Dad? Is that you?

I had another "oh my God, I'm my father" moment tonight.

You know those times when you catch yourself doing the very thing you used to laugh at your parents for doing. Once it was a morning when I just heated up yesterday's old coffee. It was a perfectly fine almost full pot. I saw no reason to waste it. Just popped my mug into the microwave, and it wasn't' until I was sipping away that the brick hit my head "oh my god, I've turned into my father"

There are other sublte offenses. I think I've seen every re-run of NCIS on TV. My Dad's equivalent was "In the heat of the night" or "Matlock." I always wondered how he found them all the time.. now I know. Yesterday I was complaining to the manager of a new grocery store that they didn't have the brands I usually shopped, they didn't care... but I felt compelled to tell them how to stock their shelves for their sake. And I recently found myslef jury rigging a home improvement project, rather than call in a professional.

But tonight, I crossed the line. After dinner it was time to store the leftovers, and I'm out of plastic wrap. Chicken is fine, it's in a coverd dish. sauce, covered dish. But I had nothing to put the rice in. So, I dumped it in a bowl. Took some wax paper, fit it over the bowl, then.... yes...those who know my father know what I did next. Then I put a rubber band around the wax paper to hold it onto the bowl.

Shower caps. My father's refrigerator was full of little bowls covered with what we called shower caps. His were the actual covers you buy w/ elastic around the edges. I'm not sure they still sell them.. but my Dad had a bunch, and I think he would wash, and re-use them. Open his refrigerator on any given day and there was an army of little bowls with shower caps all ferminting in there or becoming their own science experiement. You didn't dare lift the cover or look inside.

It wasn't until I was carefully pulling the wax paper down thru the rubber band that the brick fell again... Yup, my Dad would be proud. I guess as we get older, we realize our parents weren't that excentric aftert all, just practical.

And one day, my children will catch themselves in a moment, and they'll stop dead in their tracks and realize, "they've become their mother" As for me, I'll pull my shower cap bowl out this week and enjoy my left-overs, before they become a science experiement. There are some of my Dad's habits I won't take on... of course, check back in about 20 years. The way things are going, I guess it's best never to say never.