My dad enjoys reading the newspaper.  It is part of his morning ritual.

Thumbing through the news of the day he heads to the sports page. Soon there after he will grouse about the success or failure of his Notre Dame Irish and whichever Houston sports franchise is playing.

Then, he gets quiet.  Occasionally a chuckle, other times outright laughter.  He reads through the comics like a bookie studies a racing form.  The frames of humorous wisdom helps dad make sense of the world.

Once, a long time ago, after I graduated from TCU. I commented about the Crankshaft cartoons. According to Wikipedia, “Crankshaft is an eponymous comic strip about an elderly, curmudgeonly school bus driver which debuted on June 8, 1987.”

I must have been an early adopter because I’ve been reading the comic strip since 1987.  But, I’ve never purchased a newspaper with Crankshaft on its pages.  My dad, remembering the comic strip comment has made saving the daily muse a part of his morning ritual.

As a result, whenever I head to Houston to visit, I have a stack of comic strips to catch up on when I get back to Albuquerque.

Funny, I let my dad know that he didn’t need to clip those out for me.  Gosh, it has been 20 years now?  He says he doesn’t mind.

And now in my later years, I “get it.” Clipping the comics provides a way for him to connect with me each day, even though I am not in his immediate presence.

Today, I went through another collection of Crankshaft comics.  A stack that was procured during my last trip to Houston.

He wasn’t with me in Albuquerque, but I could sure hear his laugh as I read through the comics.