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Growing up, I understood one thing about my dad: He knew everything.
在成長過程中，我了解了父親的一件事：他無所不知。
This was our relationship, in sum: I asked him questions and he told me the answers.
這就是我們的關系，總而言之：我問他問題，他告訴我答案。
Is there really a man in the moon? How do sailboats work? What is the highest score anyone’s ever gotten in Pac-Man?
月球上真的有人類嗎？帆船是如何工作的？吃豆人游戲的最高分是多少？
In my teen years, he taught me things I’d need to know to survive in the real world. How to drive a stick shift.
在我十幾歲的時候，他教會了我在現實世界中生存所需要知道的東西。如何駕駛手動擋。
How to check your car tire’s pressure (though the gauge he bought me 20 years ago still sits untouched in my glove box).
如何檢查汽車輪胎的氣壓（盡管他20年前給我買的計量器現在還沒動過，放在我的手套箱里）。
The correct knife to use to cut a cantaloupe.
切哈密瓜要用的刀。
When I moved out on my own, I called him at least once a week, usually when something broke in my apartment and I needed to know how to fix it:
當我自己搬出去住的時候，我每周至少給他打一次電話，通常是當我的公寓出了問題，我需要知道如何修理的時候：
the toilet; the air-conditioning; the wall, once, when I threw a shoe at a terrifying spider.
廁所；空調；有一次，我把一只鞋子扔向一只可怕的蜘蛛。
But then, eventually, I needed him less.
但后來，我不再那么需要他了。
I got married, and my husband had most of the knowledge I lacked about gutter cleaning and water heaters and nondestructive insect removal.
我結了婚，我丈夫掌握了我所缺乏的大部分知識，比如清潔排水溝、熱水器和非破壞性昆蟲清除。
For everything else, we had Google. I don’t know when it happened, but our conversations when I called devolved into six words.
其他的事情我們都可以用谷歌。我不知道這是什么時候發生的，但當我打電話時，我們的對話變成了六個字。
Me: “Hi, Dad.” Him: “Hi, sweets. Here’s Mom.” (Because her, I still needed—What’s your chicken parm recipe?
我：“嗨，爸爸。他：“嗨，甜心。”這是媽媽。（因為她，我仍然需要——你的烤雞是怎么做的？
Do I need to call the doctor for my daughter’s fever? Can you read this draft of my novel?)
我女兒發燒了，我需要叫醫生嗎？你能看一下我小說的草稿嗎？）
I loved my dad, of course, but I wondered at times if maybe he had already shared everything I needed to know.
當然，我愛我的父親，但有時我懷疑他是否已經分享了我需要知道的一切。
Maybe I’d heard all his stories. Maybe, after knowing a man for 40 years, there’s nothing left to say.
也許我聽過他所有的故事。也許，在認識一個男人40年后，已經沒什么可說的了。
Then, this past summer, my husband, our four kids, and I moved in with my parents for three weeks while our house was being renovated.
然后，在剛剛過去的這個夏天，我們的房子正在翻新時，我和我的丈夫，我們的四個孩子，搬去和我的父母住了三個星期。
They own a lake house, and Dad asked me to help him rebuild the bulkhead at their dock.
他們在湖邊有一棟房子，爸爸讓我幫他重建他們碼頭的艙壁。
I didn’t balk—it was the least I could do for free rent—but I was dreading it. It was hard, manual labor.
我沒有退縮——這是我為免房租所能做的最起碼的事——但我很害怕。這是艱苦的體力勞動。
We got wet and sandy, and I’m fairly certain a deadly bacteria was unleashed from the innards of the rotted wood we hacked away from the old retaining wall.
我們身上又濕又沙，我敢肯定，一種致命的細菌從我們從舊擋土墻上砍下來的朽木內部釋放出來。
