Step-Father Complex Sentence

On this Father's Day, I celebrate 44 years of being a father and a step father.

Aside from the issues of blood and stereotype, there's not a lot of difference. The only parental unit that get's a worse rap than step-father is step mother.

It's a difficult job father/step father. In some ways stepfather is the more difficult of the two.

You can't come on too strong nor too weak.

You've got to be at your best at all time and hope that you will gain acceptance. My girls accepted me and made the process possible. Now 30 years later when we speak of love, we speak of shared support, understanding, patience and pride.

My youngest step daughter, Raegan is 41 and has two children of her own.

Raegan is about as down to earth as anyone that I know which means that she'll say things that you don't expect to hear but after they start rolling off her tongue, you know where they are going and are amazed at the  rhythm, complexity, brevity and clarity of the picture that they paint. 

Nobody causes more spit-takes than Rae.

Here is one of my all- time favorite sentences that Raegan delivered over speaker phone. This was her response to the simple question "How ya doin?"

"I almost broke my goddamned foot when I kicked at the dog who was pissing on the couch." 

Let's take a look at this sentence. It's a complex sentence. It begins with an independent clause (I almost broke my goddamned foot) followed by a dependent verb clause (when I kicked at the dog) followed by an adjective clause (who was pissing on the couch). The rhythm is accentuated by prepositional phrases at the conclusion of both dependent clauses (at the dog/on the couch). Emphasis is added with "goddamned". Two action verbs and one action verb phrase (broke/kicked and was pissing) convey action. A direct object in the independent clause (foot) modified by a personal pronoun (my) and two objects of prepositions in the two dependent clauses(dog/couch) help to position other nouns in the clauses adding a sense of chaos to the situation.

Yeah, it's just a sentence. Just a bunch of words following each other and supporting each other as they reveal a complex situation as succinctly as possible.

Kinda like being a step-parent.

Nuthin' simple about it.