap in Baby Z and head to a park: Meridian or Wallingford, depending on my mood. Whether you celebrate Father’s Day by taking the day off from the kids or by taking off with the kids for the day, or just ringing up your own father, do please remember how important a father is to a child. Treasure it.
So to all you fathers out there, Matt, Harley, David, Tobin, Chris, Dan, Justin, Kevin, Julian, Terry, Scott, Steve, Alan, Eric, Brian, Rich, Mark, Joe and the rest of you, and especially to my own Dad, happy Father’s Day!
And your lovely note brought a tear to MY eyes! These moments are so precious, I am so glad you have an inking that this is true. All of them are, always, but the times when you can hold your child, have them fall asleep in your arms, do go away quickly.