Solidarity on Southwest Flight 434

Flying on bargain airlines truly is a singular experience. Heck, flying in general these days is a new and ever changing experience. And no airline makes more of an impact then Southwest. Let me paint the picture...

I was due to leave SLC on the 12:30 flight. The airport is small and mid-afternoon flights are generally light. A great time to fly, no hassle. I appear on time and go through the normal obstacle course, making my way to my gate. Upon arriving I am greeted with some news. "Sorry, your flight has been cancelled due to mechanical issues." I was to be rebooked on a later flight. I saw my opportunity and asked for some kind of compensation. My demands were quickly rebuffed and my new flight was to leave an hour later.

I sat down, somewhat defeated, and sat in the appointed area. I asked around and found several over mildly annoyed passengers who had been pushed back. I would normally be competing and elbowing these people for the front of the line; now they were my allies and fellow martyrs. We banded together and went to Customer Service only to be pushed back again. And we waited.

Finally our time to board approached. As the line jockeying began we observed our plane. There was a crew outside working outside on its landing gear. Within minutes we got news that the plane had issues and that we were being pushed back again. This was the second plane with issues in less then an hour. Our mild annoyance turned into frustration.

Over the next two additional hours we followed the same routine. A poor employee would have to get on the intercom and inform us that things had been pushed back even more and that we would be getting more news in a bit. Another plane was finally rerouted and we left SLC about 3 1/2 hours later then promised.

During this waiting time I forged strong ties with the people in line. It's strange to think that during normal conditions I wouldn't make any kind of effort to strike up conversation with someone else. On the contrary, everyone seems so self involved, selfishly guarding their place and their personal space. But the minute that the passengers are wronged or the flight is delayed then we become a band of brothers fighting for our cause of fair passenger treatment. We are martyrs and fellow sufferers. We open up and before you know it I am shown pictures of some ladies grandkids. For those three hours we are family.

And the flight ends and we go about our own business. Flying truly is a strange experience. It is a great experiment in observing individual behavior and group dynamics. We can either see the best or worst in people when we watch them act around strangers.

In Search of Authenticity

Just an observation. We live in a time of virtual reality, unknown identities and disposable everything. This sense of transience has created an urge for things of authentic or vintage quality. We pay extra dollars for a set of furniture from Pottery Barn because it claims to be of the same quality of the furniture our grandparents had. We drop an extra dime on a pair of levis that has that worn and individual look. I spend $2 on a rootbeer in a bottle that looks like it came from 1955. It doesn't take an astute marketer to see that there are so many items that are sold under the "authentic" or "geniune" label. It almost seems like we are aching for authenticity in our lives. The kind of authenticity that can't come from a blackberry, myspace page, or on demand television.

Our lives are so frantic that we want to feel like we are rooted in something. The whole "authentic" or "vintage" movement that we see seems to be the response. These products or activities allow us to maybe recreate bygone memories or instill some sort of values. It's almost like we are jumping all over these nostalgic items because we want to go back to those times. This is our superficial way of kind trying to recreate a more authentic experience.


Am I the only one who sees this? Just an observation....

A saturday afternoon with the kids

So as part of the Washington Street foundation we visited the Cosanti Foundation grounds up in Paradise Valley. Cosanti and Arcosanti are both “ideally formed” communities that Italian architect Paolo Solari has been dreaming up in Arizona over the past 50 some odd years.

We were given a guided tour through the community by a middle-aged and starry eyed academic from Austin. He spoke in an incredibly esoteric manner, wore suspenders to hold up his sagging pants, and was an absolute evangelist for the building philosophies of Solari. The community itself looked like something that hobbits would have created should they have ever left the green, rolling hills of the shire for the Sonoran desert.

Evidently Solari was a prized pupil of the famed Frank Lloyd Wright. He believes that people and their building initiatives should be in harmony in nature. He is a strong opponent of the sprawl that we see in Phoenix and his Arcosanti community, 60 miles north of Phoenix, was developed to draw people closer together and drive cars out of communities. (http://www.arcosanti.org/) The word cosanti is derived from two Italian words- cosa, meaning thing; and anti, meaning before.

The community is maintained by a group of free thinking academics much like what you would have seen in the Berkeley area in the 1960’s. A lot of its operating revenue is generated by the sale of custom made bronze and ceramic bells that are made on site. They showed us how a kiln worked and walked us through the smelting process. I enjoyed myself and got wrapped in a couple of conversations regarding “arcology”, which is Soleri’s theory on how architecture and ecology should coexist.


Meanwhile the kids……wait, there are kids…….

Meanwhile the grandiose and idealized views espoused by our guide were completely lost on the 10 kids in the group. To their credit they quietly fidgeted and tried to pay attention. The guide didn’t even try to speak to the kids and help them understand the concepts. At least they got some lunch and got to swim afterwards.

More friendly visits

Since I pretty much have no friends and family in Phoenix I always welcome visits. Last week I welcomed both a cousin and a Greg to town. While both stays were briefy they did a nice job of breaking up the daily monotony.

It was a weekend full of football and interesting conversation. I'm just now realizing how much time I spend in devotion to the undisputed favorite sport of this great nation I would be more worried if I was the only one with this tendency. But it's pretty obvious that a good slice of our population is overly devoted to football. All you need to do is to take a random sample of housewives and girlfriends to ascertain the source of the strange change that most men make starting in late August. I mean between the ASU-Colorado game, BYU-UCLA game, Cowboys game, and misc. football commentary we probably spent 10 hours bowing down to the grid iron gods.

Beautiful Wedding Weekend

I spent a very memorable weekend up in Utah celebrating the wedding of Heidi. The effort that she put into the weekend - yes the whole thing lasted like 5 days- was incredible and her attention to detail is astounding.

Among the highlights of the weekend:

• Obtaining some Jensen pride on the dancefloor at LaCaille. It only took 30 seconds of "Thriller" before all of the inebriated guests bowed down to the sublime moves supplied by 10 perfectly sober Jensens.


• The manicured gardens at LaCaille were gorgeous and verdant. The Wasatch moutain backdrop gave the gardens an alpine scent. The buildings were very french and opulent. Heidi's embellishments and add-ons were incredible. For more pictures go to my "photo repository" link on the side of the page or visit http://www.heathergibbphotography.com/slideshows/slideshow.php?Slideshow=heidi+wedding.


• The wedding open house in Kaysville was more understated and casual but still well done. It was for a wider audience and neighbors. Dad spent hours generating brisket and wound up making around 15lbs. Everyone loved it and I think I caught Max Fraughton helping himself to 4ths.


• Throw in a few visits with friends, a Fantasy Football Draft, BYU win, and the weather and I must confess that I miss Utah.