I mostly post fluff and music posts on this thread more often now but just thought I would let some people here who still know me about what has been goin on with me recently. My dad about a 7 month battle with lung cancer which metastasized to the bones and he died early Wed morning. My dad was a fascinating man, complex, sometimes open and sometimes a very aloof and detached person. I grew up traveling the world as he was in the Air Force and he retired from the AF when I was 5 and then we lived in the states for a while and then went to work in Saudi Arabia in 1975 and my mom, bro, sis and I moved there in 1976 and lived there till 1979 when my parents divorced.
I would see him off and on when he would visit us and his parents until he permanently moved back in 1987 and then I lived with him off and on some until moving to LR about 9 years ago. But during those years and all the jobs he has held in aircraft engineering he has met some very intersting people in his lifetime - he was very close friends with a guy from the US who was the Saudi's king's personal pilot and others who build the first airports in Saudi. He even worked in Bin Laudin's family's aircraft hanger for 2 years and knew Bin Laudin as a teenager!!
Having him as a father he wasn't the type of father who showed outward displays of affection and he would feel or react awkwardly when someone would show express affection toward him; he was a heavy drinker and was abusive to us kids and my mother; however years later I got to see another side to him and witness the power of love and how it can perform changes in people nothing shorter than a miracle which is what happened when he met the woman who is my stepmother now about 10 years ago. She brought out the best in him and if it wasn't for the love she gave him and their bond I wouldn't have gotten to see just how wonderful of a man my father could be.
Since Elvis was of my dad's generation and my dad loved Hawaiian shirts and music I thought this song would be a fitting dedication to him. To the memory of my dad. I love you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt4v9Rflv68
LRG