This Is The Day
An event took place in our house last week that not only took the wind out of my sails but also made me realize just how important the music of KISS is to my life. On October 30th, 2007, I put down our family dog of 12 years. I know…you are probably saying to yourself ‘what in the hell is this chump getting all worked up over a dog for?’…Well, quite frankly…after that long she felt more than just a dog…she was a member of the family. She was a piece of the Howard puzzle picked up as a stray when I was still living at my mom’s house. A piece of the puzzle that was there when I ‘missed’ the KISS convention…hooted and hollered at the top of my lungs after witnessing Tupac introduce a freshly made-up lineup of KISS…and finally a piece of the puzzle who sat patiently by my side (actually on the futon) many-a-night while I continually toyed around the idea of starting this KISS manuscript. I raised her in St. Joe…brought her to Kansas City…saw her through Diabetes (2 shots a day for four years) and eventually became a pretty damn good caretaker through the years of total blindness, with a little help from our 3 year old Great Dane. The bottom line is…I’m a dog person. More than kids…more than most people I have met. I trust, respect, and honestly like dogs more.
I fully understand that there are one million more tragic events that could happen to my family much worse than putting a pooch out of her misery but it still doesn’t lighten the sting. It sucked thinking about it, it sucked making the decision, driving there, and most of all watching it. However…it had to be done. At least she went happy…wrapped up in a KISS Solo Album blanket throw. She had to go in style right?
So here I am…being a man…talking a big game…when truth be told…that day I was a blubbering drunken mess. I felt as if I had just wiped out my sick child who depended on me to make ‘everything better’. I was a wreck. Thankfully…that night around 8:00 after 5 hours of slamming Keystone Light tall boys, I stumbled downstairs and slid “Psycho Circus” into the CD player when before you knew it “We Are One” began to play. I tell ya…talk about learning to ‘believe’ all over… sometimes rock and roll is all the soul needs. For the first time on that dark day, a little light shot through the clouds lifting my spirits and giving my soul that quick dash of hope it was craving.
Over the course of a week things got smoother. The remaining cats and dogs of the house began to act a little more normal and any wounds left over began to dry little by little. However at times, especially after work, the house just seemed ‘empty’ and life just didn’t seem that enjoyable…that was, until last night.
A close friend of ours was lucky enough to receive an opening slot for PRONG at the Hurricane Bar in downtown Kansas City, so Dan, myself and David (who will figure into this story much later) all made our way downtown for a few drinks, some old school metal, and the chance to cheer on a friend. After our friend’s set was over and some other local Kansas City bands took the stage when suddenly, it happened. Out of nowhere, amid some very bad hair metal and even scarier metal patrons, plastered across every LCD plasma screen in the bar was an encore performance of KISS “Unplugged” on VH-1 Classic. The room divided like Moses was there in the flesh. On one side you had your angry metals heads performing there boring songs in the their boring clothes never giving you the chance to tell one song from the other and on the other hand you had the ‘beautiful escape’. A larger than life band simply rocking out, giving you a reason to believe…a reason to want something more out of life. That is what rock and roll should do…and THAT is what KISS does. It was beautiful to witness the contrasting sides and see it as a much older person.
The entire night I kept thinking how thankful I was…thankful for KISS…once again picking up the pieces of my ‘momentarily’ shattered hopes and giving me a reason to believe.
To KISS…I say “Thanks for making me believe”.
To Shorty…I say “Cheers…and thanks for the memories”.
I fully understand that there are one million more tragic events that could happen to my family much worse than putting a pooch out of her misery but it still doesn’t lighten the sting. It sucked thinking about it, it sucked making the decision, driving there, and most of all watching it. However…it had to be done. At least she went happy…wrapped up in a KISS Solo Album blanket throw. She had to go in style right?
So here I am…being a man…talking a big game…when truth be told…that day I was a blubbering drunken mess. I felt as if I had just wiped out my sick child who depended on me to make ‘everything better’. I was a wreck. Thankfully…that night around 8:00 after 5 hours of slamming Keystone Light tall boys, I stumbled downstairs and slid “Psycho Circus” into the CD player when before you knew it “We Are One” began to play. I tell ya…talk about learning to ‘believe’ all over… sometimes rock and roll is all the soul needs. For the first time on that dark day, a little light shot through the clouds lifting my spirits and giving my soul that quick dash of hope it was craving.
Over the course of a week things got smoother. The remaining cats and dogs of the house began to act a little more normal and any wounds left over began to dry little by little. However at times, especially after work, the house just seemed ‘empty’ and life just didn’t seem that enjoyable…that was, until last night.
A close friend of ours was lucky enough to receive an opening slot for PRONG at the Hurricane Bar in downtown Kansas City, so Dan, myself and David (who will figure into this story much later) all made our way downtown for a few drinks, some old school metal, and the chance to cheer on a friend. After our friend’s set was over and some other local Kansas City bands took the stage when suddenly, it happened. Out of nowhere, amid some very bad hair metal and even scarier metal patrons, plastered across every LCD plasma screen in the bar was an encore performance of KISS “Unplugged” on VH-1 Classic. The room divided like Moses was there in the flesh. On one side you had your angry metals heads performing there boring songs in the their boring clothes never giving you the chance to tell one song from the other and on the other hand you had the ‘beautiful escape’. A larger than life band simply rocking out, giving you a reason to believe…a reason to want something more out of life. That is what rock and roll should do…and THAT is what KISS does. It was beautiful to witness the contrasting sides and see it as a much older person.
The entire night I kept thinking how thankful I was…thankful for KISS…once again picking up the pieces of my ‘momentarily’ shattered hopes and giving me a reason to believe.
To KISS…I say “Thanks for making me believe”.
To Shorty…I say “Cheers…and thanks for the memories”.
posted by RIC @ 8:47 PM
1 Comments:
At 5:27 PM ,
Jeremy Milks said...
That's a nice story man, sorry about your loss.
Keep up the good work with the blog. It's a fun read.
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