jackpot

 

I am not sure exactly what this establishment is.  We know gambling is illegal in Lubbock!  It might be a club but the building is certainly spiffier than its neighbors.

 

407 MLK

Lubbock, Texas

snowbound

 

St. Francis has no seed for the birds -- like me, he's snowbound.  Today's bright blue skies belied the huge drifts of snow left by the blizzard.

 

My Backyard

Lubbock, Texas

passerby

 

I couldn't tell if the business advertising "clothing, human hair, synthetic hair and wigs" was open.  The shopping is run-down with many places closed.  As I was framing the sign, serendipity brought a lone shopper hurrying by.

 

Parkway Shopping Center

Parkway Drive and MLK

Lubbock, Texas

gaggle of geese

 

These visitors from Canada are enjoying today's mild weather.  They seem unaware that the forecast for this weekend is "blizzard!"

 

Mackenzie Park

Lubbock, Texas



untitled

 

This empty gallery space at the museum is roped off and is between exhibits. I found the scene very artistic.  I could sit and contemplate the blank wall better than I can understand some modern art installations.

 

Museum of Texas Tech University

Lubbock, Texas

pinkerton's platinum

 

It seems fitting that down the road from the Strip, Lubbock's former liquor mecca,  local entrepreneur Luke has started a distillery.  His rum is made from Texas products including molasses from Rio Grande Valley sugar cane.  There is a speak-easy feel in driving up to a non-descript warehouse and knocking three times on the door!  Not available in stores, you have to contact Luke to get a bottle.

 

Pinkerton's Distillery

Lubbock, Texas

hat rack

 

Pop hangs his work hats on the rack in the garage.

 

Lubbock, Texas

percy

 

Percy the Pelican was decked out with a Christmas bow for the South Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation Center's open house today.  Unfortunately he was settled in for a nap at the time of my visit.  Percy has been a resident at SPWRC since 1999 when he was rescued.  He was unable to be released because of the broken wing and has become a favorite, greeted by name by school children.

 

SPWRC

Lubboc, Texas

Christmas tree of knowledge

 

Here is the perfect tree for the bibliophile!  It is also an engineering marvel.

 

Spotted on the Tech Terrace Home Tour

12.6.2015

texas snowman

 

There is a scarcity of snow in Lubbock.  When the drought took out this tree, the homeowners turned the stump into a winter decoration.  Check out the snowman at 21st and Elgin.

 

Lubbock, Texas

Surrounded by fields, accessible by a dirt road, the chapel built by Italian prisoners of war is a tribute to the universality of art and craftsmanship.  During World War II, 2,580 Italians were interned at the camp outside Hereford, Texas. The camp was built in 1943 and operated until 1946  Several of the POWs designed and built this chapel to honor five fellow soldiers who would not make it home. POWs. POWs did farm labor and were also used to build grain elevators in nearby Happy, Texas.    they asked if they could use some of the concrete to build this memorial. The chapel has been restored several times and today bears a Texas historic landmark plaque. Several ex-POWs returned for the dedication in 2009 of the memorial.

Italian POW Camp Chapel
Hereford, Texas
12.12.2015

pop. 1169

 

The town of Earth, Texas is not concerned about the planet Earth's population explosion.  Established in 1924 by rancher Williams Halsell from land he purchased from the XIT Ranch for $2 an acre, the town is an agricultural community.  The origin of the name Earth has many stories but it appears that Earth is the only place in the U.S. called Earth although there's Black Earth, Wisc, Blue Earth, Minn, Earth City, Mo and Middle Earth, Md.  To find Earth travel west on US 70 from Plainview-- through Quarterway and Halfway! Gotta love these place names.

 

Earth, Texas

12.12.2015

classic versus funky

 

The heck with those half-buried, upside-down, graffiti-covered Cadillacs! The show was the 1990 two-seat Morgan roadster.  Two gentlemen traveling from San Diego stopped the same time I did to visit the Cadillac Ranch.  The owner had the car shipped from Europe and they were traveling east, photographing as they went.  As they unloaded tripods I asked how they traveled with such photographic equipment.  The answer was "it works... and sometimes we throw in some clothes!"  Too bad they didn't have room for me -- what a trip.

 

Cadillac Ranch

I-40 Amarillo, Texas

music scene

poinsettia

My favorite poinsettia this year is this variegated variety called "Punch Ice" that has red bracts with pink and white tinged centers.

tis the season

 

To celebrate the season, today the usually bare-headed Will Rogers sported a Christmas cap. This might not have been University-approved attire.  The inscription on the statue of Will and his horse Soapsuds, dedicated to Texas Tech by Amon Carter, reads "riding into the Western sunset." Like Will, Tech students are heading into the sunset as they finish finals before Christmas break. While placing the statue, it was not politically correct for Will to ride due west, thus putting Soapsuds' posterior aimed down Broadway toward downtown.  So Will was positioned 23 degrees east making Texas A&M the target, so the story goes.

 

Will Rogers and Soapsuds

Texas Tech University

Lubbock, Texas

1. I am a chi-poo (chihuahua-poodle)

2.  I am wearing a sweater with pompoms

3. I am sitting on this funny man's lap

-- and you want me to smile?

 

This afternoon photographer Robert Cason and the Humane Society offered Christmas pictures of canine friends with Santa Paws today as a fund-raiser.  The dog owners were more enthusiastic than the pets.

 

 

It was a great day for playing in the leaves.

lady liberty at the daiquiri bar

 

A stylized Statue of Liberty between two television sets adorns the wall at Tom's Daiquiri.  Crisp December nights are not conducive to patio sitting.

 

Tom's Daiquiri Bar

1808 Buddy Holly

Lubbock, Texas

 



moose on a ladder

 

It's not elf on a shelf but rather a moose on a ladder.  Good seasonal help must be hard to find as evidenced by this scene from United Supermarket #551.

red cypress

 

The cypress trees in Higginbotham Park provide a punch of color in the autumn landscape.  The walking trail makes it a popular park.  Here's the same kind of trees, same park -- different season.



Higginbotham Park
Lubbock, Texas

11.29.2015

the 40-yard line

 

Jones Stadium in Spur, not to be confused with Texas Tech's The Jones, is home to the Bulldogs six-man football team.  Thus, the center stripe is the 40-yard line with a reduced playing field of 80 yards by 40 yards.  Every game Spur plays at home is a bowl game -- the field is at the bottom of a natural depression with concrete stands tiered down to the field.  Quite a hike for the spectators!

 

 

Jones Stadium

Spur, Texas

11.25.2015