Sunday, August 01, 2004

An odd phone call and fathers

A funny thing happened today. I woke up this morning at some ungodly hour. For Pete's sake it's Sunday and I'm up at 7. Why can't I do that during the week when I have to be up. So I just lay there and read for a while. I've been reading Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac. Finally at about 9:30, I figure the neighbors have had enough time to sleep so I go and mow the lawn. I've got that down so that it only takes about 40 minutes to do the whole thing. Mostly that's because I really don't give a crap what it looks like so long as most of the grass is about the same height and a little shorter than my neighbors. So then at about 10:30 I finish mowing and go in. I shower and then go back to reading. This book has been much more enjoyable than On the Road, which I thought was a pointless dash back and forth across the country by a half crazy guy and his full on crazy friend. So anyway I read for another couple of hours. I then went down stairs and noticed that I had a message on my machine. This is very weird because I don't normally get calls on my home phone, and messages are even weirder since I've left the greeting that came with the machine as the active one. It sounds a lot like a speak and spell. So anyway if someone does get my number they are usually confused by the Robbie robot sounding greeting and don't bother leaving a message. So I push play expecting to hear some confused telemarketer. Nope. It was the voice of a teenaged girl. She said that her name was Amber and that she was leaving a message for Aaron Hoyt; she left her number (775 area code. Somewhere in Nevada outside of Las Vegas). I stood there a little confused. I went to call her back, but I'd left the phone off the charger and it was deader than a doornail. I went to call her on my cell, but thought better of it. If this was a scam of some sort I didn't want to give away the number that I really use. I set down the phone and went for a drive.

After about an hour of driving I got a little hungry and got some food at Burger King. I normally would just drive through Taco Bell, but I eat that so much that my blood must be about 80% refried beans (yummy) . So it was a chicken whopper today. Not bad, but a little dry. So anyway I headed home and decided that I was going to call Amber back. Unfortunately when I got back I'd left the phone off the charger again. So I hung it back up and started reading. I fell asleep, and then at about 4 the phone rang again. I answered it, and it turns out to be Amber. She introduces her self and asks me if I know anybody by that name. I do, but not in the 775 area code, so I said no. She told me that she was looking for her father and that his name was Aaron Hoyt and that my phone number is the only one that she's found. Duhhhh. I stood there dumbfounded. Being pretty sure that I've father no children I try and think of a way to let this girl down easy. I ask her how old she is. She says 20. Internally I'm sighing with relief, but I know she is going to be disappointed. I tell her that I'm 30, and that it isn't likely that I'm her father. There is some uncomfortable hemming and hawing after that but, we eventually we both hung up.

Wow what a mind blower. I really wish her luck in finding her father. Fathers are such an interesting subject. We all have them, but the relationship there is so very different from person to person. Having lost my own father when I was 12 the subject is a little touchy and raw. I know my siblings have different but parallel "father issues". Nothing horrible, but loosing your father at 12, 7 and 3 can't help but have a different effect on a person. Earlier this week I was reminded of this subject while talking with Nicole about her father's own long term health issues, and how those have effected her relationship with her own father.

I was going to go on further about fathers, but I'm not sure what else I'd want to say. Maybe I'll save that for some other time.

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