Sunday, June 16th

[Cornflake]

Good morning and Happy Father's Day to the fathers here. I'm relieved of cooking duty for the day.

We'll attend church at 8:00. I'll pack for an overnight photo outing to the Flagstaff area I plan to make tomorrow. That's about it for plans.

Be of good cheer.

Wordle 1,093 3/6*

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[kenlarsson]

Good morning. Happy Father's Day to all of us of the paternal persuasion. Slept in a bit today. We're going to Kelly's this afternoon for some family time with her, RJ and the grandkids. Should be a nice day. Be well, be happy.

[drlj]

Supposed to hit 95° today and be in the 90s for the next week.
That’s a tad warm.
Stay cool.

[howard lee]

Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads here.

Pictured below in this vintage photo are three reasons I have kept going, putting up with idiot middle managers, and being dad.

And remembering this dad, too.

 

Have a great day, everyone.

[concertinagirl]

Jun 16, 2024 7:29:05 GMT -5 howard lee said:

Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads here.

Pictured below in this vintage photo are three reasons I have kept going, putting up with idiot middle managers, and being dad.

And remembering this dad, too.

 

Have a great day, everyone.

Your family and especially your children are so very blessed to have you.  I wish all kids were so lucky to not just have a father but to have a dad.  Happy Father's Day to you and to all the dads on this forum.  

[millring]

Wordled in 3. Back to work tomorrow. I'm going to go to the office to clean up my case. Having subs carry the route for 3 days has probably left me a mess I don't want to face along with double Amazon on Monday.

Dad. Never knew him well. He died when I was young. He played an Echoharp harmonica and because there were always harmonicas around the house, it was my first instrument.

He and mom used to roll up the livingroom rug and dance -- one of the happiest of few memories I have.

He dressed for work with understated style -- always starched white shirts, silk ties (yes, a few of them bow), tailored suits, topped off with a Stetson. But when he was off work his dress was a hideous mishmash of plaid bermudas, print shirts, and bottomed off with black socks and worn out wingtips. He was never one to care what clothes he worked and played in.

He didn't play much.

He worked the Nickel Plate (his pop was a railroadman) between Buffalo and Indianapolis to put himself through engineering school at Purdue U. That's essentially how our family came to Indiana from Buffalo, NY.

When he wasn't AT work, he always had some project going on at home -- including building that home. He bought a property in 1950 -- an acre -- on the very undeveloped north side of Indianapolis and on the weekends, or whenever he could slip away, he and mom built the house using common sense, and instruction and lumber from the lumber yard just east of Nora Plaza (and used, heavily mullioned windows and hardwood floors salvaged from a demolished downtown house).

He drank working man's beer -- Blatz, PBR, or whatever was the best deal by the case.

His hobby was garage and estate sales. Today we'd call him a "Picker". He ended up with some great stuff that's now part of my life (furniture) after my mom repaired and refinished it all. His greatest find (probably), though:

When he lived in Montclair he used to look through the papers for demolition notices. He'd then go and see if there was anything worth salvaging. He arrived at a house after everything but a single trunk up in an attic had been cleaned out of the place. Presumably the trunk offered little promise of value. Additionally, it was locked, but felt empty. Essentially, it didn't seem worth the effort to haul down from the attic.

Dad offered the guy $5 for it.

Some months later, dad finally got around to picking the lock or prying the lid. When he did, he found that the entire bottom of the trunk was littered with letters sent by SofS William H. Seward, and postmarked from Alaska.

Anyway, that's the dad I knew. What he did. Not who he was. Oh, I'm proud of what he did. But that's also all I'm left with because he didn't live long enough for me to know him. If he had, I'd have told you about that instead.

There's six of us kids. Ask each of us to remember dad and you will get a curious Venn diagram of a description -- with but a small center section of agreement. That's what happens when you die young

[Marty]

Good morning.

63F-88F cloudy.

All my girls have gone North. Uncle Bill's place was untouched by the recent rough weather up there. They are settled in for the week.

I will treat myself to a Father's Day breakfast out, somewhere, and a quick grocery shopping trip to obtain easy meals that require little cleanup. Then maybe down to the shop. I will order in tonight, got a hankering for some Hot & Spicy Beef.

 

[Rob Hanesworth]

[Hobson]

Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers here. We'll get our walk done, have breakfast, and attend church on line. Little planned for celebration today. Probably dinner will be built around steak and wine, but we'll see what Mr. H wants.

The father of our grandkids went back into the hospital yesterday. Yes, SIL could be a case study in what happens if you ignore doctors' instructions after heart bypass surgery. His surgery was 3 weeks ago and he was back on the cheeseburger and Pepsi diet in no time. Didn't observe activity restrictions and didn't take his medications. Drove before he was supposed to and was helping a friend on a construction job. He has fluid around the lungs, fluid around the heart, and sawdust for brains. We're still wondering why he bothered to have the surgery.

[Tamarack]

Pleasant sunny morning to begin an unpleasantly hot week.

Dinner out yesterday evening. We got a gourmet mushroom pizza and ate it on a park bench high on a hill overlooking the Grand River on the north side of the downtown area. Being the wild and crazy rule-breakers that we are, we washed it down with a couple of craft beers, forbidden in city parks.

Off to church to sit in a hot balcony. Possible dinner out with kidz and grandkidz.

[TKennedy]

Happy Father’s Day. Did you know Richard Nixon was responsible for making it a national holiday?

My favorite picture of my dad. Probably 1978 or so, my second year in practice. He was up from Nebraska for a visit and swung by the hospital on his way home to say goodby. I was doing cast work in the ER and ran out for a quick picture my mom took. He was a good guy, hard working small town doctor. Very much greatest generation material. 

[billhammond]

Father's Day always brings a wistful memory of the years when I would play a gig at Vino in the Valley, equidistant between Eau Claire and the Twin Cities, and my sister would bring my dad over for brunch -- good times. He died nine years ago, and I was obliged to write his obit:


For someone who had his head in the clouds as often as he did, Benjamin Hammond was a remarkably down-to-earth guy.

The Eau Claire aviator, business executive and father was a straight-talking, hard-working, fun-loving man who in early adulthood was half of a partnership responsible for a pioneering city airfield. The dusty south-side strip in later years would become the sprawling housing development known as Putnam Heights. At one point, Hammond recalled, he and his partner, Leo Watson, had the option to buy the entire property for $10,000, "but it might as well have been $10 million" to the cash-starved duo.

Hammond, a resident of Clairemont Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, died May 30 at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire. He was 96.

Born in Wausau, Wis., in 1919, Ben and his family moved shortly afterward to Eau Claire, where the family patriarch, Richard Hammond Sr., died unexpectedly. Left to fend for themselves were young Ben, sister Jessie, brother Richard and their mother, Irma, who was obliged to make ends meet on meager schoolteacher earnings amid the Great Depression.

But survive they did, and meanwhile, young Benjamin was strongly lured to the aviation revolution sweeping the nation and world. Scrounging local flight time wherever he could, he developed "stick and rudder" skills that would serve him well for decades (although he did, by his own admission, once crash a sputtering plane into a leafy treetop near what is today Our Savior's Lutheran Church on Eau Claire's Main Street, walking away with only minor injuries). He was, however, by nature a very conservative flier, saying "there are a lot of old pilots and there are a lot of brave pilots, but there are very few old, brave pilots."

Ben met his future bride, Jeanne Marie Joern, at Eau Claire's Union National Bank, where she was apprenticing. Courtship led to marriage on Feb. 5, 1944. The couple lived for a time in Texas, Ben serving as a wartime military flight instructor. At the conclusion of World War II, they returned to Eau Claire, where Jeanne worked at American National Bank and Ben eventually became a corporate co-pilot for National Presto Industries. He later accepted a position with Chippewa Plastics Inc. in Chippewa Falls as their pilot, flying a then-state-of-the-art Beechcraft Twin Bonanza. When returning from a business trip he would often "buzz" the family home on Hogeboom Avenue, waggling his wings and letting his wife and kids know that he would be home soon.

His was a familiar face at Eau Claire Municipal Airport, now Chippewa Valley Regional Airport, in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

When Chippewa Plastics decided to no longer have its own airplane, Ben transitioned to traffic manager, and later personnel manager, at the firm. He closed out his corporate career as personnel manager at National Presto, where he oversaw the hiring of hundreds of employees as part of a major military contract to produce 105mm howitzer shells used in the Vietnam War.

Ben loved a good steak, a thigh-slapping joke, almost any airplane (especially those made by Beechcraft and North American Aviation), a cold beer or dry martini, hot beefs at Tip's Hilltop tavern, music by Gilbert & Sullivan, Victor Borge or even the Beatles. Music was a constant in the Hammond household, whether it be classical, Mantovani, Mills Brothers or show tunes played on the family's Motorola console stereo — or better yet, piano music played live by daughter Roberta (sometimes in duets with her mom) or guitar tunes plunked out by son Bill, who picked up the instrument at the height of Beatlemania. Ben himself played a mean solo chromatic harmonica and could wail away on at least one piano piece, a tricky Chopin waltz that he learned by rote. Singing with gusto was also encouraged, especially at Christmastime, when Ben would hold nothing back while bellowing out the bass part to "Good King Wenceslas."

In the mid-1980s, Ben and Jeanne retired to Port Charlotte, Fla., where as part of a relaxed but fulfilling lifestyle Ben would periodically take to the skies by renting a light airplane with an instructor along for the ride. On his 80th birthday, he flew a twin-engined Piper from nearby Boca Raton and circled the couple's home, prompting Jeanne to scurry outside and wave to him in her brightly colored housecoat. He "greased the landing" that day, his passenger son recalled.

The couple returned to Eau Claire in 2008 amid advancing health care needs. They co-existed harmoniously at Clairemont from 2010 until Jeanne's passing in 2012.

Ben is survived by daughter Roberta Joern of Eau Claire, son William Hammond of Roseville, Minn., grandchildren Krishna Paterson of Bayfield, Wis., Tor Sperstad of Eau Claire, Kendra Lilley of Greensboro, N.C., and Alexandra Upton of Penrose, N.C., and four great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by wife Jeanne, brother Richard Hammond, sister Jessie Bischoff and a grand-daughter, Erica Hammond.

[paleo]

Happy Father's day. Nothing big planned, music, something on the grill for dinner, music.

My daughter is working in Europe, the Netherlands, this week. She is near some of the spots I worked at, missing important events, when she was young.

We'll celebrate in a couple weeks when she's back home.

[howard lee]

Jun 16, 2024 8:03:38 GMT -5 concertinagirl said:

Jun 16, 2024 7:29:05 GMT -5 howard lee said:

Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads here.

Pictured below in this vintage photo are three reasons I have kept going, putting up with idiot middle managers, and being dad.

 

And remembering this dad, too.

 

Have a great day, everyone.

Your family and especially your children are so very blessed to have you.  I wish all kids were so lucky to not just have a father but to have a dad.  Happy Father's Day to you and to all the dads on this forum.  

Thank you very much, Jan. I can only hope that my kids feel the same. I think they do, sass and backtalk notwithstanding. 😌

[billhammond]

As is my habit, I switched my TV to a music channel before retiring last night, then hit the hay with a nice instrumental piece playing softly in the background. Round about 3 ayem, when the bathroom beckons, I was awakened by children's voices belting out "Old McDonald," WTF? Turns out I had not selected Light Classics as I thought, but the Toddler Tunes channel!

[millring]

[Dub]

My dad.

“Sins are like rabbits--turn a couple of them loose and the first thing you know you have a whole bunch of new ones.”

[epaul]

Morning!

It's Father's Day, so I made everyone a nice big breakfast. As soon as I finish cleaning up, I'll pull out my trusty vacuum cleaner and get at it. Maybe after housework, I'll be able to sit down for few minutes and watch some golf. I'll have to check with the wife first, though, as I think there might be a "Sewing with Nancy" marathon on today. If there is, well, I can always do the laundry. You can always do some laundry.

[Cosmic Wonder]

Happy Father’s Day, we are in a holding pattern here, kids can’t come over because we are still isolating, so a family get together is postponed. Over cast, with a chance of showers with maybe some thunder. Highs upper 60s. Wordle in four.

Mike

[billhammond]

Just ran some errands and boy, is it humid out there -- dew point of 71 degrees and air temp of 83 at present.

Elderdottir called and Yungerdottir sent a nice and newsy e-mail, so I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

Watching the Open, rooting for Rory, who hasn't won a major in 10 years but still smacks the crap out of the ball and putts well, too. Can't get on the DeChambeau bandwagon -- he just seems to be too much of a showboat.

Picked up a Strawberry Fields salad at Culver's, along with some veggie beef soup and chili for later in the week, and for once they didn't screw up my order! Plus extra crackers! Feeling very wealthy.