20181110.0430

Today is my father's birthday, one of the many November birthdays in my family and my circle of friends. I've noted the event before (here, here, here, here, here, and here), and, without reviewing all of the more than 2000 posts I've made to this webspace in detail, I do think it is one of the more repeated topics herein. But that is not a bad thing, to be sure; my father worked hard to make sure that his kids had a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs, food in their bellies, and support for themselves and their endeavors--even though at least one of them has been a vexation to him for three dozen years, now. It's the kind of thing that deserves commemoration and acknowledgment, the more so because it does not happen as often as it ought--even though it has for him and his.
As I write this, he is recovering from another knee surgery. The recovery is going well; he has a great deal of range of motion in the joint, and while there is still pain, it is manageable--and not just because he refuses to acknowledge it publicly (though he does tend not to let people know who do not already know). Already, he is waking with only the aid of a cane, and doing pretty well at that; it shouldn't be too long before he is able to go without the cane most of the time. He is getting older, though, so it's not too likely he'll be putting the cane too far away once his knee has more or less fully recovered. I know better than to think he'll throw it away as long as there is any semblance of use left in it; it's not quite in him to do so, as I know from a lifetime of experience with the man.
It may read a bit strangely from me, the phrase "a lifetime of experience with the man." Certainly, there are some people who have known my father longer than I have. His mother, for example, and mine. His sister and her husband. Friends of his from his youth--now just a bit farther away--who remain in touch with him through social media. (There are few such, which is less strange than it might be, given the regions involved.) But in nearly all of those cases, those who have known him longer than I have also not known him; only his sister is an exception to that. But she does not know him as I do; I have no doubt that he is a good brother--and probably a better elder brother than I have been--but I have every expectation that he is better as a father despite being in less practice with it (and brothering not being nearly so demanding as being a dad).
All such is to say that I remain grateful for having had my father in my life, and I am grateful that I continue to have him for a while longer.