Beaded Tail Liked "My Funny Dad, Harry"

"My Funny Dad, Harry" is a wonderful tribute to Karen's dad. She tells endearing stories about her dad in such a way that you feel the emotions ranging from happiness to sadness and everything in between. Harry's love for his cats shines through as does his love for woodworking and fixing things. Harry may have had his own quirks and his own way of doing things but yet I know people that do so many similar things that I could relate to what Karen was going through and feel her frustrations at times. This is such a heart warming book and the stories are written so you feel like you are witnessing them firsthand. I came away with an understanding of aging that I didn't have before and certainly have an appreciation for how everyone has their own unique way of doing things - such as turning junkmail into scratch paper or using orange juice cartons for storage! This book is a wonderful read so be sure to go to order a copy or two!

Posted by permission of Beaded Tail at http://beadedtail.blogspot.com. Thanks for taking time to write this review! I made me feel good to see you liked the book.

Why Wash Your Car?

Harry never washed his cars. I remember when I was a kid, we used to write things with our finger in the dirt on the car sometimes. He didn't care. For one Father's Day, my husband offered to wash my dad's car for him and he didn't even want Gerard to do it. He just said, "I don't need to wash it, I just wait for the rain to wash it off." He didn't want Gerard "wasting" his time washing it either. I really cannot recall one time when my dad washed his own car or even went to a car wash. Although I only remember washing my car once myself, I did go to the car wash now and then. My husband loves a clean car and likes to wash it himself every week. In the winter though, he'll run it through a car wash. He does mine for me too.

What A Great Lawn Mower--The Neuton!

Dad loved gadgets and tools and never hesitated to buy something that he thought would make his life easier. When I was clearing out his garage after he died, I found two hand push lawn mowers and one old gas mower that he had converted to start with a key instead of the pull thing. But his best lawn mower, the Neuton wasn't kept in the garage because he thought someone might break in and steal it so he kept it locked on his enclosed back porch, keeping the curtains closed so people couldn't see it.

Dad had a pretty big yard so he would cut it in parts. The front yard was very small, but the back he would do half one day and the other half another day. His grass was always pretty long too because the conditions had to be just right. The heat never bothered my dad but the medication he took said not to be out in the sun. He was very careful to read all the warnings and follow all the directions to the best of his ability so he'd wait for a dry, cloudy day.

I really don't blame him for being extra cautious because it is a wonderful mower. It's electric but has no cord to worry about. It runs on batteries that are rechargeable. It has no cord to pull, just a key to insert and then press the handle and vrroom, off it goes! My dad liked it too because it was very light weight, easy to push and did a good job of cutting the grass. It was very quiet too so he could even get up early to cut his grass without disturbing the neighbors.

Of course, Harry always looked for ways of improving things. See that little box hanging on the lawn mower? That's dad's creation. He made it special just for that so he could collect the stones and sticks as he went along. I found it very handy.

The Neuton has an attachment for trimming as well, but that part doesn't seem to work so well. Either that, or I just didn't know how to use it. An instruction manual and even a video came with it. My husband uses it now and loves it! We did have a gas mower which we got rid of after using this Neuton one for a year.

(Not a paid post)

Comment Showcase

Since I know I don't usually check comments on posts unless I leave one, I thought it might be nice to pick out some special comments I got during the week and showcase them. I may choose ones that make me laugh, that give interesting information, or that made me feel good.

Judy (Sew and So) and Mountain Woman (Red Pine Mountain) commented on Book Review Of My Funny Dad Harry by Lucky Lady. Both these comments made my day:

Judy said: Oh! I WANT this book! Where can I get it???

Also...I love the header on your blog. If ANYONE and I mean ANYONE messes with my desk, they catch the dickens from me. I know exactly where everything is and know the minute it's moved! LOL

Mountain Woman said: All I can say is if you haven't read the book, you are missing out and you are missing out on giving a fantastic gift idea as well. There's so many people who would love to have a copy of this book.

All the comments on To Sell Or Not To Sell were very supportive but I especially liked this one because she asked about the cats:

Day Photo said: We have had, and still do rental property. Rentals are HARD very hard. People really do not respect rental property and it is hard to get them to leave even after they haven't paid rent FOR A YEAR. So selling is wise, unless you are like my husband and can fix things. (And have me for a wife who can be firm and strong when the rent isn't paid).

But I am curious what happened to all the cats?

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com

These are the top comments that made me feel good on Father's Day Contest--Who Knows Harry Best

Mountain Woman said...
Karen, I would feel terrible about entering because I have the book. Not only do I have the book but I gave it as gifts to my Mother and my Aunt as well for Christmas. Both of them who are in their 80s adored the book and then shared it with their friends who also loved it.

This book, however, is for anyone of any age. It's just a special tribute to a wonderful man. You'll laugh, you'll cry and above all, you'll see how much you loved your Dad.

Mrs. 4444 said:
I'm sorry; but as a newcomer here, it would take a lot of time (that I can't afford these days) to find more answers than Lucky Lady! :) I think she deserves it for her efforts :) I'm curious; did your dad know you were going to write the book?

LUCKYLADY said:
I wish I knew all the answers because I would love to win your book your dad sounds like the greatest,my dad left when I was 3 months old and my mom the southern baptist she was never remarried so if I could have a dad like harry I would have been very happy, you were very luck

I appreciate everyone who visits my blog and enjoy reading all the comments. I believe the comments on a blog makes it even more interesting and so I thought by highlighting some like this, it may encourage others to comment as well and give a little recognition to those to take the extra time to leave a comment. I'll plan to do a weekly post on here for at least the month of June and see how it goes. What do you think of it? The last thing I want to do is hurt someone's feelings.

To Sell or Not to Sell, That's The Big Decision!

Should I sell my dad's house or should I fix it up and rent it? Perhaps I could keep it and let the cats continue living upstairs and just rent out the downstairs. While my dad was still alive, we discussed this and his advice to me was to sell it.

After all, it was a double so I could get two rents from it but it needed some work. The thing is, renting is not an easy matter. My dad had several rental properties when we were growing up but he could do the fixing up himself, unlike me. My dad's house needed quite a bit of work. There was a major plumbing problem that had to be fixed which would involve breaking up the ceiling of the downstairs bathroom to get at the pipes. Several people advised me to sell who had bad experience with renters, including the plumber. It's very hard to find good renters who take care of the property and pay promptly. Since I didn't know anyone who was looking for rent, it would have been hard to find steady long-term renters. Plus, I already had sunk a ton of money into it so would have had to rent it for 3 years getting $400 per month just to break even, providing nothing else had to be repaired in that time.

Part of me wanted to fix it up real nice like the granddaughter did in Leota's Garden by Francine Rivers. It actually was looking pretty good once we got the clutter cleared out and I remembered some fun times there. I still liked the upstairs back porch and since that's where we were when Gerard proposed to me, it had some sentimental value for us. We wouldn't want to live there though because we like our house better and it's in a better neighborhood. Renting is a headache. I tried renting it for a month to someone willing to live there and take care of the cats on a short-term basis and found out that I wasn't comfortable with that.


Also, the cats played a part in this too. Obviously, I couldn't sell the house with them in it so I tried to find them homes, unsuccessfully. This was another reason why I considered hanging on to it at least for awhile and taking my good old time selling it because the cats could continue to live there and I could just keep going over a couple times every day to take care of them. After all, my dad let them live in his upstairs rent free for years. However, this was not a very practical solution and Gerard was not real happy about me having to run over there all the time--he wanted his wife back and I couldn't blame him.

Once I had the place cleaned out, I decided to follow my dad's advice and sell it, concluding that I'd rather put money into our house than that one. I priced it very reasonably, put it up for sale the last week of May 2007 and it sold within a week for which I was very grateful. We used money from the sale for a brand new Kia and to remodel our basement and still have a nice chunk left in savings. I think following my dad's advice was wise in this situation.

Book Review of My Funny Dad, Harry by Lucky Lady

One day as I was searching blogs I ran across Harry and for some reason I loved the blog, maybe Harry reminded me of someone or maybe he was just so unique in his own way. What ever the reason I marked it and later put it in my side bar so I could check it when ever I wanted, I could have bought the book but my eye sight is bad and I have not read a book for years, the last book was on tape, Bridges of Madison County and I also did not stop until it was finished the same day.

When Karen started the contest I thought I will win it and I did. I can not say who would like the book but I can say I enjoyed every word in it, he was awesome--wish he could have been my dad. Harry was a good father to his only child and his three foster children, he loved cats and I think he was one of a kind, if you love people or if you have an aging relative you should read MY FUNNY DAD, HARRY. You will laugh, cry and say "oh my gosh I don't believe that!" Go here,(www.karenzemek.blogspot.com), read a bit and then order and share with someone else. On a scale of one to ten I give this book a ten. Good job Karen and I know Harry would be proud of you.

Thanks for the nice book review! I'm so glad you liked it! (reposted by permission from Lucky Lady). Lucky Lady is a blogger in California who entered my book giveaway contest for Father's Day and wrote the above book review on her blog.

Here Are The Answers To The Contest--Congratulations To Lucky Lady & Beaded Tail!

Here are Harry's favorite things:

• Zoo animal? Elephant


• Food? ice cream or applesauce


• TV show? Matlock or Perry Mason


• Pastime? Woodworking


• Cat? Blackie


• Magazine? Consumer Reports or Fine Woodworking (He saved all of these and indexed them too!)


• Book? Any "How To" book about anything he was interested in learning


• Drink? Milk


• Car? Olds Silhouette Van


• Store? Any hardware store

Lucky Lady and Beaded Tail got 8 out of 10 answers correct and won an autographed copy of "My Funny Dad, Harry." I was very impressed with their persistence and am very happy that they won. Below is an email I received from Lucky Lady that really made me feel good:

HI KAREN
I GOT THE BOOK YESTERDAY AND FINISHED READING IT YESTERDAY. I HAVE NOT READ A BOOK FOR YEARS BECAUSE I HAVE VERY BAD EYE SIGHT. I CAN NOT EVEN TELL YOU WHY I GOT INTERESTED IN MY FUNNY DAD HARRY BUT FROM THE MOMENT I CAME ACROSS YOUR BLOG I WAS SO INTO IT. A FEW ALIKE THINGS I WAS BORN FEB.15,1947. HARRY PASSED AWAY ON FEB. 16 AND WAS MARRIED IN 1947, MY FIRST DOG WAS BROWNIE. NO ONE CAN FIGURE OUT MY FILING SYSTEM BUT ASK ME AND I CAN FIND WHAT YOU WANT IN A FEW MINUTES. I TRULY ENJOYED THE BOOK. HARRY WAS A SPECIAL PERSON AND SO ARE YOU, YOU WATCHED OVER HIM SO WELL. I STILL NEED TO KNOW WHAT HIS FAVORITE ZOO ANIMAL WAS AND HIS FAVORITE BOOK I COULD NOT EVEN GUESS AFTER READING THE BOOK AFTER JUNE 1 I WILL SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE BOOK ON MY BLOG. THANKS AGAIN

She also posted a review of the book on her blog at http://countrypictures.blogspot.com. Very nice of you, thanks!