On the occasion of my Father's birthday

My Dad would have been 68 this year. He's been gone almost 14 years, and it amazes me how much I still think about him, and how much his shadow still looms over my life.

I am now the age he was in this picture. I still have that green canvass coat of his from Orvis, and on my Dad's birthday yesterday, I pulled out this tweed hat.

I'm not 100% sure it's the same one, but either way, it's absolutely in the same spirit. I feel like it makes me look a bit like an old curmudgeon, but my Dad would have only encouraged that, adding a shit-eating grin.