June 15th

It was my Dad's birthday today.

He never made much of his birthday. We always shipped our cows to the upper pasture on this day.

I think he did it to divert attention from it.

I thought about him a lot today.

He liked talking to people while sitting for hours in his truck. Just parked and talking.

He liked rocks and would bring me home cool specimens to examine.

He liked animals, taking care of them, raising great cows, spoiling them by feeding them special hay on the holidays.

He liked root beer floats. He even had special root beer float glasses that he would fix them in. You could come in on a hot summer night to find Dad, covered in dust from haying, sitting at the kitchen table with a frothy ice cream and soda treat in a fancy glass - scooping at it with his special long handled root beer float spoon.

He liked to complain about the rich California fisherman that would pay big bucks to float by the ranch in their guided fly fishing excursions.

He liked to quietly cause trouble. Then laugh about it.

He liked giving the dogs rides on the motorcycle in the evenings.

He liked his life. And I miss him in his death.

Happy Birthday Dad.

I hope you have all the best root beer floats and assorted paraphenalia. I hope you and the dogs ride the motorcycle every night. I hope there are no touristy fishermen where you are.

And I hope you are still causing a bit of trouble now and then.