Being self-employed has its advantages which, fortunately, usually outweigh the disadvantages. One huge advantage is that I’ve been able to help out my Dad as he’s needed to go to the doctor, have surgeries and so on over the last few years. Today any possible downsides were far outweighed by my being free to take my 84 year old Dad to a followup-from-surgery doctor appointment and it’s made me realize how lucky I am to have him and to be free to help.

This is a guy who has become increasingly frail over the last few years and I’m always struck by how he doesn’t seem that way when he’s in his own house at his kitchen table. There he is in command of his environment and it’s as though nothing has changed. Decades of being a smoker have taken its toll on his lungs coupled with all the other stuff that goes on with a body after seven decades plus on earth, but the way time beats down on people as they age is only in evidence when we’re out of his house. He usually can take himself anywhere but recent needs have made having help from my sisters and I a necessity. I’m glad I can be there for him when he needs us (my three sisters are there for him too) and that I was able to take him today and at other times in the past. [Read more...]