In the summer of 2005 Beth and I were traveling through Europe. On Fathers Day we found ourselves in Greece and that morning I was thinking back about a previous trip we had made to my childhood home and a great story about how my dad had an instrumental part in my growth into what would one day become an editor. This is that journal entry that I made on the road.

Day 29 - Happy Fathers Day
Sunday June 19, 2005

I love you dad.

Thank you for raising me the way you did, you taught me to see detail in the world and then you taught me what to do with it. You showed me that you could use technology in creative ways.

When I was just a little boy I sat right were I'm standing in the photo below and I was making a drawing. I was probably 7 or 8 years old. In my mind I was drawing the "Chariot", which, for you Sci-fi fans, is the tracked vehicle from "Lost in Space". I just thought it was cool looking.

Beth and I visited my childhood home in Santa Barbara.
I was explaining this story about the Xenon Light to the woman who lived in the house.

As I sat there drawing you came and sat with me and asked me what I was doing. I said I was drawing a moon car. You said, "Well, if you are going to be driving on the moon, you're going to need a really bright light to see where you are going. You should use a Xenon light, it's the brightest light we know how to make. You should put it on top of the car so it can see further. Then, you should put it on a pole with some bearings so that it can turn 360 degrees and maybe you should put a camera up there while you are at it."

All the while you were drawing this contraption on my "moon car", it had a post and you very carefully drew a draftsman's representation of a ball bearing and then you drew a light and a camera unit and it sat proud on the top of my moon car.

I can't tell you how much I wish I had that drawing today. I would frame it.

I love you dad.

Thanks for everything.