The sins of the fathers shall be visited upon their sons

I'm a procrastinator.

My idea of  'timely' is to start a project the day before it's due.  I've told myself that I was a 'fast worker', and "I work better under pressure".  I'm not sure NOW, but back in 'the day' it was an acceptable excuse for me.

Unfortunately, the procrastination gene seems to be dominant.

I got a "Happy Fathers' Day" phone call from my son ("The Squid Kid") at 10:30 on Father's Day.

Uh .. that was PM.

It's hard for us to talk on the phone.  Both of us like talking on the phone almost as much as we like chewing razors and washing them down with rat poison.  So it's a compliment to Squid Kid that he actually phoned.

I didn't expect it; but I was delighted to hear from him, because he phones on my birthday and on Father's day .. and he missed my birthday this year.

(Not that I've phoned him lately*; he has odd work hours, I never know when he'll be home, and that's excuse enough for ME!)

* ["lately" = "in the past year"]

There are a couple more complications; his diction doesn't come across clearly on the phone, and I don't hear so good.  So our conversations are often punctuated:  "What?  What did you say?  I can't understand you!"   That doesn't make for an open, free-flowing exchange of information and ideas.

Here's the funny thing.

Give us five or ten minutes on the phone, and we discover we have so much to say to each other that we just can't find a way to stop the conversation.  A five-minute phone call usually takes an hour to complete, as it did again last night.

The Squid Kid finally said "Dad, I hate to go, but I've got to get up in the morning and go to work" (it was nearly midnight by then.

I said: " I understand. Thanks for the phone call.  I have missed you.  I love you, son."

He said "I love you too, Dad."

I've waited all year to hear that.

It was worth the wait.