Mike was an ideal father. He taught me math. We learned how to solve the Rubic’s cube together. The best thing he did for me was get me trombone lessons. He would take me across town to my weekly trombone lessons. It was a great ritual that we did for about two years. Then he took me to all my jazz rehearsals. He continued to teach me math and trigonometry. Then he taught me to drive so that I could take myself to the ever increasing music rehearsals and gigs. Dad loved to gamble and play cards. He taught me to play cribbage. He used to love it when we had poker parties at the house in high school. We even had the high school big band rehearse in our living room one day.
Dad was really proud of me when I went on to be a Navy musician. Unfortunately, dad was really frustrated with me as I was transitioning from being a jazz trombonist to being a computer programmer. If he were alive today, he would be so proud of the work that I’m doing now. He would totally understand it. I was so close to putting the pieces of computer programming together in high school. He bought us an IBM PC that I wrote my first code on. Dad wasn’t perfect, but he was a lot of fun and gave me everything I needed to succeed.