Cold, grey, got up at 5:45 for work, but at least came home to THIS (part 1)

I often have to work weekends. Some months, I go 25 days in a row without a break. Comes with the territory, and I'm not complaining, but it gets tiring sometimes, and it's especially depressing during the northern European winters, when there's only about 6 to 7 hours of daylight a day.

Today, on a brief lunch break, my younger daughter, the one who lives in Europe, came by to have a quick lunch with me. She was in Amsterdam for work yesterday and this morning, but got back to Frankfurt (where I was yesterday and today) around noon.

My wife had been with her for a "wellness weekend" last week somewhere in the Taunus hills outside Frankfurt. My wife had forgotten to tell me this, but my daughter had told her that she always had the feeling that I was there for her, and was never mising, especially when it counted. Now, I have a strenuous job, and I travel a LOT. It has been this way forever, since I was recruited in 1975. The rank is now higher and the pay way better, but the hours are no less. I always tried to be there for my wife and daughters when I could, but I always feared that my work took me away more than a family man should have let happen. Apparently, the fact that I did my best to be there for everyone when I possibly could was not missed.

To have this verbally acknowledged by my (now 28 year old) power international lawyer daughter made the sun shine through the grey and the cold turn into a Hawaii summer.