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| Dad: In fine form . . . |
Still thinking of Dad at this important new time of his life.
A story by baby brother Blair:
There are many
things that I learned from dad growing up. I am very grateful for them, though
I was not happy to learn many of them at the time . . .
Growing up on
the ranch was an educational and fascinating experience.
As a young
child, I was very enthusiastic about getting up and going outside to explore.
But an
interesting thing happened when I was suddenly given the responsibility of
feeding and caring for the animals. When morning came, I was exhausted and
somehow robbed of 1 or 2 hours of sleep throughout the night.
I began to
dread mornings.
Dad would call
down to my room and tell me to get up. If he didn’t hear any reply from me, I’d
hear, “Are you getting up?”
I would reply in
the affirmative, then promptly fall back to sleep.
About 15 minutes
later, dad would come downstairs. I’m sure he knew that I was still trying to squeeze
in my last few minutes of slumber.
Somehow I could
hear dad coming down the stairs to my room and I would fly out of bed.
Big Brother, George
on the other hand dealt with mornings with outstanding ‘get-out-of-bed’ powers.
His clock radio would go off and he would reach over, shut it off and sit up on
the side of his bed staring at the wall for about 5 minutes. Then he’d get up
for the day.
I couldn’t
understand how he was able to do this.
Either he was
superhuman or he was . . . superhuman.
I thought about
this for a long time and finally decided that it had to be his clock radio. It
must have some special ability to wake him up and get his day started.
It had to be
the reason that he could get up so easily.
I approached
dad and tried to share my newly acquired knowledge.
The
conversation went something like this:
“Dad I am
having trouble getting out of bed in the morning.” I thought that it was good to
start by acknowledging the problem and thus side with dad. That way he would
move to my side and see my way of thinking. “If I had a clock radio, I could
set it to turn on a few minutes before it was time to get up. Then it would
slowly wake me and I would be able to get up in the morning.”
Then dad made
one of those profound statements that, if I had known, I would have plugged my
ears and said “Bla bla bla, I can’t hear you!” However, it was
said and, before I realized that it,
the statement was resonating with great force inside of me.
“If you can’t
do it now you won’t be able to do it later.”
Those words echoed
in my ears over and over. At the time, I tried to rationalize that dad was
wrong and he didn’t understand me.
But the little
voice inside was saying that dad was right.
I decided that
I was going to prove him - and that little voice - wrong. I would save my money
and buy a clock radio and get out of bed at the right time in the morning.
And dad would
know that my thinking was not flawed.
I looked and
looked for the clock radio that would do the job, finally finding a Lloyd’s
clock radio in the Eaton’s (Google it) catalog. It was really cool looking and
would undoubtedly wake me easily. I would welcome the day refreshed and
effortlessly slide out of bed.
I ordered the
radio and excitedly waited for its arrival.
When it finally
came I took it out and marveled at its beauty.
I plugged it in
and listened to the radio and thought, ‘This is great! Now I will be able to
wake up to the latest top 40 songs!’
That evening I
placed the radio on my night stand and set it to turn on 15 minutes before I
had to get up.
When morning
came, the radio obediently turned on as programmed. I lay in bed wishing that it
would shut off, but it played on. Somehow the top 40 hits did not sound as good
in the morning.
I reached over
and hit the snooze button.
A short time
later dad was calling down to my room.
I told him I was
getting up and promptly fell asleep.
Then I heard
dad coming downstairs and jumped out of bed.
After following
the same routine for a few days, I realized, sadly, that dad was right.
If I can’t
do it now, I won’t be able to do it later.
Don't you hate that?
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| Mr. Morning vs Mr. Sleep-Till-Noon |
