To: Me
Subject: Obama plans another abomination!
Date: December 9, 2014 at 6:55PM[article about Jane Fonda being honored as a Person of the Century despite a visit to a POW camp during the Vietnam War, which many veterans understandably view as treason]
From: Me
To: Dad
Subject: Re: Obama plans another abomination!
Date: December 29, 2014 at 7:18PM
Another butt dial, I presume.
From: Dad
To: Me
Subject: Re: Obama plans another abomination!
Date: December 29, 2014 at 7:48PM
Yes, I was trying to remove the number from the call log and it dialed again, for which I apologize -- again. I was surprised by your call and the caller ID.
From: Dad
To: Me
Subject: Re: Obama plans another abomination!
Date: December 29, 2014 at 7:56PM
Why would you have that FB link? I suspect that it would be anathema to you and yours. I've seen it before and sent it to several girlfriends of about 55 year vintage but not to you, I don't believe. If I did, in error, then I apologize for THAT too.
Politics and personal history is and will continue to be an uncrossable chasm. I do not, however, intend to burden you with my opinions. All I can do is offer my most profound apologies for intruding on your life. I should, perhaps, try to expurgate any and all contact info for you. I was not even aware that you actually answered your phone. You told me once that you did not. Foolishly, I believed you.
One last time, my most profound apologies.
Politics and personal history is and will continue to be an uncrossable chasm. I do not, however, intend to burden you with my opinions. All I can do is offer my most profound apologies for intruding on your life. I should, perhaps, try to expurgate any and all contact info for you. I was not even aware that you actually answered your phone. You told me once that you did not. Foolishly, I believed you.
One last time, my most profound apologies.
From: Me
To: Dad
Subject: Re: Obama plans another abomination!
Date: December 29, 2014 at 9:42PM
No idea why you would send a Jane Fonda link to me, just replying to it. I assumed it was an error & initially ignored it as such, but when I saw a missed call from your number on my mobile phone this evening I made the silly assumption that you were reaching out. I called back from my current home phone because I don't have reliable service on my mobile in rural Pennsylvania. You've made it clear that was unnecessary.
Message received. Take care.
From: Dad
To: Me
Subject: Re: Obama plans another abomination!
Date: December 30, 2014 at 12:10AM
I was always willing to talk to you, but your husband put the kibosh to that in our last conversation a couple of years back. He didn't like me the first time he ever met me and I learned quickly enough, that he was rude, dishonest and generally an asshole so far as I was concerned.
I sincerely hope that he has as much joy of your marriage and your child as I experienced with your mother and you.
I also despised your making fun, by way of 'edgy' cartoon cards, of my personal situation, a situation that has caused me great pain and anxiety for most of my life. My friends understand that. My daughter apparently did not.
Again I apologize for accessing your email and phone. My phone and email has not changed, nor is it likely to. I did erase your phone number so that I will not inadvertently dial you again. If it is of any interest, Sarah, whom you met at mom's funeral and afterward at the house in 1996 is coming out here to live with me. Her daughter is all for it. She has known me since she was a baby. She actually likes me and wants to be family along with her mother.
Odd, hmmh? And the tiniest bit ironic I think.
I sincerely hope that he has as much joy of your marriage and your child as I experienced with your mother and you.
I also despised your making fun, by way of 'edgy' cartoon cards, of my personal situation, a situation that has caused me great pain and anxiety for most of my life. My friends understand that. My daughter apparently did not.
Again I apologize for accessing your email and phone. My phone and email has not changed, nor is it likely to. I did erase your phone number so that I will not inadvertently dial you again. If it is of any interest, Sarah, whom you met at mom's funeral and afterward at the house in 1996 is coming out here to live with me. Her daughter is all for it. She has known me since she was a baby. She actually likes me and wants to be family along with her mother.
Odd, hmmh? And the tiniest bit ironic I think.
******************************************************
To sum this up, in case it was lost in the threads, after more than 2 years of not speaking, my father sent me a politically charged email earlier this month. I assumed that he included me in error & ignored it. This evening, I missed a call from him on my mobile phone. An email & a phone call without a voicemail suggested, at least in my mind, that he was reaching out. It's the holidays. Maybe the sentimentality got to him.
So after the boy was in bed, I called my father back from the house phone. He was friendly when he picked up & I identified myself. After brief pleasantries, he asked, "how can I help you?"
"You called me, so I'm calling back."
"No, I didn't. Maybe I butt dialed you."
"Okay, happy holidays."
Then the emails, as detailed above. So now I can't sleep, because I'm reminded yet again that my father actually *hates* me. I try not to pull the Now That I'm a Parent card, but SERIOUSLY, I cannot begin to imagine willfully & repeatedly hurting my sweet son in the ways that my father has hurt me over the years. He can't ever just leave it alone. He has to make sure that he's issued a painfully obvious decree of what trash I am to him. Every time.
My biological father is cruel & I feel sorry for him. He obviously has some dark storms in his head. Since he's almost 72, I don't hold out much hope for the clouds parting. I've simply made the choice to not be his lightening rod. Good luck & best wishes to him, his lady friend Sarah, & Sarah's daughter. They're going to need it.
The comments about Eric are so far off base it's silly.
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