A Father’s Love

Tired out...Marcus and Alivia were tired out Friday afternoon after putting in several hours of work and they took advantage of the short but slow trip back to their grandparents from the landfill by taking an energizer nap in the rickety old truck. Photo by Allan Olson.

 

A Father’s Love

By Allan Olson

This Father’s day weekend however wasn’t about me, but rather about my own father and my mother also since it dually affects her as well. The weekend plans were set pretty firmly the week prior when one of my brothers discovered that my parent’s basement had flooded while they are on vacation. For reasons unknown their sump pump failed to kick in and in a week’s time 2.5 feet of water took over the basement.

While the basement wasn’t finished, there were still two rooms downstairs and of course years of miscellaneous stuff, that was taken over by the water. My oldest brother and family were down the next day and pumped the water out and used the wet-vac and hauled stuff out of the house. Between phone calls and messages we decided that this prior weekend was the best one to meet and began the cleanup process we knew it would be a chore but it had to be done.

My crew arrived at my parent’s home about 11 a.m. on Friday and I started by moving the motorhome which was parked in the way of everything and finding my dad’s truck and getting it to the garage to start loading for the first dump run. I made a call to my brother to confirm a couple things and my kids and I started loading the truck, we had about half the stuff that was moved to the garage loaded in the truck before reinforcement arrived. With four more sets of hands the remainder of the stuff was loaded and in addition my brother’s vehicle and trailer was unloaded.  We then moved on, wood needed to be hauled out of the basement and the carpet from the two rooms needed to be removed. My nephew, Nikolai and I started on the backroom first, that carpet took all of 15 minutes to remove from the floor, cut up into manageable chunks and hauled to a waiting vehicle. Meanwhile, the other hands were hauling wood out of the basement, the wood stuff to be moved to a waiting trailer and the dry stuff to be stacked in the garage.

The boys and I moved on to the second bedroom, that room had two bunk beds and a queen bedframe to work around, so that alone presented a challenge itself, in addition the carpet was much more difficult to remove. It took us at least 90 minutes to get all the carpet out and still much of the padding remained in chunks on the floor, but it was done. We also had two vehicles full of garbage and a ticking clock to beat the gate at the landfill, in addition when my dad left town, he left his truck so low on gas, I’m not sure it would’ve made it to the highway three miles away. Thankfully, my older brother had prepared for such likelihood and brought a full gas can. We managed to get enough gas in the old beast to get us to the dump and to the nearest town so I could add a few more gallons to ensure we had enough for the weekend.

Once we finally returned from that trip, it was time to head to the local hardware store for plumbing parts – this being far from my expertise; I offered no input and minimal help. Of course, the stores closed at 6 p.m. and by the time we were done with supper and back home, we discovered we had the wrong parts.

The next day, we started bright and early at 7 a.m. by knocking down walls in the two rooms, we worked with a sawzall but ultimately we discovered that the batteries weren’t keeping up and it was just as fast to punch a hole in the wall with a hammer and then knock it down, slightly more messy but that’s what the kids were for. Once again, we filled up a truck full of sheetrock and other garbage and I made my second trip to the landfill in two days. That evening, I burned some wood products in the pile across the road and eventually called it a day about 7:30 p.m. my brother worked a little longer getting the shower working better than it has in 20 years.

On Sunday, we started again about 7:30 a.m. washing down the walls and floors with bleach and trying to cleanup anything we might’ve missed from the previous two days. We called it a day about noon and started packing up the vehicles and left for home about 1 p.m. and by 3:30 p.m. I was taking a nap, after all it was Father’s Day, I had worked hard for three days and I deserved it.

This certainly wasn’t my ideal Father’s Day – but as a son, it was most certainly my responsibility to help out my parents in their time of need, even if they had been home to help, we still would’ve been there pitching in, on the bright side, a few things probably got pitched that needed to be, but wouldn’t have been if they had been there.

That evening I spent time with three of my kids watching a movie, Marcus wasn’t with my on Father’s Day but he’s having fun spending time with a cousin instead. So perhaps next year, I won’t have to work on Father’s Day but have the opportunity to play instead. It’s official, I’ve celebrated 12 years of being a father since then, we’ve added three others that also call me their father, something I consider an honor. I may not always be happy with my children, but I hope I will always be proud of my children, and hope that they will in the end be proud that I’m their father.

Just like my own father and I, we don’t always agree, but he’s still my father and whether I like it or not, I’m sure he has a few things yet to teach me. I hope that I have several years left to teach my four children some of the useful and useless pieces of knowledge I have rambling around in my head and of course, I’m already well aware of the fact that my kids and I won’t always agree either.

I hope everyone enjoys their summer vacation and is able to spend some time on the lake and in the woods. Thanks to everyone for reading, and as always, please be safe while enjoying your favorite outdoor recreational activity and on the lakes. Remember to take pictures to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week!