More Rain and More Hail

This has been one of those days when you have time to  think and remember the important happenings in your life.

June 14 was my Father's birthday.  He died in 1979 but his memory is and always will be in our hearts.  He was a good Father.  I know Becky and Joann will back me on this - he was a good Grandfather.  He worked in the Steel Mill in West Virginia as a Foreman. 

He loved sports especially baseball.  He was a Yankee fan but I know if he were alive today I could convert him to be a Rays fan. 

He was so happy when we moved to Florida.  He attended all the spring training games at Al Lang Field.  He made friends at the Ball Park and had them out to dinner often. 

Joann remembers the big time we would have in our back yard for my Dad's birthday.  All the neighbors and friends would stop in for cake and ice cream.

Joann just reminded me of the time up north we were having cake out on our patio for my Dad's birthday and a wind came up and caught under the umbrella and the cake became an upside down cake.   Good thing we had a pan of brownies in case we ran out of cake.

And, Becky just moved her business in Seattle and she was absolutely shocked to see a bit of her Grandfather in her new building, which is really an old building.  The steel cladding encasing fire doors off the stairwells in the 80 year old industrial warehouse conversion are embossed with the words "Weirton Steel," which is where my Dad worked for over 30 years.  Every day as she walks in and out through those doors, she runs her hands over the embossing and says a prayer for her Grandfather.  He taught her to play baseball, soccer and how to throw a triple punch combination, which she used with alarming success on Paul Steadman and Al Lino, among other neighborhood boys.  I don't think she's used it recently, but then again with Becky, I can never be certain.

Love and prayers from here to there.