so whats everyone doing tonight?

this year was a going to be a white christmas guaranteed of snow up to my knees and cold up to shoulders in bed. well...things change because of this weather i so dream of in alaska. last friday was to be our "set sail" date to anchorage alaska inevitably to wasilla, you know the place sarah palin is from? well, we get to the airport, we sit down to eat in the airport version of on the border called something or another in spanish, and realize our flight has been delayed. most likely due to the weather already taking place in seattle, "no worries," we thought, this will help ensure our meal to be enjoyable, however enjoyable an airport meal can be. i am not gonna lie i was really dreading how peanut was gonna be on this flight. when liz and i have to fly, and dutch has to go with us, we always try to time it out when he will be wide awake for a long leg of the trip. this was to ensure that he can be awake and HAPPY. well we were successful in getting on the plane with this attitude. within a matter of minutes it took a turn for the worst. here in sequence is what had taken place:

original time of departure - 2:15

time we boarded - 3:30

"not so bad" we thought, we were sure we would not make the seattle to anchorage connection anyway.

3:55 - "this is your captain, we ummm...have a low tire so, we are gonna have to put air in it to fill it up to its needed pressure. this will take about 20-30 minutes." "no problem," is what i was thinking. dutch at this point was enamored with his books and under control for the most part.

4:20 - "ummm, this is your captain, again, we ummm...need to replace the whole tire altogether, and this will take about an hour to accomplish." "yikes!" you know when the captain comes on the intercom and everyone, and i mean everyone becomes silent? well this happened just as it should when someone of importance is making an announcement, but at the moment the captain announced the hour delay and there was that brief pause of silence a man spoke very loudly, not shouted mind you, but loudly "jesus christ." it was just loud enough for the entire plane to hear, including the two young fellows who were sitting next to him. i hate that phrase more than anything, but this was humorous in the fact that he looked like a complete nerd. dutch at this point is getting restless and wanting his BED.

5:15 - "this is your captain again...well, there is good news and bad news. the bad news is that my crew and i have been up since 1am and are not authorized to fly this plane, so...the flight has been canceled. the good news is that we are giving everyone on the flight free hotel vouchers for the night and we will resume the flight at 6am in the morning" well, that is just bad news and irrelevant news for us cause we DON'T need a hotel we live here. dutch at this point has been crying his head off for well over an eternity, it seemed like it anyway. everyone on the flight, well, i say everyone only the mothers, are coming by giving us little bits of advice for what they did in this crisis. if i could put in words what i was feeling, i would no longer be considered a christian. i am just that way when it comes to screaming babies, no matter who's it is. 

6:00 - we are at the baggage claim waiting on our luggage. the funny thing is that everyone who is needing a place to stay for the night is in line to get their voucher at the ticket desk and NOT picking their luggage up. so, that means, their bags are all piling up at the carousel and, of course, none of them are ours. if you could have seen this little bitty carousel and these monstrous bags piling up clogging the carousel; clogging it so much that people were climbing up on the belt and pulling the bags onto the carousel. it was pretty funny, and it was funny at this point because peanut had calmed down and was about to fall asleep, otherwise, i would not be laughing.

8:00 - we finally get a hold of an agent to reschedule our flight. i didn't want to be one of "those guys" who yells at the customer care person, cause its not their fault but i needed to get a flight out of dallas. his name was erik and if, for some strange reason, he reads this blog, thanks a mill. 

updated flight times:

monday, december 22 7:30am

this was great cause dutch would have just woken up and he is his best when he first awakes for the day. the day comes, and we wake to the text message on liz's phone that the flight, duhn duhn duhn, has been canceled! blast!!! so, after 4 hours of busy signal on the 1-800 number, which by the way, i have never, ever, ever, heard of a busy signal on the 1-800 number, and 1 hour of being on hold once connection was made, the option was...the morning of december 26th. NO CAN DO! we will be getting a refund, and will be making a very sad phone call to grandma debbie and family that they will not be seeing us for christmas this year. i could expound on the individuals in this whole transition of weather sabotage, but my instincts tell me that even though i am pursuing a counseling degree to read people, my wife is so much more capable of reading personalities than i am. i will leave that to her. so, that leaves me with this question...what's everyone doing tonight? cause i am not doing anything!

wait five minutes

this weather brings out the weirdest individuals. you got the ones who own 4 wheel drive vehicles and are the first ones out of bed for this weather. they know with the power of all wheels being able to move at once nothing on the bridges or falling from the freezing sky can stop their machine from getting to its destination in an acceptable time. those who own other vehicles are the ones that 4 wheel drivers are yelling at when approaching overpasses. people who drive 2 wheel drive vehicles are in danger of being all over the road and therefore take their precious time in maneuvering around. these people are plenty in texas and make life difficult for out-of-towners. but the most common statement everyone has to explain any amount of drastic weather in texas is, "thats just texas weather!" what a stupid comment. most smart people will call their immediate supervisor and state the obvious that they are unable to make it to work on time and sleep another hour. some people will make the most of their workday without going in by going to the local starbucks to accomplish all that the internet can provide for them. but for those who go to school nothing is better than seeing the scrolling ticker announce that your school is closed due to inclement weather. i would always be right in front of the tv watching, anticipating, using my christian faith to will the closing of my school. the great thing about going to a private school is that you got people, sometimes the majority, driving in from all over the metroplex and the weather would suggest that it would be better to just skip the day than have school for 5-10 students. i remember the last year i worked at starbucks we shut down early due to inclement weather, that feeling was amazing. of course that can only happen to the closing crew and not the opening shift.

ya hear that...

...silence, it's golden yes, it's peaceful yes, but it's dark, and it's revealing. don't be afraid of it because it is in silence that you can reflect on things that need to be different. and the great thing about this is that everyone has things that need to be different, but many are afraid to be silent because it is so daunting. we would rather fill it with something than come face to face with what needs to be different in our life.

watch out!!!

here he comes, mr. 75% head. i can't remember what my life was like that first year of living. but now i can get a glimpse and my words are...i am sorry mom and dad. i only say this because i now realize that once kids are in the picture alarm clocks are not, for now anyway. i hope to HAVE to use that thing again but for now nothing screams wake up at 6am like a 1 YEAR OLD!!! horray son of mine. one and still climbing. i am so proud to be proven wrong. what i mean by that is that when he first started making noises like "oo" i began to wonder what babies with disorders first sounds were. i know he doesn't have one but i would joke with liz occasionally that they existed in peanut. she was not happy when this occurred. but my son is one and for his first birthday one of the youth asked me, "what are ya gonna get him?" i smiled back and answered like a true lowrie/bill cosby father would..."a roof over his head, and food on his table." besides no one and i mean NO ONE can remember their first birthday present, and if they can they are lying. i won't forget though, the day liz and i went to the hosp. the day he was coming out and we played the waiting game forever, and then the moment he popped out. i had no idea what to expect. i even forgot how to hold babies but the minute they handed him to me i became a natural all over again. to day i realized one year ago he was sleeping his whole day away, now...i wish i could. i love this son if mine and will never forget the first night he was at our house.

we are running out

when coldplay's viva la vida came out there was controversy as to whether or not they had copied from a no namer creaky boards. i remember brad shull had brought this to my attention. i thought nothing of it as i could definitely hear in the song different notes played. but the latest to my knowledge is viva la vida copying a song by joe satriani entitled if i could fly. 



this sounds like coldplay invited santana to remix the song with them! it brings me to wonder, as many probably do, when are we gonna run out of song ideas? when are all the melodies, chord progressions, and rhythms all gonna be used and then have to be reused, if they haven't already? i mean the modern rock revolution, which started in early to mid 1900's, is revealing that we are running out of ideas, especially if we are taking a song by joe satriani and redoing it. i think the beatles, the stones, and all those revolutionary bands are revolutionary because NO one before them were doing what they were doing, obviously. but the songs that are being written today are harder to write and harder to create because most, if not all, has been done already. so by that logic bands today are better than the 50's pop bands, because they had no scale to compare it to. now days everyone who writes songs, including the great radiant, are labeled and branded as copycats because most of the musical genius has been done. with that said i am in awe of musical acts, such as U2, that have been able to stick around and bring original sounds decade after decade. its tough, i don't claim to have the answer but i do think that if your trying to be a musician now a days it's way harder and more difficult even now than it was ten years ago. it gets harder as the years grow older. regardless if this claim against coldplay is true or not i truly don't think anyone would lower themselves to copy JOE SATRIANI!