a story about my dad.

yesterday my dad told me a story about himself that i'd never heard before.  

this is unusual.  my father loves to tell stories, and chances are that i've heard them multiple times.  i'm not complaining; this is just the way it is.

we were sitting around my parents' pool on the warped and rotted picnic benches that have served my family since 1988.  i had cut some mango for lunch, and my mom was making appropriate mango-slurping-noises in appreciation.  and then this is the story my dad told me:

"i was in panama (where he was stationed in the Air Force) and just got off a three-day long shift.  i was so hungry, and i couldn't wait to eat--so i sat down under a mango tree and pulled two or three of them off and started tearing them apart.

and there's nothing--nothing--like eating a mango right from the tree--

anyway, there i was, so happy to be eating finally, when suddenly i felt this huge creature jump on my back.  i look over, and there is a fruit bat the size of a large cat on my shoulder!  one wing/hand is holding onto my back, and the other is on my shoulder... and i'm freaking out, really!  this was long, long before i was the nature guy that i am today...

(at this point my mom interjects that my father must've been 19, but he insists he was more like 21.  they argue for a minute, as they are wont to do.)

anyway, i look over at the bat, and there's his little dog face and his little tongue, and he's just lapping up all the mango juice that i've just spilled all over myself, happy as can be.  i'm trying not to move, trying not to move at all, and then suddenly as quick as he arrived he's gone.

and i go back into the barracks and the guys say, "hey lash, what's with you?" and i try to tell them what just happened--"i just had a bat the size of a chihuahua on me!" but they all laugh it off.

bats are amazing."

i love this story.  i love bats; they are my favorite flying mammals.  bats will be my next tattoo, left arm, design to be announced at a later date.  

i love this story because it made my dad happy to share it with us, and seeing my father happy is a good thing.

i wish the bat population wasn't in peril.  just as an aside.

i love this story and i love my dad.