Good ol' Coach

With Father's Day coming up tomorrow I thought that I would say a few things about my old man. For those that know him know that he has what I like to call a "different personality." Don't get me wrong, he definitely has some nice qualities about himself but sometimes I do think that he undeniably crazy!!! I shouldn't complain that he is crazy because it has caused several entertaining experiences over the years. Here is a few of them:

One day my mother went shopping and took Shane & I with her so my father was alone with the dog at home. When we arrived back home we were walking up the sidewalk with groceries in our hands and all of a sudden my father opens the door with a look of sheer panic on his face. We all noticed and stopped wondering what the problem was. Coach looked at my mom and said, "don't worry Nancy, I got the fire under control." Of course my mother is moving in a quick like fashion to the inside of the house to find that the microwave was burnt to a crisp on the inside. Luckily my father had put out the flames before we had gotten there. My mother says, "Ken, what were you cooking in the microwave?" "Just baking a potato." "How long did you cook the potato for Ken?" "Just around 35 minutes, isn't that how long you are supposed to cook it for?" 35 minutes!!!!One potato, 35 minutes!! Nice job Coach! Needless to say we got a new microwave that day. :)

I know that a lot of people have heard this story but its one of my personal favorites so I will share it again. For those that don't know, my father is a retired teacher, he also coached football and basketball. When I came home from my mission, my parents were standing there waiting for me. My father isn't a real affectionate person but he came to me and put his arm around me. Keep in mind I hadn't seen the man in 18 months so you think he would say something like, "I'm so happy to see you or glad that you are home." Nope nothing like that was said, instead the first thing he said to me was, "I'm proud of you, you can call me coach now." Why does that still make me laugh?? So now I call him coach, the funny thing about it is that I think he likes hearing that more than dad or father :)

Last story. Shane and I like to play jokes on the old man because we usually get a rise out of him, his reactions meet our expectations. My dad had come into the house, he had just gotten back from the store and had purchased some snack pack tapioca pudding. I think that he was craving it so he wanted to wait for it to get cold so he went outside to do some yard work. Well, tapioca sounded good to Shane & I and so we polished off the entire 8 pack of it. Don't worry, we kept the carton containers, put them back in the fridge with a post it note attached to it that said, "thanks sucker!" Well you can imagine the rest of it. When my father walked in to eat his pudding Shane & I were very quiet and then all of a sudden we hear, "you ate the whole bloomin' thing!" :) Good times.

One of the best memories I have with my father is going to a Kings vs. Suns game at the Arco Arena. I had bought court side seats for his Christmas present. He loves Steve Nash and enjoyed watching the game in such close proximity to the players. We had a fun time. Good times with the Coach.