Danny has left the Building

My Sweet Al asks for so little, so why is it hard to oblige him? He’ll ask for a needle and thread while we’re entertaining guests. Or, he’ll want to see the warranty on the washing machine while we’re driving to town. Or, he’ll want me to whip up some oatmeal cookie dough for a snack while I’m in my think-tank. I know, it all sounds crazy, but in Al’s mind, if I loved him, I would want to do it.

It’s not often, but his requests are simple but out-of-sync with my normal routine. When Al wants something, he wants it now and will move heaven and earth to get it. Somehow I have to move with heaven and earth to get it done.

He wanted a CD of Danny singing There’s something about that name. Al asked our daughter, Allison, to make him a copy of the music. She asked our grandson to do it when he was home on break. He didn’t get around to it. Al’s request was bounced around from one family member to another until our daughter took the bull by the horns on Easter night, and said, I just need to do it for Daddy, he asked me so sweetly again.

Allison sat down at the computer and spent the whole evening looking for it. She found a CD with 1500 songs for $79.95 with the Homecoming Gang. I said, “Buy it. Your Dad is not going to stop talking about it until he gets it.”

There was a slight problem. The song wasn’t there. She went to YouTube. She found it. But, Gloria, his sister-in-law, was talking while Danny was singing. Would Al consider another song? No. Not on his life. There’s something about that song that speaks so deeply to him. He wanted that song with only Danny singing.

Allison said. “I heard that song played by this guy on the guitar on the beach. It was beautiful. I can’t remember his name. Maybe if I look for it, I can find it. “

Maybe you can’t remember the man’s name with the guitar, but your Dad wants There’s Something About That Name sung by Danny. Your Dad won’t settle for anything else.

After searching and searching, I told Al, Danny has left the building. He’s out of here. He went to heaven in 2001, maybe when you get to heaven you could ask Danny to sing it to you. I thought I was being funny.

Apparently not. Al pouted. He thought I was making fun of him. Allison consoled him. She had a bright idea.  She’d transfer that song to Facebook, and then I could get a stick, and make him a CD of it.

Al said, “I don’t want Gloria talking while Danny is singing.”

I was telling my friend how funny it had become about that song. The more the evening wore on, the more we laughed and the more Al pouted with added sighs.

I don’t know why my friend asked if I had ever painted a duck painting for Al? She reminded me that was something he had always wanted and I kept putting him off. 

I said no, I didn’t. I wasn’t painting ducks anymore.

She said, “Poor Al. All he wanted was a duck painting.”

I asked her if her husband asked for her to paint a duck painting, would she do it?

She immediately said, “No, not on his life.”

I said I rest my case. When Al insisted on buying that duck painting at Cabella’s, I didn’t think I had to paint him a duck anymore. He has one now.

The duck painting was another one of those out-of-sync moments. I wasn’t in the frame of mind, and inspiration for painting ducks left me twenty years ago. Kinda like Danny. He was in the moment in 1977 when he sang it. We’ve all moved on except for My Sweet Al.

As the evening wore on, the request became funnier and funnier. We opt to sing it to him. We all had a good laugh because we can’t sing. He felt hurt because he was serious about that song. We knew we’d never get it and that was the best we could do.

The more Allison searched for Danny’s song, the more she found other songs by who-knows-who-singing-who-knows-what. She was sending them to our son-in-law’s Facebook. He was fit to be tied that his Facebook friends would think he was posting all that stuff.  It got even funnier.  

I said to the two Als, you both are getting too touchy over these things. Lighten up.

My Sweet Al said, “All I wanted was a CD with Danny singing, Jesus, that’s the sweetest name I know.”

Final Brushstroke! I hate to tell Al, but Danny has left the building and we can’t find him. And I’m tired of looking for him. When our son gets here next week, I’m transferring the search to him.

Our other daughter said, “I feel an article coming on.”

I said, “That’s in-sync with my life at the moment, I can do that.”