the skills of my father

as it is father's day, i thought i'd do a less traditional post. the relationship i have with my dad is...complex and completely non-traditional. i think all  of my brothers & sisters have a weird relationship with my dad, so in that note, here is my tribute to my dad, who shall now be known as "ray" to protect his identity, another quirk of my fathers.

ray has been a hs auto teacher for about five years now? give or take?? previously our family owned a poultry company that sold to casinos but that foldest when i was in hs. after a brief stint of retirement, he decided to teach and its been the best decision he ever made, which honestly would be the last thing his kids would think he'd be good at. we teaches at a ghetto hs, walks around with a sharpened pencil to keep the hoodlums at bay (seriously. and it works), and has worked miracles there. see evidence of ray. notice again, he refuses to show his face, to protect his identity. and yes, that is a ponytail that he rocks. ray is an old hippie.

well, as complex as my dad is, there are a few solid things he loves. his dogs, his candy/chips, and his harleys. his greatest talent? lawn art. i don't remember how or when it happened, but he's always loved to weld. weirdly that turned into creating original and sometimes disturbing pieces of art. see evidence below of his greatest work.

here is the piece dedicated to fluffy, my first-born in the wilderness. he was twinkled (not died) while i was at suu. here's also a pic of him next to fluffy's wife, shelly the turtle. in life they were not separated, in death they were not apart.

and of course, his crown jewel, the hippie bird. here's to you dad. may we not take you out to the desert to shoot you for many more years to come.