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Changing of the guard
By juliezavala in My Turn
October 17, 2010

Image I'm nervous. It's almost the same feeling I had when one of my kids was starting school for the first time. Will he have fun? Will he miss me? Will they be nice to him? Dad will be left with a Senior Helpers employee tomorrow. There's going to be an introduction between Dad and the sitter to see how they get along. I'll be watching Daddy's reactions very closely. I don't want to leave him with someone who might be the wrong personality for him. I'll probably stop by at lunch too and see how things are going, too.

Today Dad's favorite team, the Cowboys, played and lost. He didn't see the end of the game because I busted through the front door and yelled, "Daddy! I hear a train! Wanta' go see it?!" I had been in the front yard watering the plants when I heard the train from far off. My Dad was up out of his chair and heading out the front door before I even found my car keys. We got in the car as quickly as we could and headed for the tracks across 59 and Stockbauer. We'd missed it! I could see the back-end of the train heading toward town. I turned the car around and we went down 59 until we got to Ben Wilson. We turned down Ben Wilson street and pulled up to the tracks as the RR crossing arms were coming down. I rolled down the car windows and we congratulated ourselves for finally getting to watch a train go by.

Daddy was full of energy. He kept saying, "I felt bad all day but I feel so good right now." I asked him what his job was with the railroad when he first started to work for Southern Pacific. He told me that he had a clip-board and a form that he would use to record the ID numbers of each and every car. I asked him what happened if he missed one. He said, "I'd just have to chase that car down until I got the number off it." No problem. We watched the train until it finally passed and the RR crossing arms went up, then we headed back to the house. When we got home, the television screen was black - game over. I asked Robert for the score and he told us Dallas had lost. My Dad of the past would have said a few choice curse words. He just shrugged his shoulders and said he thought that was how it was going to go. My Dad of the past would have never gone tearing out of the house to see a train, during the middle of a Dallas game, with his nutty daughter.

Tonight, after Daddy had a shower, I tucked him into bed. Right now he's peacefully snoring the night away. He doesn't know about the changes coming for him tomorrow. I wonder what is going to go through his mind when I leave and there's a stranger in the house. Will he just accept it like he does with so many other changes in his life? I have a clean pair of slacks and a shirt neatly pressed and hanging in his closet. I'll get him ready for his introduction and afterwards, when I'm sure every thing is alright, I'll leave and go to work for the first time in about a week and a half. We'll see how it goes...