Well an unexpected thing happened today.  Dad called me.  My father.  The jerk.

I never really expected to talk to him directly until the the so called "visit" they make takes place in June.  So that was a shock to hear his voice.  Our phone lines have caller i.d. so when I saw the area code 305 show up I thought it was my sister as I have left her two messages and an email.  I answered the phone using my speaker and I could not exactly hear who it was other than it was a guy calling.  He said "Steve, this is Steve".  I about dropped when I recognized who it was.  But I was cool about it.  He said he was calling to see what was going on.  I took that to mean about the mortgage that Jennifer is helping me to get.

So I went into the discussion of what I was doing and we talked about the deal.  I was a little unnerved but was also surprised that he didn't start berating me like he used to do when I was a living there. Let me explain that more.  He can intimidate me to a point that even though I know what to do or say, my mind thinks it but it just doesn't come out of my mouth.  If I slow down my thought process, I can make my words complete but I just don't usually do that with him.  Today I did o.k. and I think he knew that I knew what to do to make this deal work.  He is the only person I have that problem with.  I collect money for a living.  I have no problem telling people what to and how to do it.

So the conversation was short.  We were on his speaker phone so I didn't know who else might have been in his office.  There were no pleasantries although he made a joke about getting my sister to pay for the appraisal.  And then he told me to get with her about getting a pre-approval.  That was it.  I just wonder what is next.

I have no trust of my father.  Anger still subsides in me about him.  Wary I am.  If this deal does not go through I will fall further away from him.  But I must say that this is the first civil conversation we have had together in almost 9 years.  We had the fallout in July of 1996.  Time will only tell about this situation in my life.