My Father's Day

Sunday morning, Leila came over with a big bag of groceries.  We chopped and sliced and grilled, and had a wonderful father-daughter lunch.  Afterwards, we went over to a friend’s house for a backyard pool party with beer and bbq.  As we sat around the picnic table in our swim trunks eating fajitas, the woman next to me suddenly grabbed her throat, and frantically indicated she couldn’t breathe.  I leaped to my feet, got behind her, encircled her with my arms, and performed the Heimlich maneuver.  The first time I did it nothing happened, so I reset, and did it again, only harder.   A large piece of meat flew out of her mouth and hit the ground, where one of the dogs promptly ate it.  

When she regained her breath, she said:  “You saved my life!”  

I smiled.

Later that evening, I went to the One2One for salsa on crack with a live timba band.  After about an hour, one of my favorite salsa partners showed up.  We shared a vigorous and satisfying dance.  She had a good lead, so she excelled.  When I returned to my table, a stranger came over and stuck out his hand.  As we shook, he said:  

“Wow, y’all are really good!”  

I smiled.