It's all Val's Fault

I have this friend, whom I shall name Val, because it’s a name that is easy to spell and to remember, who made me do this. She read one of my informational emails at work and replied with: “You need to start a blog....I'm serious...you so have inherited your dad's talent. And I can spot TALENT!!!! Please pretty please start a blog??? I will be a loyal reader!!” So here I sit, after having opened a Blog account, pondering what to write. Since I’m blaming all of this on Val, I’ll give you a bit of background as to how she could possibly know whether or not I have my father’s talent of storytelling. Once upon a time, Val, who shall continue to remain just a friend with an easily spelled name, heard one of the stories my Father wrote….because I read it to her. She loved the delicate wording, sincere expression of an enormous array of emotions, the delightful play on words involved in every character’s name, and his penchant for illustrating the art of over-exaggeration. One afternoon, after much begging on her part, I brought all of the stories in and let her read them. She fell absolutely in love with his writing and asked if she could write to him. You see, Val, was a writer too and wanted his opinion on the stories she was currently writing. I asked permission from my father to give Val his address, so they could become pen pals. I say “asked permission”, because I didn’t want him to think she was a stalker or anything, knowing how he felt about stalkers, telephone solicitors, and general nuisance type folks. So, she sent him her articles to peruse and critique at his leisure, and he sent her eloquent responses of the most flattering and sensitive nature. The sentiment that Val received from my father, by way of his eloquent prose, deeply touched her in a way she hadn’t imagined. She appreciated his directness and his wit and felt he spoke/wrote to her on a common level, as a friend, rather than a teacher to a student. Sadly, my father became too ill to continue to write and that aspect of this tale came to an end. But the stories he wrote for me, continue to cause Val and I to giggle and are often fodder for some of the ridiculous conversations she and I have. So, there you have the bare bones of it. Now I need to find out what you think…..and I really should taunt you with a tiny example of my father’s stories…..just to see if you find him as entertaining, delightful, witty, and deliciously expressive as Val and I did….and then compare his writing and mine…or not….(I just like using dots instead of punctuation, because I’m not quite sure what the appropriate punctuation would be in this run-on sentence).