Happy Birthday Pops!

instead of a cake we made 8 quarts of lacto-fermenting apple cider and then belted out our version of happy birthday. the farmer doggie joined in by whining and jumping on us. he looked pained.
so my Pops passed away unexpectedly four years ago. i was with him.

RRRRRRandom Dad Things

first off- he was great with languages -he spoke 7. word from our argentine familia was that he could speak better than natives.

I wish he'd gotten to meet the O'lover. He would be ecstatic to see how rrrrrrrare a trrrreasure the lover is and that Ollie and i are the perrrrfect match. Ok i'm rolling all the rrrrr's just to annoy the hell out of Ollie because he can't roll his rrrrrrrs and i'm a jerrrrk.
I think about how my sons are genetically destined to be bald. I liked my dad's head.

The O'lover is massaging my back right now trying to help my melancholia let up already. It's working...but keep massaging...
My Dad always used to say to me, "Raquel, you have the hands of a milkmaid, can you loosen up my shoulders?" as a dorky kid i was ridiculously proud of my strong peasant hands. ok still am.

mom and dad at their engagement party in Argentina.
We were raised on cross-country road trips. Once we took 18 months to drive around central and south america in a baby blue VW bus. Dad excelled at being instant best friends with people of any age or background. He was very approachable.
Me and Pops in Panama.

He was frequently picking up hitchhikers. The last time i was with him we picked up a family that had walked all the way from guatamala to tucson. we took them to the quaker church where they'd receive good care.

Dad could speed-read novels and drive cautiously at the same time and i swear you would never be scared to be in the car with him while he was doing this. he was a pro.

I'd call him and put him on speaker phone so my friends could hear him S I N G. He'd take requests. He knew some mean latin opera.

He'd always sign letters he wrote to me, "God speed beautiful lady." that made me feel good.

he was a hard core fan of his kids.

I love you my Numero Uno Dad in the whole world.