With Father’s Day right around the corner, I thought I’d try to find a gift that my dad would actually really use. Gone are the days of the ugly tie (Dad’s retired) and the orange with the cloves stuck into it that I made every year in Sunday School. I think the point of those things was for him to hang them in his closet to make his clothes smell nice (and not at all like the total hippie it actually made him smell like). No, this year I decided to let dad rock out.

A few years ago, I bought dad an iPod and then also loaded his favorites on it: Ozzy, Alice in Chains, The Moody Blues, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Linkin Park… Dad’s an interesting guy. Mom’s been dragging him to the gym lately so he really only has the opportunity to listen to his iPod when being forced into walking on the treadmill. That was, until I decided to get him the Jensen Docking Station and Clock Radio for iPod or iPhone.

The Jensen allows him to rock out to his Ozzy Osbourne (or whatever mood he’s in), and torture my Carly-Simon-loving Mom, when their alarm goes off first thing in the morning because, in addition to being a speaker docking station for his iPod, it’s also an alarm clock!

What really sold me on the Jensen iPod dock was the fact that, with one of these guys, Dad can connect to his Stiletto 2 and listen through it too!

Times are tough and Chicago rent isn’t cheap. This year, I figured that, for Father’s Day, I’d buy something for my Dad that he’d actually love and use — and didn’t make him smell like a total hippie. I’ll have to come up with something  awesome for Mom’s birthday this year to make up for all of the Mick Jagger she’s been waking up to lately.

karen [at] tss-radio.com