"Eyes to see a brighter day"

A few things I learned about my Grandpa today from talking with the family while sitting in his room in the nursing home:

• His third and fourth toes on both feet are webbed up to the knuckle. I saw it. It's pretty sweet.
• Some of the many countries he traveled to for business with John Deere were Thailand, South Africa, Turkey, Australia, Iran and Argentina.
• Upon return home from business trips, sons Grant and Greg usually received two spankings. One for doing something wrong and one for good measure because they probably did something else wrong.
• Rumor has it that Grandpa's discipline eased as time went by as last child Dave didn't have as many spankings.
• Once my Grandpa had bought my Grandma expensive perfume from Paris for Christmas. One day the box and wrapping paper was wet and Greg and Grant were promptly spanked for breaking the bottle of perfume. On Christmas, Grandma opened the package anyway and the perfume hadn't broken. Instead my Mom had spilled water on the wrapping paper while watering the tree.
• My grandparents had a condo in the Bahamas for over 25 years. They initially went to the Bahamas because a friend had a golf package and invited them down for a visit.
• Most days in the Bahamas Grandpa would sit by the pool reading while Grandma cooked dinner in their condo. When dinner was ready, Grandma would go out to the balcony many floors up on the high-rise, whistle and wave him in. While he was a long ways down, he could always hear the whistle and knew dinner was ready.

It's the little things that are so beautiful.