Happiness is...

Hanging with my Pops!!!

My Dad gets in to KC in t-minus 24 hours. (Rumor has it he wants to see his baby before she potentially gets eaten by a lion.)

On our agenda:
1. Driving with the windows down and Led Zeppelin up...LOUD.
2. Enlisting his overqualified volunteer assistance to pass out Lyric Opera flyers at KC's outdoor Shakespeare Festival. (By the way, in next year's LOKC version of Hamlet, "To be or not to be" will be sung in the key of E. Just in case you were curious.)
3. Following our hard work, we'll eat so much Gates BBQ I'll have to look for a second stomach to make room.
4. After my bro finishes up his dinner shift at Buca di Beppo, I anticipate hitting the town and kicking back with my best boys.
5. On the p.m. agenda - Order. Newcastle. Repeat.
6. The whole shennanigan will be topped off with an unneccessarily artery-clogging Sunday breakfast at some little diner.

You gotta love family. My Momma's on the way to Florida right now for our annual vacation, and the boys follow this next week. Le sigh. It's the first time in 25 years I won't be there with them.

I'll be missing them sorely as they soak up the sun and I hang with giraffes and little kids.

In tribute to my Dad's arrival, tomorrow's soundtrack is: Babe I'm Gonna Leave You - Led Zeppelin - How the West Was Won (Disc 3)

This is my favorite Led Zep song, and one of the first my Dad & checked out and dissected together.

The entire band just wails on the chorus sections. It's really worth listening to four different times to focus in on one instrument.
John Bonham sounds like he's going to bash holes in the drums.
Jimmy Page is bipolar, plucking delicately and abusing the strings while driving the tempo later.
John Paul Jones' bass line is mesmerizing and makes the six and a half minute track zoom by in a fleeting moment.
And then there's Robert Plant. Between his singing, humming, wailing and screaming, you can't tell if he wants her to come back or run away, but you know it's good.

Rock out.