A Sugar Tribute to My Dad

With Father's Day this Sunday, I've been thinking about my dad. He is by far one of the hardest working people I know. He's a great dentist, but his day job is not what I'm talking about. It's his leisure activities that shock me. I called my mom to see what he did last Saturday.

He...
woke up at the crack of dawn at his farm house in Duchesne,
began framing the unfinished basement,
dug out window wells that were full of mud,
installed a round of sprinklers,
replanted and weeded a massive garden,
drove home to South Jordan and went about fixing the fence.

Meanwhile, I took a run and called it a day.

One of the things I love about my dad, is that he's all about hydrating and refueling after a hard task. As he should. But during the last several decades I've known the man, he usually returns to a few classics. Below are the sugary treats that will always remind me of him.

Hostess Fruit Pies: My dad often picks up a fruit pie at a gas station after working on a project. He tends to pick the berry or the apple. When I was younger, if I was with him, I'd usually get one too. But I prefer the chocolate pudding ones. Unlike poptarts, the crust on these is even better than the filling. There's no question that these might be a form of ambrosia and I pray are available in the afterlife.


Shaved Ice: My dad is a sucker for shaved ice. He likes to ask the attendant their favorite flavor, but if that doesn't strikes his fancy, he usually always goes for the peach. He actually now has his own professional ice shaving machine. The thing weighs over 150 lbs. I'm sure there's a gallon of peach concentrate at my parents' house right now for anyone who might want one.

Chocolate Milk:He works outside a lot, especially in Duchesne. As hard as I might ever try, I will never out tan him. He manages to turn a dark shade of bronze early in the spring and only darkens over the summer. Because he's often dehydrated by the end of the day, he often will get one of those big quarts of chocolate milk and guzzle the thing down in a matter of minutes.

Rootbeer or was that Diet Mountain Dew?: If it wasn't chocolate milk, he would often get rootbeer. That is until recently. For some reason he has changed to Diet Mountain Dew. I think this is hilarious for a couple reasons. When we were little we had very little soda at my house (my mom hated sticky floors), but especially soda with caffeine. He's all about it now, and I couldn't be more supportive since I'm also a Diet Mountain Dew fan. (As a side note, my mom also chews a lot of gum, which was also outlawed at my house since it had a tendency to get in someone's hair or in the dog's fur. It seems they were just waiting for all of us to move from home to get out the Mountain Dew and gum.)

Well, any of the work ethic I may have, I totally owe to my parents. I actually thought about getting a small Hostess pie today and thought to myself I have done nothing to earn it. I run the Ragnar Relay this weekend and I told myself I could get one after I finish. Here's to working hard and refueling like my dad.