The Never Ending Adventures of life with Hank

My dad is 83 years old.  He recently moved from middle of nowhere, Wyoming, to my house.  Although he has only been at my house for a couple of weeks- he is making an impact on me and my family.  He is also funny without trying to be.  I am keeping track of this new adventure in my life because there are so many of us in the "sandwich" generation.  We are busy with kids on one end, and busy helping our parents on the other end.  Let's enjoy this sandwich time together, it won't last very long!!

HANKISM- Definition-  1)Interesting things Hank says, or does that are unusual to the way I would say or do things. 2) A solid excuse for the reason I act the way I do.  3) Just too dang funny not to share.

I saw this book at a bookstore before Hank moved in and thought it would be interesting for him since he loves to read, and was part of the Berlin Airlift.  Here's how that conversation went:

Me:  "Dad, I found this book at the bookstore and thought you would like it! It's about the Berlin Airlift and I thought since you ....."

Hank: interrupting me "I saw it...all about the damn Air Force. Ohh! I am in the Air Force! I dropped candy to the little German kids! Look at me! Who do you think loaded the damn planes for the Air Force? That's right- THE ARMY.  There we are working our asses off 24 on 24 off to make that airlift happen and the book is about the damn Air Force...Well Whoop-de-damn-do." 

Me: "Wow! It's sure warm out today, isn't it?" 

Hank occasionally goes shopping and brings back treasures.  On a recent trip he located this "Hunter's pack of meat" for us...
It included:

2 lbs of summer sausage
2 lbs of ring bologna
2 packages of bacon
2 lbs of braunschweiger


Do you hear your arteries hardening? 

 Came home the other day and Hank had counted all his pills and made a spreadsheet on how many he has on hand and how long they will last. 

Old IBM habits die slow....

I recently drug Hank into the current century and got him a cell phone.  I worry about him, well, falling, and not being able to get up....So I thought the cell phone would be a handy feature for him.  Just yesterday we had this conversation:

Hank:  "This phone doesn't work."

Me: "What's wrong?"

Hank: (flipping phone open)  "There is no dial tone"

Me:  "It's not like a regular phone, you won't hear a dial tone, you just dial and it will connect you."

Hank: "That's crazy."

Last night's conversation!

Hank: "What day do you do your mending?"

Me: (trying to remember what the word "mending" means) "Um, it depends."

Hank: "I have a couple of things that need mending"

Me: "I will be happy to mend anything for you!  My mending kit is right in the cabinet" (where I keep my 3x3 plastic travel sewing kit containing 4 tiny spools of thread, 5 needles, tiny scissors and plastic thimble)

Hank: "You don't have to do it now, you can wait until your mending day." 

Me:  "Oh, I don't mind, besides, I might be really busy on mending day so now is great."  ( while I envision "Mending day" as January 20th 2179" )

I love having you here at my house Dad- I hope I can take care of you like you took care of me when I was little. I hope you have fun while you are here and we don't drive you too crazy.  You are the greatest.  Thank you for making a difference, one random man at a time. 



For those of us in the sandwich generation, if you haven't seen this- click and watch this youTube... thought provoking and soooo true!!!


http://youtu.be/TB6VkEcXfTo