Father on down the road

To the best of my recollection, Swan’s birthday party was a success. Things got a little fuzzy at some point. I did wake up at home but have no recollection of getting there. That’s what happens to me when the party starts early in the afternoon. According to my Fitbit stats, I was asleep at 7:25. I’m such a lightweight these days! I did have the foresight to snap a few photos before the blackout, though.

The cake I bought just before the party started. “Miel” is a nickname Swan goes by.
The food buffet
The party took place on both the second floor and the poolside at the Alta Vista Clubhouse.
Some of the downstairs partygoers
Grabbing some eats on the second floor
The old white guys table
The birthday girl
Swan’s sister Chloe is also celebrating a birthday this week.
The last picture from yesterday on my phone

Fortunately, I didn’t misbehave, according to Swan. Unless falling asleep at my table counts. Oh, well. Life goes on and today Swan and I are celebrating a “we” day. It’s her actual birthday (we had the party early because the Clubhouse wasn’t available today) and Father’s day for me. Which is kind of funny because both of my kids are older than Swan.

My father’s father, a riverboat captain from Memphis, Tennessee. He died long before I was born.
My father as I remember him…beer in hand. He’d come home from work, open a beer, put some country music on the record player, and sometimes read poetry to us kids as we sat at his feet.
My father’s son (one of three) circa 1978 in Prescott, Arizona.
Fathers and sons. This was from 1998 at my daughter’s wedding in the Bahamas.

Today’s YouTube video is from the Filipina Pea as she discusses “age gap” issues. Sweet Filipinas have always assured me that “age is just a number,” and in my time here, the winter-spring couples seem like the norm. Swan is almost twenty-nine years younger than me, but we haven’t had any problems with that. I think for me, the biggest concern is knowing that I won’t be around when she is older, but I don’t dwell on that much. Life goes on until it doesn’t.

Time for some lame humor:

There was a time in my life when I was that guy. Those days are behind me now.
That might be pushing my sick boundaries over the edge.
Alright, that’s more like it.

We did our candy walk this morning and we’ll find some adventure or other to share later this afternoon. I’ll let you know how that goes tomorrow.

5 thoughts on “Father on down the road

  1. re: Miel

    In French, “miel” means honey.

    That was a lot of cakes. I hope everyone got a slice.

    re: age gap

    I thought the idea was to be gone before she gets old.

    Have fun with Swan today.

  2. I’m surprised you like cake so much, John, being a drunk and all. I’m usually in full alcorexic mode but with the ex food has popped up a lot here, too. Yesterday the ex wanted to order takeout for lunch and asked me what I want. All she seems to eat is Chinese and Japanese food; I enjoy both considering they’re usually touched by Asian hands, but the over-saturation has me burned out on both. I jokingly told her as much and suggested we go for Indian, which I’ve wanted for soooo long, and which she should enjoy, given she’s nominally a vegan and Indian cuisine has a lot of vegan and vegetarian-friendly dishes.

    We were sitting at the porch table drinking and smoking and she asked me to find an Indian restaurant so we could both get something from there. Sounds like something finally going my way, right? Wrong. She either just dismissed my choice of restaurant with barely a glance (“it’s probably run by Mexicans”) or torpedoed any dish I suggested for her at a restaurant she would eat at. She was lost in monologuing already and when I tried to draw her attention to something she barely acknowledged it to just ramble on with a story I’ve heard dozens of times before about how awesome and special she is. The end cap to that is she bleated “Come on, honey, it’s been an hour and you still haven’t chosen!” Excuse me what the fuck? In the end she said I should get Indian for myself and she’ll get something else. I was still mostly lacking appetite and did’t fancy her paying $35 for a meal just for me. So we got nothing, because she thought I was throwing a protest and she didn’t want to eat without me.

    The day’s dose of crazy came not long after. She’d been trying to contact her dad to arrange to transfer him some money (and coincidentally never mentions the hundreds she owes me) and it turned out she was not getting texts because she hadn’t paid her phone bill. I told her it’s an easy fix and we could just pay it through her Verizon app. It wouldn’t load for some reason and that’s when it began. “You know what this means, don’t you?” the ex whispered, after I told her the app isn’t loading. “Alert level black. The country hasn’t been on this level of security since World War II.” The laugh died on my lips as I put down my drink. “What?” “Look, sweetie, there aren’t any planes in the sky, not even civilian aircraft. Something big’s going down!” And you know this because your Verizon app isn’t loading? I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. I didn’t know what to think. It wasn’t even lunch time and she was already off her rocker. I just mentally braced for impact and hopde her meltdown wouldn’t be as bad as I fear.

    But of course it was. Later she accused me of urinating in her drink again (and I only did it the first time because she hadn’t washed my Uriah Heep t-shirt I needed for a very important job interview that could have changed my life), when I had clearly been pissing in the dead pot plant she stole from a retirement home last Xmas. I told her this and pointed to the liquid seeping out the pot onto the carpet, but she would have none of it. Despite my alcorexic state I am still stronger than her and had to pin her down on the floor until she calmed down. When she saw she had a maggot in her hair she shrieked and ran out, leaving me to finally drink in peace and quiet to regain myself until my nerves had calmed down enough to play some Uriah Heep. She came back hours later with a bruised eye (I can’t wait to get the blame for that tomorrow) and a bag of beer and boxed wine, then promptly passed out on the couch. So far today she is a bit subdued but there’s still some wine left so let’s live the life God intended for us to live!

  3. Another day, another adventure. Next time your gal feels worthless, reassure her by saying, “No woman is totally worthless…she can always serve as a bad example.” Besides, as long as she comes home with beer and wine, it is all worth it, right?

    “Hope rises and dreams flicker and die. Love plans for tomorrow and loneliness thinks of yesterday. Life is beautiful and living is pain.”
    Hunter S. Thompson

  4. Kev, yes, Swan said Miel means honey. Lots of Tagalog words are rooted in Spanish.

    Well, when I woke up yesterday, there was one uncut cake in the fridge, so there must have been enough for everyone.

    My goal is to survive another 15 years or so, provided I’m still able to do enough to enjoy life. We’ll see how that works out for me. Swan wants to be by my side to take care of me in my dotage, so I’ll gift her that at least.

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