A day to think about it

Yesterday was Michael's 23rd Birthday. I decided to wait a day to write about anything because I just wanted to not be in the pool of emotion when writing about it.

We lost Michael in 2005 at age 17. Since then, October 2nd and June 18th are the days that I lose a bit of sleep and think a lot about my son. I think of him every day, but those are the days that bring it all into focus. I remain very realistic about the passing of my son, and know that death is part of life. We can not chose when go to the next world, and to the people on the outside looking in, it seems amazingly unfair to lose a child. You always hear that a father should not have to bury his son. We don't know why these things happen. I am convinced that his spirit was needed elsewhere. He touched many lives in his 17 years, as was evident by the turn out at the funeral. Now he is needed elsewhere.

I talk to him a lot. And he makes his presence known to me many different ways. I know he is out there watching out for me, and his family and brother, Nick.

So, without going through all the "normal" reflection here on the blog, I will just wish Michael A happy Birthday, October 2, and tell him that I love him. :-/

myspace.com/rlt_futurecats

Change is good. We have a face book for our friends and family, a MySpace for general information about me, and a NEW PAGE for Ronnie Lee Twist and The Future Cats. Having deleted our previous band page, we are now in the tedious process of building a new MySpace site. A lot of Changes in the formatting of M.S. now. It's more like Facebook. Not sure if I like it yet. It DOES seem simpler and yet, I still have to figure out how to customize it. Oh well, guess that'll come.

The Band is really tight now, hence the new site. People don't realize that it takes a long time to put the right band together to where you have a marketable product. I have seen many "band" pages where someone starts a band, someone contacts them for bookings and they are not ready to play yet. The future cats have been a work in progress for about a year, and we have done many shows, and kept the same people who love what we do. Now, after a year of working out the kinks, we have a product worthy of having it's own site and promotion. I can't begin to say how proud I am of the musicians that make up the Future Cats. Phil Ivey on upright bass. Phill bought that upright for no other reason than to play with the Future Cats. Ron White, Drums. He is always buying new equipment to make the band sound better. Brad Orcutt on guitar. Brad and I have been friends for a long time. We have played a lot of shows together, and he is as dedicated a team player as you will ever find. Nikki Danby sings background vocals and now will be doing a couple of solos during our show. Did I mention she is also my wife. This is such a great thing, because there is nothing worse than being a 'band wife' ... They go to the gigs and sit at the 'band' table all night. What a frickin' drag! Ron's wife, Nancy comes to all the gigs, but she loves to help out (she is our honorary rodie) and videos most of the shows. Phil is not married so he doesn't think about it. The great thing about having Nikki on stage is that she is part of what I do, and she loves it.

So, as the new page for the Future Cats evolves, I hope that you will become and remain a fan! After all, without the fans, we have no one to play for. Our fans are all part of the band!

myspace.com/rlt_futurecats