My Dad's an Engineer

For 35 years my dad worked as a chemical engineer at Monsanto Textiles in Decatur. While he may not be DOING the business of an engineer anymore, he has never stopped BEING the engineer. It's in the blood that runs through his veins and keeps him alive.

My dad is dangerously observant. He knows what's in his environment and where it is at all times (and if it changes, he researches until he finds out why). He is strategically thrifty and frugal. A few examples...

He takes regular inventory of the refrigerator and pantry in his home. When I say regular, I mean several times a day he stands in front of the refrigerator and pantry studying the contents and rearranging things to suit his strategic nature. One day, Bess and I changed where things were in the refrigerator. When he came to the fridge for his next study session, he must have stayed there 15 minutes before he started asking what happened.

When I was in college I got a long lecture about the use of ATMs and the ridiculousness of using an ATM with a fee. That was wasted money. Money that was thrown away and why would anyone throw away money? That was completely counterintuitive to him. I think I have only used an ATM that had a fee once in 15 years. Even then, I felt tremendously guilty.

Those of you who know me can imagine that my personality, at times, drove (and drives) my dad crazy. When I decided to change my major from physics to religion because it felt like a better fit for my interests, he made me do research and interview all kinds of faculty and people and schools to find out ifI could actually make a living. This change logically made no sense to him - a woman in physics had it made...but religion????

I have a lifetime of examples of the meticulous and "special" philosophies and habits of my father. Here is the latest...

I got a letter in this envelope. The piece of paper it was written on was 1/2 the size of the envelope. I learned the reason this particular envelope was chosen was not because of the letter inside, but rather because it would fit the stamps that he wanted to use. These stamps that were painstakingly removed from stamped return envelopes he's received from junk mail. He has saved all of these stamps because, well, they're perfectly good and what a waste if you just throw them away (duh).

Now that he's retired, he will spend hours going through the grocery store ads scouting for sales. Mom said when he first realized the sales, he would go to the store and stock up with like 20 each of the sale items, until a little experience taught him that things go on sale more frequently than he expected. But he will drive to different grocery stores all over town to get the deals, especially if it's on meat.

But I guess that why he is living a comfortable retirement and why Bess and I don't have any student loans. I hope some of it rubbed off on me, even though I don't think it did. You can just ask Will.