The things we do for our children

I will never understand what makes some people tick. Now, I don’t consider my self-the worlds greatest parent. I try to be a good dad. With that said I believe you make sacrifices for your children. On Friday around 1:15pm I was off work. A friend of mine called and said "the Rio’s are in town". Now, I am a rail fan and this meant that two locomotives painted in the Rio Grande paint scheme were in town. Rio Grande is a railroad that doesn’t exist anymore. To see two locomotives in this paint scheme would be rare anywhere. To have two locomotives in that paint scheme in Fort Wayne, Indiana even more rare. I told him I had to pick up my daughter and I would try to catch up with him if my daughter fell asleep. She wasn’t feeling well and I expected she would sleep for a while in the back seat of the car.

When I picked her up we stopped at Walgreen’s to pick up her prescription. She asked if we could go to the zoo. Now, I figured that Sunday October 5, 2008 would be my last trip to the zoo for this year. I was wrong. I had planned to take her to the park and let her play or to Chuckie Cheeses. She maintained that she wanted to go to the zoo. We got in the car and headed for the zoo. I had to stop at the bank and get some money and while I was there my friend called again. I told him I had received "the request". I told him that I would not be finding him as my daughter had asked to go to the zoo and I was taking her to the zoo. My daughter and I ended our day at the zoo park.

Today I am sitting here at home with the day off. I am expecting a gift that I ordered for my son for Christmas to be delivered. I wasn’t offered any delivery options on this package, as I would have chosen something different than the way it is being delivered given options. I had intended to drive by the rail yard to see if those locomotives were in town, but if I leave he house I may not be here when the gift arrives. Maybe I will go out later after it is delivered and see if they are in town.

There are people that have a "me" mind set. Some of my rail fan friends don’t understand why I don’t plan my time with my family around my hobby. My hobby is just that a hobby. My hobby will be there as long as I live. I know other people who put what they want ahead of other people’s feelings and well being. My family is most important to me and spending time with them is the most important thing in life. We don’t know what each day holds. There are no promises of tomorrow. Tomorrow we may not all be here together in this life. Some of us may pass on. It is important to live each day like it is the last one and spend time with our loved ones.