I haven’t made any posts in over a month, so let me tell you why.  My life has changed.  I lost my Dad on March 11.  Ever since then I haven’t really had a desire to write any­thing.  But you know,  it really would do his mem­ory a dis­ser­vice to not express my beliefs and opin­ions.  He may have been a quiet man, but he didn’t mind voic­ing his beliefs.  He was a hard worker and his life showed his beliefs.  He was a great Chris­t­ian man who worked hard in his church and never com­plained when some­one asked him for help — espe­cially us kids.  He did more for me than I have room to share — I never sat down and thought about how much until he died.

He was also a con­ser­v­a­tive — and he liked to share his thoughts and opin­ions on dif­fer­ent sub­jects.  He would for­ward e-mails to me about dif­fer­ent polit­i­cal issues and cur­rent events.  A few of those I even blogged about.  He even went with me to Word­Camp Dal­las 2008.  He didn’t attend the con­fer­ence, but he went any­way to keep me com­pany.  He absolutely refused to take the car, telling me that I needed to drive it to and from the meet­ings.  Instead, he walked around the area where our hotel was and took in the sights of Dal­las while I was in the meetings. He even helped me with the meals, gas, and dri­ving when he didn’t have to.  We had a good time — just father and son.  I will never for­get that trip for as long as I live.  I’m glad he was able to go with me, and I’m glad we shared that experience.

This past week­end was Word­Camp New Orleans, and I fully intended to go.  But with every­thing going on recently, it was bet­ter that I didn’t.  I don’t know if I’ll get to attend the Dal­las Word­Camp this year, and I don’t know if I want to.   But I tell you what I will do:  I will con­tinue blog­ging.  I will make this not about me, but about the ideals and beliefs my Dad stood for and what he taught me.  I’ve learned a lot about him in the past month - things he’s done for peo­ple, more about his plans and goals, and how much we’re alike.

This may become partly a per­sonal jour­nal, also.   There will be times that I write posts and lock them so that no one ever reads them but me.  But I want to make sure to remem­ber him, remem­ber what he stood for, so that one day my chil­dren will have the chance to get to know their grand­fa­ther.  I think that’s one of the most unfor­tu­nate things.  My chil­dren, should my wife and I have some,  will never know my father — their grand­fa­ther — at least not in per­son.  But they will know his legacy.