RIP Daddy

My dad passed away today.  He had alzheimer's and it progressed pretty rapidly.  I am glad he is finally at peace, but I know I will miss him terribly.  These are some of the things I remember about my dad from before the disease:

1.  He was a jokester.  He would leave rubber bugs and rodents all around the house.  One time he got the powder from a joke shop that makes a liquid turn to solid so you can pretend to spill it on someone and it won't come out.  He did it on a friend with some water in the cup and it worked and got a big laugh.  Then he tried it on a realtor at a timeshare presentation, only this time he put the powder in orange soda and the soda did not solidify like it was supposed to and it spilt all over the realtor and his fancy suit. 

2.  My dad lived for vacations.  He missed his calling to be a travel planner.  He always watched the travel channel and the only book I ever saw him read was the Bernbaum's Guide to Disney World (his favorite place).  He always knew the best things to see, do, and especially, eat.  A lot of our vacations revolved around where we would be eating.

3.  He was always the last one up on Christmas morning.  My brother would be up at dawn begging to open presents and we would have to wait until my dad had his cup of coffee and got the video camera ready.  He wore the same sweat suit every christmas too.  This 80's style blue suit with red stripes.

4.  He was great with numbers.  He could do mental math like it was nobody's business. 

5.  My dad was the world's best bargainer.  I was always amazed at how he could talk prices down or get stuff thrown in for free.  I think my garage sale skills come from watching him barter all those years.

6.  He never missed a single one of my dance recitals.  I can't promise you he stayed awake through the whole show, but he was definitely there for me.

7.  He liked getting stuff that "fell off the truck".  Sometimes he would wake us up after we had gone to bed and say come down stairs and see what fell off the truck.  One night it was a power wheels jeep.  I couldn't wait to ride it.

8.  He never got lost.  We would be all the way across the country and he would know exactly where to go. 

9.  He would take me with him on Sunday mornings to buy fresh bagels and it was always my "job" to hold them on my lap for the drive home.

10.  He loved walking around Costco and eating all the samples.  We would go there at lunch time and pretend to shop just to eat the samples.