I can remember quite distinctly where I was when I found out I was going to be a dad for the first time. I was 29 and had been married for nine years and we’d been trying for five, but with no results. There were times when I’d reached the conclusion it was never going to happen, which bothered me deeply. But God was good to me and I was eventually blessed with four wonderful children. I can recall thinking as Holly neared her delivery date that we would be bringing a stranger home from the hospital and wondered how Jeri, our dog, would react to the intruder. After all, she’d been our baby since we’d gotten married! I was telling Jason, our first born, this story as we sat at ‘The Local Tavern’ and were eating our burgers. “And then suddenly you were there…in the delivery room…and it was like I’d known you my entire life and I had loved you forever and I’m betting you will feel the same way in just a little while.”
I had been told I was going to be a grandfather. Theresa, his wife, was pregnant and would be delivering in October and my life as I’d lived it would change forever…and for the better.
I was feeling tired throughout the day, though I still managed 10,000 steps. I'd put in some heavy effort bringing down a tree, stacking the wood and digging three post holes for bluebird houses. I was on my ride home and tried to call Jason to ask him out for dinner when I realized I couldn’t hear the phone ringing. He picked up and then called me back and when I didn’t answer him, texted me that he could hear me on his end. I drove to the Verizon store to have the phone checked out.
“It’s stuck on ‘headphone’, which means you probably pulled out the headphone cord too quickly and it still thinks it’s connected,” the technician explained.
Except I didn’t own headphones and none had ever been plugged into the phone...which I told him.
“Well…someone plugged in headphones because that’s the only way to trigger the ‘headphone’ switch and keep you from hearing without headphones,” he said smugly, sure that he was catching me in my lie.
“Okay…let me say this again more slowly. I don’t have any headphones and when the phone isn’t in my hand, it’s in my pocket where I’m pretty sure I’d notice someone else reaching in and plugging in their headphones,” I said.
He looked me over, pretty sure I was still lying, but noticing a look that said 'don't f#$k with me' and plugged in his own headphones to reset the phone so I could use it. It worked and he smiled. “There you go…the only way to fix it and the only way it can happen.”
“Thanks,” I said, knowing it was time to either pick him up and toss him through a pane of glass or just let it go. Clearly there was a way to trigger the ‘headphone’ switch without headphones and I was pretty sure he knew that, but I’m not a man of violence.
After dinner, I came home and went into relax mode. I’ve been sleeping on my family room floor in front of the fireplace lately...pretty much because I can...and laid on the mattress to rest my foot and watch an episode of ‘The West Wing’. Shortly thereafter, I was in la-la land, probably still catching up on all the sleep I’d missed over the weekend. Maybe tomorrow I’ll be back to exercise of some kind. For now, I will relish in the thought that I will be a grandpa and hope I can be half as good as mine was for me.
Bonus: 10,400 steps
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