Last year in my post Veterans Day Musings I whined about not wanting to be stressed out by listening to the news and therefore I had retreated to music and my favorite Sirius XM radio station, Little Steven’s Underground Garage.

Sadly, not much has changed in a year as far that is concerned.  But I did get to make that same road trip this year.

Actually, this year I was able to kiss my favorite veteran on the forehead on Veterans Day and thank him in person for his service.  Not all of you can do that anymore and I am sorry about that.  I am certainly blessed with that privilege.

But a Tuesday doctors appointment for my mother and the sudden burst of cold weather requiring the water lines out to the dock to be disconnected and blown out for the winter had me in my truck after work on Monday with the Underground Garage tuned in headed once again over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and on to the Eastern Shore.   Thanks to the holiday, I arrived early enough on Veteran’s Day evening to hang out for a while with my parents and eat ice cream with my dad.

The process of shutting off the water and blowing out the water lines requires removing two 32 x 36-inch pieces of flooring and leaning them against the wall.  Then, crawling down below the 2 X 10-inch floor joists to get to PVC water line and the shut off valve.  The pipe is then disconnected at a threaded fitting and an air compressor quick connect is screwed on.  Once that is complete the spigots are opened up out at the bulkhead and further down on the dock and the air compressor line is attached,  blowing the water out to keep the pipe from freezing and cracking.

At one point in this process my dad observed me to almost bump my head on one of the 32 x 36-inch plywood sub-floor that was leaning closest to me as I was entering the crawl space.  My dad leaped into action balancing one foot on the 2-inch edge of the floor joist and reaching to grab the piece of sub floor.  With my mother now panicking yelling “Carl what are you doing?” he replies “I have to move this piece of plywood before it hits Curt in the head.  Don’t worry my balance is pretty good today Flo!”

Lying helplessly in the crawl space looking up through the floor joists, I listened to the commotion occurring above me.  Seeing my dad’s shoe with his weight now balanced on the 2-inch edge of the joist, while he bent and grabbed the piece of flooring to move it, I could only just hope for the best.

“My balance is pretty good today Flo.”

My dad is 90 years old.

A veteran of the Korean War.

And he has Parkinson’s Disease.

His kind of Parkinson’s makes him prone to falling.  He loses his balance easily.

So, seeing his sneakered foot on the floor joist above me and hearing my mother’s overly expressed concern, with only the comforting knowledge of “my balance is pretty good today Flo,” meant it was one hairy 20 seconds.

But I guess it’s nice to know you are never too old to have your dad try to keep you safe.

And guess it’s also comforting to know he will never be too old to want to.

Happy Veterans Day Pop.

Thank you for your service.

And thank you for keeping me and the rest of us safe.