Took the day off today. Working on the IRS Form 706. For those who are not familiar with it, it is the Estate Tax and Generation Skipping Tax Form which must be filed when someone dies. In this case, my Dad. It hurts triple to do this return....once because this form has to be one of the hardest that the IRS prints out with so many schedules and pages that it's insane to even try to do it unless you're a CPA (and unfortunately, I am), secondly, my Mom is putting pressure on me to finish it so it's exceedingly frustrating to explain to my Mom that this return is more than the 1040EZ...and lastly because as I look back at my Dad's bank statements, investment statements, and personal items, I remember my Dad's "man to man" talks with me. You see, ever since I can remember, my Dad and I had "man to man" talks on a near monthly basis to talk about serious issues. Real bonding time between my Dad and me. I have to fight back the tears just thinking about them. We mostly talked about my life and his advice usually came from some experience that he was having or had in the past. So as I go through my family's documents, I can see letters that were written to my Dad documenting decisions that he made over the phone. Many of these decisions came up in our "man to man" talks and of course, those memories seep up to my conscience...painful...now, I just feel like an old man who wants to be that child who clings to his Father's hand on the first day of kindergarten.