Sunday, June 19, 2011

Happy Papa Llama Day!

One of my favorite memories with my dad is also one of my favorite nerd memories- the moment I realized that advanced math has real life applications.
My dad was big on doing home remodeling projects.  As a family, we turned the duplex we owned into a single family house when I was in elementary school, knocking down walls and redecorating everything.
My senior year of high school, my dad had me help him tear out part of our porch to create a storage closet off the dining room. Since there was already a door leading out to the space (that used to be the front door of that unit) I guess he figured it might as well lead to something useful, plus it would cut down on the amount of times we would have to answer the door to solicitors by a third.

 As a teenager who is part of a government experiment, getting to take a sledgehammer to wooden uprights is downright cathartic, but then I got to help frame out the room, building everything from the studs up.  And then, since there was already a roof on the porch, I got to actually use the trigonometry I had learned the year before to figure out what angle my dad needed to miter the wood at to make the roof section fit.
I'm quite certain my dad didn't need me to do the math, he achieved a near perfect score on his SAT, he is brilliant, but I was excited to get to do the math, I even remember it as being my idea to use my trig knowledge to figure it out, and I was excited that he trusted my calculations and didn't (at least in front of me) insist on doing them himself to make sure he wasn't wasting a cut (because you always measure twice, and cut once).

I don't even recall crying once during the whole remodel, which was quite remarkable.
And the roof piece fit perfectly, for the record.


11 comments:

  1. Because I have a brilliant daughter, I didn't feel the need to check her work. (I don't know what "choose a profile" means. But it let's me be anonymous.)
    I love you.
    Dad

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  2. Very cool, lady! And Happy Father's Day to all of you out there!

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  3. Thank you for sharing this today!! It made me smile!!

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  4. I love that your dad commented on this. That's the best ever!

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  5. cutest llama in eyewear ever! your dad's a good egg.

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  6. Your dad commenting is priceless! Made me smile. :0)

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  7. Love the details in the drawing. :-)

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  8. Love your Dad's comment! hahahaha

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  9. I helped my father build a fence in someone else's backyard in Spearfish SD nearly 40 years ago. I found the house four years ago and the fence, a woven design with 1x8's was still standing with few defects. The owner let me tske pictures. I showed them to my nearly blind father shortly before he passed away. He didn't remember the job until he saw the photos.

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  10. Good job on the roof! You and your dad building must have been the complete opposite of me and my mom building a trailer. Good thing we had extra lumber.

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