I miss my father.

Lately I have been mulling over the years between 25 and about 40. All I can say is thank God for my father.

After my first marriage failed I changed course and started to follow my childhood dreams and moved into a tipi in the Rockies. After a year or so of that I hitch hiked to Alaska and lived there in an alternative lifestyle for well over a decade.

Meanwhile my mother was always asking me when I was going to marry an nice Catholic girl and settle down.

For the life of me I could never get it into that poor woman's head that my situation was a big Catch-22.

Any women that had her act together would take one look at me and run off instantly. If she didn't and appeared interested I looked carefully and it didn't take long to find out something was wrong with her and I didn't want anything to do with her.

One time my mom pointed out that a certain young lady had just graduated from Notre Dame and was single. She also pointed out the lady in question had a rich father.

"That's all I need," I shot back. "If he is rich and sees I look at his daughter even cross-eyed he is going to schlep Vito a few grand and have me whacked!"

"Well, how about that other girl?" mom asked.

"That spoiled brat?" I replied. "It would be cheaper and easier for me to go through life with a string of prostitutes."

Mom turned purple.

Dad came to the rescue. ''If anyone like our oldest son even gave any of my daughters a passing glance I'd have him whacked in an instant."

I heard the refrigerator open and close. Dad came into the room carrying a 6-pack.

"Let's go fishin'" he said. We left for Damon's Point.

When we got to the Point a few minutes later Dad wordlessly handed me a hand line and took another one and we headed to the bridge. There were no hooks on the lines, just a simple sinker. No use letting a fishing trip to the Point get ruined by some damned fish.

We both spooled out line and threw the sinkers into the river and opened beers.We rested against the railing and communicated for the next couple of hours. He knew and understood and I knew he understood. We just stood there overlooking the horizon and enjoyed each other's company in harmony and total communication.

After a while we both spooled in the hand lines, got into the car and drove home.

From the time we left to the time we arrived home neither of us had said one single word to each other but we both knew what the other was thinking.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY