How was my Father’s Day? Thank you for asking.

For starters, my daughter and her family, who live in the Bay Area, moved into the first home of their own earlier in the week. Hence, they were quite literally boxed in from making the trip south to celebrate with me.

My son, meanwhile, spent the week in San Francisco on a work trip and was driving home to the South Bay on Sunday. He hoped to make it to Ventura for a dinnertime visit.

Oh, yes, my wife was also up north babysitting our 2-year-old granddaughter during the chaotic days following the big move-in. She was driving back with our son, enjoying a nice long chat in the car, turning the day into Mother’s Day for her.

So how was my Father’s Day you ask again? To borrow from my favorite John Wooden-ism, it was a masterpiece day!

Jess made my Father’s Day special with a “Pops” Date.

To be sure, I missed being with my dear daughter and second-to-none son-in-law and grandest of granddaughters, but we visited on video chat which hands down beats a phone call. And my son and wife made it home for dinner, and not just any dinner, but mouth-watering lobster rolls from Maine.

Still, the truth is that my Father’s Day was extra special precisely because circumstances left me home alone. Actually, that is a half-truth. Because I was going to be alone, my son’s fiance drove two and a half hours to spend the afternoon with me, just the two of us, like the “Daddy Dates” my daughter and I still enjoy.

Call this one a “Pops” Date for that is what my future daughter-in law calls me. I in turn fondly call her JB, which is short for Jessburn, which is a story for another time. While having the whole family together is magical, there is also a rare gift in one-on-one time with loved ones.

JB and I talked, and laughed, for hours on end and capped our Pops Date with an el fresco happy hour at a downtown pub. Even after knowing her for two years, I learned much more about JB and her family; about her work in the tech world and about her worldly travels; about her dreams and her dream wedding in the planning for next summer.

“What’s your favorite thing about GB?” – short for Gregburn, which is one of my numerous nicknames of endearment for my son – I asked JB at one point. Without even a wine sip’s delay to think, she replied beaming as brightly as her engagement ring: “He’s the genuinely nicest person I’ve ever met.”

So says the person who once, when my wife and I were visiting them for a pandemic picnic, literally went out of her way by walking alone two miles roundtrip to a specific pizza parlor because I love their slices and had been looking forward to them but deliveries had unexpectedly been canceled that day.

Honestly, I would have been happy with bread and water because spending time with GB and JB was truly what my wife and I were looking forward to. Looking back, it is just one example of JB’s genuine niceness.

But I need not look back nearly that far – back to Father’s Day and how she again went out of her way for me is far enough. Actually, I need only look back to earlier this morning (as I write this) to JB’s text wishing me a good day and telling me to have a nice run later this afternoon.

How was my Father’s Day? Pops Day was a masterpiece!

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @woodywoodburn. His SIGNED books are available at www.WoodyWoodburn.com.

Personalized Signed copies of WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece” and  “Strawberries in Wintertime: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” are available at WoodyWoodburn.com