carpet.

when people ask 'what does your dad do for a living?' 

it's hard for me to come up with a one word answer 

such as doctor or lawyer.  

'he's the regional sales manager for a commercial carpet company...?' 

i usually reply,

only because 'he sells carpet' just sounds tacky.  

growing up with a dad in the carpet business has it's ups and downs. 

ups: storage shed playtime.  

[pretending to be horace and jasper with parker]

carpet samples for anything imaginable: 

games, car floors, tent door mats, etc.

i always feel special when the ups and fedex men 

visit our house a couple times a week with packages

good carpet cleaner for discount? maybe? 

he gets paid well :) 

one of the downs is that wherever we go my dad has 

to examine the carpet and provide commentary. 

"this is milliken" he'll say.  or "ahh... lee's".  

if there are bubbles in the carpet he'll step on them, 

bend over, examine, push with fingers. 

you get the idea.  

probably my favorite is when he talks to people about their carpet.  

one day in st. george we were at a swimming center. 

 the carpet was bubbly. 

he spent the next 20 minutes talking to the maintenance man 

(that only cleans the building) about options for his carpet woes.  

oh, dad.  we love you.  

also he loves to talk to his "people" while we drive home from Logan.  

on speaker phone. 

call after call about state contracts, church square miles, 

problems at the mill, whiska, backings . . . 

great times in the car.  

i could recognize some of his 

people's voices anywhere now.  

i'm willing to bet most people don't think twice

 about the carpet they step on daily.  

if you're in my family though, you do.  

subconsciously.  

it's great.