Father In Law

I have been married for a year and half now so the whole wedding and pre-wedding process are still fresh for me. But this post is not about the actual wedding (which was beautiful) but about my new Father In-Law who you could say was beautiful in his own way. Well, lets be honest, beautiful would not be a good descriptor. He is more quirky like the donkey from Shrek, intriguing as in how people wonder about the Stonehedge, honest/direct, but always very supportive. If I was caught in a fight I know He would have my back. Through dating my wife (his daughter), being engaged, and now over a year of marriage I have had many fun and interesting moments with this experienced fisherman whom I am now related to.

I love to play racquetball, so I invited my soon to be father in law (FIL) to come play a few games with my younger brother, Dad, and myself. My Dad and I have been playing against each other for years and we have both became pretty good. My soon to be FIL and I played together first. As I watched him walk onto the court, He enters holding a racket with that is probably no bigger then my hand. I tried not to laugh because he told he had played before but he did not tell me his racket was from 1920. Needless to say we gave him a more modern racket to use for the day (which he blames to this day for his performance). We started playing and after the first point I knew it was not going to be a very close game so I decided to add a little challenge to myself. Without him knowing I started playing left handed for the first time in my life. This made the game a little closer but needless to say it was still a blowout. Later when he was watching my Dad and I play he noticed the intensity level of the game was higher and gave me a hard time for going easy on him when in reality I wasn't going easy but using my opposite hand. I don't think he knows yet, so if you know him, don't tell.

He is an individual who expects excellent customer service when he goes out. My wife and I were meeting Him and His wife for a dinner at a wood fired pizza restaurant one night before heading home. As soon as we sat down my wife and I looked at each other and knew my FIL would not be happy because it was a little bit loud inside due to the rock music. We asked the waitress for a quieter spot but there was non available. We then told the waitress that we were meeting our parents here and to expect to hear about the noise level when they come in. Well... when my new parents arrived, as if on cue, the first thing my FIL says is it too noisy and wants the waitress to turn the music down in the restaurant. The waitress said she would do what she could which resulted in no change. Luckily though we decided to stay unlike other experiences when we would just leave. I am learning how to expect great service from restaurants now whenever I go out

My FIL is very resourceful. We were camping together one week and were running low on wood for the fire after the first day. I would assume to just pick up sticks laying around or buy bundles from the camp managers but I was wrong. Of course my FIL happened to have his chainsaw in the back of his car and an ax. So, we drove up an old lumber road several miles away from the campsite and became modern day lumber jacks. We only cut already fallen logs and didn't have to pay a cent. Why didn't I think to throw my chainsaw in the back of my car?

More Stories to come