My dad is a mason. He's been a mason since before I was born. Every single day of my life he woke up before the sun and never once seemed annoyed. We've always called him "The Energizer Bunny" because of that.

He got out of bed every day and worked as hard as he could for as long as I can remember- even when he didn't have to. There was a time in my life when I thought that he did that just because he enjoyed the work. That's not entirely untrue. I know he does enjoy it and that it drives him crazy not to be busy with something useful but it took me a long time to realize that that was mostly a learned behavior. What was bred of necessity became his passion.

Then there was a time in my life where I worked with him and tried my best to walk beside him. I could never quite keep up. My father takes long strides. In those years I finally realized that he didn't get up and go to work every day because he liked to do it. He didn't come home with cuts and bruises because it was fun. He did it because he loved me and my brother and sister and mother. He did it because he was good at it and it kept us fed.

Over the last 33 years he has taught me a million things- some of which I use every single day of my life. Some of which have saved me countless hours of frustration and equally countless dollars. Many of those lessons helped me to become a better man for my wife and children. For all of those things I could not be more grateful despite how hard it is to say so at times.

Today is a Sunday. I called my dad this morning to wish him a happy Father's Day. He was appreciative as always. I happened to interrupt him while he was loading a truck for work. It's Sunday. It's Father's Day and the Energizer Bunny was loading up a truck for work tomorrow even though he probably doesn't have to.

That's my dad. He's a hell of a man.