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Those of you who know the Tech Terrace neighborhood may recognize the cover photo...
Thursday, June 8, 2017
e pluribus haiku 2017
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Available at the Createspace Store $6.29 + shipping
Available on Kindle $3.59
Those of you who know the Tech Terrace neighborhood may recognize the cover photo...
Sunday, May 21, 2017
Mannequin Challenge
& 20 short stories you can't put down
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Monday, January 16, 2017
Thursday, December 22, 2016
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Got some perspective on Lubbock recently when I left it, and went to the mountains of New Mexico for a vacation. Upon my return, Lubbock was sizzling - going over a hundred every day this week, and people driving their white pickup trucks around, air-conditioned cabs and all, like this is how life is to be lived.
It brings up some interesting questions. If you can make a lot of money by being where the economy is, where people are building, and people have money, is it worth living in a hot plains, flat and dry, with a howling wind and nothing to look at? Actually I kind of like Lubbock for all those things, but you have to admit - not much of a downtown, not much for things to see as you drive around, and endless, relentless, hot & dry.
People have been nice to me in Lubbock, I'll say that. Natalie Maines complains about the culture, the churches, the pressure to be born again or whatever. That doesn't bother me. If people think that you need to be saved, and they love you, and they want to see you go to heaven instead of hell, why shouldn't they open their mouth? You can take it as genuine concern and let it go at that. They don't do that to me, because they don't know me, or maybe because they figure I'm doomed anyway, but either way, I see the church-going nature of the city as a sign of meaning well, no matter how misguided, of wanting what's best for their kids and the world.
So it's like 95, and it's only about noon, and all these white trucks are tearing around cutting me off and getting in a hurry to go somewhere or another. When you have a "peace" bumper sticker you always assume that they're cutting you off out of hostility toward your bumper sticker, but in fact they probably cut everyone off, and they're just in a hurry to get down the road to their next construction site. One guy I saw, maybe at Einstein's bagels, was all dressed up, and I was wondering, you're ok at Einsteins, and in an air-conditioned car, but can you really function in this 95 + weather, all dressed up like that? Seems like the pits of hell to me, especially the synthetic part of it, which gives me a rash. But you have to dress up, get into the political thing, impress everyone. Then, you can eat your bagels on your break.
I myself took the bagels, and headed for the mountains.
It brings up some interesting questions. If you can make a lot of money by being where the economy is, where people are building, and people have money, is it worth living in a hot plains, flat and dry, with a howling wind and nothing to look at? Actually I kind of like Lubbock for all those things, but you have to admit - not much of a downtown, not much for things to see as you drive around, and endless, relentless, hot & dry.
People have been nice to me in Lubbock, I'll say that. Natalie Maines complains about the culture, the churches, the pressure to be born again or whatever. That doesn't bother me. If people think that you need to be saved, and they love you, and they want to see you go to heaven instead of hell, why shouldn't they open their mouth? You can take it as genuine concern and let it go at that. They don't do that to me, because they don't know me, or maybe because they figure I'm doomed anyway, but either way, I see the church-going nature of the city as a sign of meaning well, no matter how misguided, of wanting what's best for their kids and the world.
So it's like 95, and it's only about noon, and all these white trucks are tearing around cutting me off and getting in a hurry to go somewhere or another. When you have a "peace" bumper sticker you always assume that they're cutting you off out of hostility toward your bumper sticker, but in fact they probably cut everyone off, and they're just in a hurry to get down the road to their next construction site. One guy I saw, maybe at Einstein's bagels, was all dressed up, and I was wondering, you're ok at Einsteins, and in an air-conditioned car, but can you really function in this 95 + weather, all dressed up like that? Seems like the pits of hell to me, especially the synthetic part of it, which gives me a rash. But you have to dress up, get into the political thing, impress everyone. Then, you can eat your bagels on your break.
I myself took the bagels, and headed for the mountains.
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Friday, May 13, 2016
I finally decided what I like about Lubbock, or at least why I find myself generally happy here. It's a town that doesn't have much pretense. Yes, it's conservative, and people care passionately and give each other a hard time sometimes. But it's genuine. It doesn't pretend to be one thing, and then go off and do another.
The weather is kind of wacky. It's been steady 20-30 mile wind with no rain, clear blue sky, and sometimes dust in your teeth, and this has been going on all spring. Finally tonight it rained a little. It's been kind of a drought. Most years, we have two or three inches by now; apparently, so far, we only have one and a half, maybe. But it hasn't been so bad. For one thing, plenty of rain last year has left things green, and that holds down the dust. So, less dust in your teeth this year. Same steady wind, but less dust. I kind of like it. It changes all the time, and the wind is really the thing to watch and get familiar with - the wind even determines how fast the water dries that you sprinkle on your lawn. In this kind of northbound steady dry heat, watering your lawn seems especially hopeless. But, when the dust rises, you're glad for every little stump of grass that's holding out in the great outdoors.
Saw a t-shirt today that said "Dust City Hooligans," and seemed to be a soccer team. I was surprised, Dust City is another name for Lubbock; this was news to me. Dust City, somehow, sounds better than Hub City. The only good thing about being Hub City is that you can get from places like Littlefield and Plainview to places like Brownfield and Levelland - all roads go through Lubbock. Boston, too, used to be "Hub City." It struck me as nothing special. Maybe I'll rethink it somehow, so I have a good logo which I can then use on this blog.
A semester ended, and I'm free for a spell. I might be contributing here a little bit. I actually like the place - yet I have no idea what I could say that would make any difference. I'll work on it, promise. And, I haven't stopped taking pictures.
The weather is kind of wacky. It's been steady 20-30 mile wind with no rain, clear blue sky, and sometimes dust in your teeth, and this has been going on all spring. Finally tonight it rained a little. It's been kind of a drought. Most years, we have two or three inches by now; apparently, so far, we only have one and a half, maybe. But it hasn't been so bad. For one thing, plenty of rain last year has left things green, and that holds down the dust. So, less dust in your teeth this year. Same steady wind, but less dust. I kind of like it. It changes all the time, and the wind is really the thing to watch and get familiar with - the wind even determines how fast the water dries that you sprinkle on your lawn. In this kind of northbound steady dry heat, watering your lawn seems especially hopeless. But, when the dust rises, you're glad for every little stump of grass that's holding out in the great outdoors.
Saw a t-shirt today that said "Dust City Hooligans," and seemed to be a soccer team. I was surprised, Dust City is another name for Lubbock; this was news to me. Dust City, somehow, sounds better than Hub City. The only good thing about being Hub City is that you can get from places like Littlefield and Plainview to places like Brownfield and Levelland - all roads go through Lubbock. Boston, too, used to be "Hub City." It struck me as nothing special. Maybe I'll rethink it somehow, so I have a good logo which I can then use on this blog.
A semester ended, and I'm free for a spell. I might be contributing here a little bit. I actually like the place - yet I have no idea what I could say that would make any difference. I'll work on it, promise. And, I haven't stopped taking pictures.
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