Besides the lessons that they have tried to teach you.

I find myself looking back on my life lately, especially now that my father is living with me and I can't help but look at him and all he has done to alienate everyone from him and think that he should/could have done things differently.

I'm not picking on the guy but if there is one word to describe my father is "inflexible".

There's a reason why no one from his family(and friends for the most part) come visit him, call him sporadically and generally ignore him.

Unless you are on the anti castro bandwagon, my dad has nothing to say to you for the most part.

Even now, after his stroke, he remains the same and refuses to even consider that someone else may be right about something.

My sister told me that I was the spitting image of my father. To which I replied, if anything, I am nothing like him. He is the old school hispanic, keeping the wife subservient, dominating the kids and their personalities, being 5 minutes early for an appointment and storming off pissed if the other party isn't on time sort of guy.

To give you more of my dad, he believes that a restaurant is not to sit down and talk or chat, only to eat food. Once that task has been accomplished, he gets up and waits outside in the car alone. He'll sit/chat and a smoke a ciggy with a total stranger outside, but can't chat with his own family inside.

If you ask him if he's hungry, he'll say yes but expects to be fed right then and now and will get up and leave if he's not eating within minutes.

Years ago, when my parents were married and we used to go to family functions, the typical argument was about boxers and who the best were etc...

Ali, Forman, Frazier...etc.My father would say " the best boxer ever was Teofilo Stevenson, period"

My uncles would reply, well Ali was , so and so...

My father would interrupt and say Stevenson, period.

My uncles would say, blah, blad and my father would say " I said period, period, period"

My uncles would tell him "hey, you're not my father and I have my own opinion, go fock yourself!"

My father would then tell us all to get ready cause we were leaving and call my uncles cretins.

I can go on and on, but one thing my father taught me, without trying to, is to be more flexible, understanding and patient with people. And that I don't know it all.

What about you all?

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Enough about me, how are you doing?