My father is a very wise man. I have learned many lessons from him over the years, and I’m sure he has a few more gems left to impart. My dad is a bit of a perfectionist. When I bought a loft bed from a fellow student during my sophomore year at university and needed a ladder to go with it, he made me one. It was stained, varnished, and perfectly angled so to lie flat and sturdy on the floor. The loft frame itself was constructed of raw timbers and bolts; it was akin to putting Mercedes hub caps on a Gremlin. When I admonished him for the overkill,…