Any man can be a father, but it takes a special person to be a dad

Today is Father's Day-as everyone should know, and in honor of this day to celebrate fathers, I will celebrate mine.
My dad is amazing. Growing up, I was always scared to death of him. I'm not sure what it was exactly, but he made me so nervous. Whenever I wanted something, I would ask mom for it. When she said "Ask your father" I was out. Go ask dad? You might as well have told me to walk on glass-too frightening a concept to think of. Luckily, I have grown out of that. I now have no problem asking him for things. (Thanks, dad!) He is very strict and firm though-and you do not want to be on his bad side. When he gets mad, I know to run for the hills, even when its not me he's mad at.
He has a great sense of humor. We can joke about anything-and we do. I don't think everyone gets our jokes, so a lot of the times, we're laughing about things, and other people are looking blankly on. He makes these incredibly corny jokes all the time, and I'll be damned if I'm not starting to find these funny. I used to roll my eyes whenever he made of one these jokes (especially as a teenager-but come on, when you're that age, parents are never cool) but now when I hear one, I laugh for so long, and I'm mad I'm laughing at it!
He is super supportive. He, like my mom, as I blogged about earlier, came to every one of my soccer games. He would go to any game, no matter where it was. He brought food, and treats, he would buy every stupid thing I would have to sell for school. And now that none of his kids are in school anymore, he is nice to the little neighborhood kids, and buys stuff from them when they swing by the house.
I think he's a softie-which he'll never admit to. He hates being touched, but I know (with all evidence to the contrary) that he loves when I spontaneously hug him. Even though he stands there stiffly, I know in his brain he's hugging back. And even though he says he hates my tiny Troop, when he thinks nobody is watching, I'll catch him petting her.
I'm slowly getting him to watch all the stuff that I like. He's doing the same to me, though. I have watched all sorts of things that are just...weird because he's told me to, and I'm getting him to watch my "girly" shows (like Gilmore Girls, I think I almost have him to watch that) and he gets me to watch all these random shows from the 80's. (Yes, I have seen Sledgehammer.) We have such similar tastes in stuff, we watch a most of our TV together at night (mostly during the fall, when stuff is on) usually while one of us is exercising. (you know, the treadmill, an exercise bike, this sort of thing)
To talk about everything I love about my dad would take too long. I'm glad that today we had a day to honor him-and I hope that everyone today honored their own dad!