Hello once again my friends. It has been an interesting year for me to say the least. Ive not gone away as some have speculated, and its good to be here again. Soon Ill make good on my promise to webcast "Drivin' Sideways in Detroit!" with Hurricane Duane. I certainly have not run out of topics, that’s for sure….
Ive been training with FEMA and Homeland Security as a Disaster Response Team member, and am still at work as a Security Supervising Officer at Ford Motor Company in Dearborn Michigan. Somewhere along with all that, Ive become Chairman of my Union Local's By-laws Committee.
The long awaited Johnny & The Hurricanes Anthology has come out from the Netherlands a couple weeks ago, and my book "SAX MAN" Johns life story and that of the Hurricanes, awaits a release date in England. Ive also finished 2 additional short books (maybe put into 1), but have no idea where they stand now as to releasing them.
This year without my brother Paul has been really hard on me. I see him everywhere, but find him nowhere. Musically, I always did move around more than him and in more musical styles than him, but after 35 years of playing, performing and writing together, to now have him not here, Im lost. I haven’t in 16 months even been able to work on his and our music. Ive watched a few tapes, listened to a few C.D.'s, but seeing and hearing him sing is haunting. Ive said it before. It was…and is…harder losing him them my parents. He was my left arm…and it hard to play with only 1 arm.
So, at best, Im ok. And my heart health is fair, except the meds I take play their part in wearin' me down. After my 2 heart procedures last year, no one told me things would slow down. I expected to get it all back and run around like my grandma used to call me "coo-coo-rid-za"…which means literally "chicken with its head cut off". But, it wasn't true. I have slowed down. It seems everything I try to do is twice as hard and takes me twice as long. And it takes even longer to get going.
You can see Im still busy with a multitude of things, my healths ok for now, the future in music hold some promise, the Disaster Training too should help me and my community, and the Union Committee stuff should bring some welcome changes benefiting all of us Officers.
I'd like to thank you for sticking around, and hope you'll stop by here and on YouTube for "Drivin' Sideways in Detroit!". Ive got some very interesting topics coming ahead. Some you'll like, some you wont. Some will make you smile, others will probably make you angry or mad.
Why should it be any different now!? God Bless my friends. Peace, Love and Light…always.
Hurricane Duane Thomas
