October 24, 2005

• wow. ok. so this week started early. i know. that makes no sense. how can a week start early? i’m just saying it did “for me”. for me it started early. or earlier than usual. to catch you up, i had planned to give an inside look at this week on the road. we’ve been “off” (home) for 7 days. now, we are no longer “off” (home). and i stopped being “off” at 6:15 this morning. well actually we got on the bus at midnight in waco last night and drove to houston. i woke up to toni (my wife) punching me. it was 6:15, as i mentioned, and she is punching me. i am not a morning person. i did not retaliate, however. i was supposed to be picked up to go to a radio station in town (ksbj) so i got up and got dressed in the dark. went to the front of the bus. and then came the first bit of excitement. we were not at the venue. we were supposed to be at the venue. that is where i was to be picked up. we were in a walmart parking lot. our bus driver, dylan, (pronounced die-lon, emphasis on “die”) was nowhere to be found. well i found him. in a bunk on the bus asleep. he is a heavy sleeper. so i punched him. i figured it would work since it had worked on me. it did. dylon (die-lon) got up and drove very quickly. i still made the pickup. at the station i played “open skies” with my guitar and said funny things. this lasted about an hour i think. then back to the venue. the bus wasn’t there. i called. “where is the bus?” “we’re back at the walmart.” i was confused. it was still early. i was no longer “off”. wow. what an exciting morning.

  the guys aren’t driving down until 2pm [it is 3 hours from waco (home) to houston] so i unloaded our gear and boxes of cds from the bays alone. toni stepped off the bus. “are you working?” “yes.” “wow.” she looked genuinely surprised. here look. i unloaded all of this. alone. pretty impressive i realize.

  

  i walked over to the truck that was being unloaded. here’s the truck:

  

  we have a new driver on this leg. i haven’t met him yet. (oh yeah, it occurs to me that you might not know what a “leg” is. well, i’m sure you know what a leg is but perhaps not in this context. in tour lingo, a string of dates on the road without going home would be referred to as a “leg” or a “run”. so we finished our first “leg” a week ago and now are embarking upon our second “leg”. you are now more informed and can now insert this into conversation with confidence later today or tomorrow. i.e.: “yeah, the crowder band just started the second leg of their tour. oh. what? you don’t know what “leg” means? ha. how uninformed are you? i am much more informed. wow. i had no idea that i was the superior in this relationship.) anyway, i hope the truck driver is nice.

  here are people that i don’t know unloading the truck. one of them said, “hey! get to work! isn’t this your gear!?” i said, “sort of. and thanks for helping.” he didn’t look very impressed while i stood there trying to take the picture. even less so when i walked off.

  

  this is bob. he is one of the volunteers helping unload the truck:

  

  here is something pretty exciting: bob told me a story about going to help load in gear at this other church. this really big scary man in a bright green shirt and yellow tie walked briskly up to him and said, “hey! take your hat off in here!” bob had a baseball cap on because he had just come straight from work to help out. bob took his hat off and the big scary man walked off and stood at the back of the room watching. bob went up to the pastor of the church and said, “excuse me. would you mind terribly if i wore my hat in here? my hair is really messed up and i feel kind of dumb without it on.” the pastor said, “bob i wouldn’t care if you walked in here naked! of course you can put it on.” bob put his hat back on and walked directly toward the big scary man in the bright green shirt and yellow tie. “hey. i’m going to wear my hat. the pastor said it would be ok!” bob walked off. then he felt bad. he went back to the big scary man in the bright green shirt and yellow tie. bob said, “man i’m sorry for being a bit quick with you. it’s just that on the way here i was driving past all these trailers and under a couple of bridges and i started thinking about these homeless folks i saw and the poverty and pain they live in and i was praying that maybe one of them would see your cross and wander in here and that god would wrap his arms around them and they’d feel his love, even though they were dirty and undeserving and smelled bad and they’d be sitting here with their backpack and all they owned and then you’d come up to them and say, ‘hey!! take your hat off!’ and they’d pick themselves up, walk right out that door they came in, and say ‘i knew this was all a bunch of crap!’ and maybe they’d see the cross as they walked out and maybe they’d flip it off for good measure and then a truck would hit them and they’d die and go straight to hell.” bob paused for dramatic impact. “all because you don’t like hats!” then bob laughed a sort of coughing, gravel filled laugh . “that’s from the 1st Book of Bob!!” i smiled at bob. bob said, “seriously, i said that.” i said, “i don’t doubt it bob.” bob said, “then the big scary man in the bright green shirt and yellow tie started crying.” i smiled at bob. bob said, “seriously, he did.” i said, “i don’t doubt it bob.”

  this is jason and shane e. they are waving at me from the balcony:

  

  they are trying to get me to go play golf with them. “come play golf,” they say! i can’t. i have work to do. i tell them so. this is not very exciting. i watch them load their clubs and drive away.

  i will end here due to the length of this first entry. it is truly ridiculous. i’m sure the rest of the day and evening will be a very lovely and exciting one. you’ll just have to trust me. tomorrow i am still not “off”. we will be living on tulsa time. cheers.

  • 3:53 pm
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