Monday, December 24, 2007

If you can't listen to the blues while spending the night in an airport, when *CAN* you listen to the blues?

I decided it was the right and proper thing to do last night, as I huddled down in a chair in a DFW Airport lounge, so I listened to Dallas native BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON on my iPod before drifting off for a few fitful hours of sleep.
Some might argue that Johnson's music is closer to gospel than the blues.
Hogwash.
His otherworldly moaning on "Dark Was the Night (Cold Was the Ground)" fit my bleak mood perfectly -- perhaps too perfectly.
A travel day that had begun at 3:30 a.m. in GUANAJUATO, MEXICO had stalled at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Bad weather in Iowa canceled my afternoon flight home. My wife Jill and our two girls, Kerstin and Annika, WERE able to fly back to Iowa on a 7 p.m. flight. I had to wait until 11:30 a.m. today before I could fly north. I didn't walk into the front door of my house until 4 p.m.
It was the first time I have ever had to sleep overnight in an airport. I began the evening on the floor of Gate B16, until a helpful security guard pointed out an airport lounge tucked behind a Starbucks. The lounge included big, comfortable leather chairs. It also included overhead lights and a television (perpetually tuned to CNN Headline News) that remained on all night
Oh well. Cue the Blind Willie Johnson and hope for the best..

1 Comments:

Blogger Brian Cooper said...

Welcome home, amigo!

7:21 PM  

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