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Time for a blog

Today was a day for some errands: buy a new printer cartridge, more Brita filters, Wolf Hall* ... Weather was perfect, so I walked downtown and then over to Dupont Circle and took care of my tasks, appreciating as always how easy it is to walk around this city and how interesting it continues to be.

Starting this blog was one of the little brainstorms I had during my stroll -- hopefully I'll start writing a bit and get into the habit, and then I can use it while in Bolivia. Fingers crossed!

* I am a fan of the DC library, don't get me wrong, but both book groups will read Wolf Hall this year; one book group will meet to discuss it on July 15, so I figured I'd buy it and read it now, and I then I can lend it to a member of the other group whenever they read it.

Today was Father's Day, so I thought more often than usual about Daddy. It's been 11 years but I think of him quite regularly, usually wondering what advice he would give about this or that issue. I think he would've enjoyed my condo and would've come to visit much more often. He would've stayed in the back room and made himself some coffee in the morning, read the paper, taken himself out for long walks each day.

I thought again about how TZ, trying to be kind, said, after Daddy died, that he knew I must be sad that I wasn't closer to my father since I didn't play sports. I know TZ thought he was being "thoughtful" or something -- it was a stretch for him, and you could sort of see the wheels churning in his brain to say something "compassionate" -- but damn, was he off target. I said -- and probably spat -- "My father couldn't have cared less if I played sports or not. We were very close; my playing or not playing sports had nothing to do with it."

It must have been the last year or so that Daddy was alive -- which none of us expected would be his last -- when I was home and we were watching one of his favorite TV shows, "Who wants to be a millionaire?" At some point Daddy turned to me and said with complete seriousness, "If I was on this show, you would be one of my lifelines." It was one of the nicest things he said to me.

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