Thursday, November 22, 2007

Meet my Dad

This is my Dad. He's going to turn 78 years old in few weeks. I remember when I was small I used to be really embarrassed because he was (is) super tall...6ft5". At 5ft10" I turned out small for the family genes...His hobbies: rather I should say "hobby", his Harley Davidson. He totes around the country on that thing, going on cross country trips (like 3000 miles) at least twice a year. He's also secretary of his local Harley club. He works out at Gold's Gym three times a week and he tries to watch his diet and eat correctly. He has been sober for twenty years now and I couldn't be more proud of him for that. He volunteers at a couple of shelters and does sponsoring for other AA members. With that fact that he is in such fantastic shape and looking so young at almost 80 makes ME feel young too. I'm pretty sure I lucked out on the gene pool because I don't seem to have any of the problems my Mom had (epilepsy, thrombophlebitis, et al...). My brother and sister and I sometimes joke about his motorcycle fixation, because he truly talks about it 24/7. But then I listen to other elders talk about all their medical problems and complaints and I think that we're all very lucky to not have to worry about all of that just yet. Or ever. My Dad's solution for old age is just simply not to look in the mirror. That way he doesn't have to look at the wrinkles or not recognise that person, but rather just feel how he feels which is actually quite young.

I don't celebrate Thanksgiving over here in Italy, so I don't have to worry about eating too much! But I'll go out on a run now and think about y'all eating turkey and pumpkin pie! Happy Thanksgiving :-))

2 comments:

anji said...

I suppose it's better to have a father who talks non-stop about harley's than one who talks non-stop about their gout or lung disease or their four-clogged arteries!

momo said...

oh, julia - i hope to be that active when i'm your dad's age.

and 5'10" feels like crazy tall to me - i'm only 5'4"!!