September 30

A new, fresh subdivision sprouts on the edge of a field.

Lubbock, Texas

September 29

I really like these fan-shaped windows in the double doors in my new office building!

Levelland, Texas

September 28

New job, in a new town. But look! An old building across the street from my parking spot.

This is going to work out fine!

Levelland, Texas

September 27

Wine bottles that have been cut down to be used as glasses... I got a kit to do it, and it is a LOT harder than the directions indicate; my success rate is about 10%. (Or to say it another way, I am about 90% successful at creating glass that is ready for the recycling bin.)

Lubbock, Texas

September 26

So, I don't actually recall changing clothes every 8 minutes while I was on vacation, but the giant stack of freshly-laundered clothing tends to indicate that is exactly what happened.

Lubbock, Texas

September 25

At the Flying Star, it's a toss-up as to which I like better: these very cool lights or the everything bagel.

Albuquerque, New Mexico

September 24

Overnight, there was snow in the mountains - the first of the season - but by morning the clouds had lifted and the day was clear and clean.

Chama, New Mexico

September 23

Part of our Roots on the Rails musicians at the station at Cumbres, New Mexico.

(Left to right: Barry Walsh, Paul Zarzyski, Thad Beckman, Sourdough Slim)

Cumbres, New Mexico

September 22

On a free day from the tour, we drove up to Creede, where we located the this church, perched above the town. A long time ago, the whiteness of the church could have been a beacon for worshippers, but it has faded now, to a dingy color that matched the clouds gathering in the sky.

Creede, Colorado

September 21

We took a Jeep tour high up into the mountains above Silverton, where the aspens were in full fall color.

Forest Road 20, on the way to Clear Lake
San Juan County, Colorado

September 20

View from our third-floor room at the Grand Imperial Hotel, across to the yellow aspens on the far mountain.

Silverton, Colorado

September 19

Interesting establishment in Cuba....

Cuba, New Mexico

September 18

We discovered the Talin Market in Albuquerque, and spent at least an hour wandering its aisles, which are filled with all manner of food imported from around the world.

You should go - it's at the corner of Central and Louisiana avenues, right there in Albuquerque.

Albuquerque, New Mexico

September 17

The reflection of a tree in the cold and still waters at Blue Hole - we were there late on a Thursday afternoon and there were no swimmers or divers, only the water....

Santa Rosa, New Mexico

I am going away...

...but I will be back.

I am taking a week-long trip, and have determined that lugging a laptop and assorted chargers and cables and so forth isn't really what I feel like doing.

This was a last-minute decision. In fact, I actually HAD the laptop and assorted chargers and cables and so forth packed. But then I thought about what a pain in the ass it was going to be keeping up with a backpack full of all of that, and had second thoughts. I hauled it back to my office, where I unpacked, and wrote this post.

Not to worry, though: I am taking my camera and will be taking photos along the way. And when I return, I will post a photo from each day that I was gone.

Check back around September 27 or 28: it'll be like Christmas, with all the new photos to look at!

September 16

Since May, I have had a bunch of photos of Las Vegas's wedding chapels that I didn't even look at. Over the weekend, though, the Photography Muse showed up, and I spent two days working on the images.

Lubbock, Texas

September 15

What IS it with me and old buildings?

I found this one on Buddy Holly Avenue in Lubbock, just south of 19th Street. I like how the metal roof panels are draped across what was supposed to be a covered porch, and I wonder how long it's been this way.

Lubbock, Texas

September 14

This little place in Slaton probably has nearly anything you are looking for - the plate-glass windows advertise Kitchen, Specialty, Remodeling, Gifts, Bath, Flooring. They also seemed well stocked with cobwebs and dust.

And while I was in the area, I photographed the two-story brick building next door. Just as I was walking back to my car, a man in a pickup truck (that was pulling a long trailer) pulled over and asked me what I was doing. "I am just an itinerate photographer," I said. "And I noticed that this building is the same age as my dad, and the light was good, and the sky was blue, so I stopped to take some pictures." He said, "Oh. I thought mebbe you was from the feds."

Then he drove off, and in a very short time, he'd turned around and headed back toward where he'd come from. I had the distinct impression that someone phoned him to report me. And my suspicious activities.

Slaton, Texas

September 13

This little succulent lives by the south-facing window in the living room. It doesn't grow very fast, but when it does, it tilts toward the light.

Lubbock, Texas

September 12

A barrel of bricks. And some sticks.

Yellowhouse Canyon, Texas

September 11

I learned this amazing trick from a nun I once knew: if you snap cottonwood twigs at just the right spot you can see these little stars.

These cottonwood stars were collected on Highway 118, between Alpine and Fort Davis - at a place called Calamity Creek Ranch that has a rest area beside it. And the rest area is shaded by huge cottonwoods growing beside what we can assume is Calamity Creek.

Lubbock, Texas

September 10

This lone business is all that is left of Monterey Shopping Center.

When I was a kid, and before the South Plains Mall opened, Monterey Shopping Center and its neighbor, Caprock Shopping Center, were the places to shop. They had everything you could want - clothes, shoes, books, groceries. Caprock was a little more classy, but I was sort of partial to Monterey Center, because it had these amazing glazed bricks. There were entire walls of them, and other places there were groupings of two or three or nine bricks. Their colors - black, red, orange, green, blue - were set off nicely by the sandy tone of the rest of the bricks.

But my favorite thing was that the glazed bricks always felt cool. I loved to place my flat palm on them for a moment as I passed by, hurried by my mom between errands at the dime store and the pharmacy.

Lubbock, Texas

September 9

This was the last storm of summer, or the first one of winter. Or, just an interesting, random cloud that was gone within five minutes of when I took the photo.

Lubbock, Texas

September 8

Yep, it's a covered wagon lamp.

It's vintage, too, made by prisoners in the Nebraska penitentiary. My husband's grandparents owned it first, and we somehow ended up with it. For many years, because we thought it was unspeakably corny, it had a cozy spot in the attic. On a whim, we brought it down, gave it a new light bulb, and set it on top of the TV armoir in the living room. The light is on a timer, so if you go down the street at the right time of night, you can see a bit of light coming out of the top of the wagon cover.

Lubbock, Texas

September 7

The view from the top of Wild Rose Pass, on State Highway 17, between Fort Davis and Toyhavale. The thin wisp of a cloud built up quickly into an early-afternoon thunderstorm.

Jeff Davis County, Texas

September 6

An interesting scene in the cemetery in Marathon - a grave laid out in a large rectangle rimmed with large rocks and filled with a wide variety of other, smaller stones. None of these rocks looked like they came from this place - they were too colorful. The grave also had a short concrete cylinder, and a white wooden cross. Just beyond, a stone tower stood guard behind a white wooden chair that had a broken seat.

No name was in evidence.

Marathon, Texas

September 5

A fine, well-used chair in the lobby of the Paisano Hotel.

Marfa, Texas

September 4

Wink and you'll miss it.

Wink, Texas

September 3

Yes, that was me in the City of Lubbock cemetery just after lunch today. And, yes, I was flat on my stomach on the grass to get this shot.

(Once, I went to the tiny town of Tuscarora, Nevada. It was winter, and the deep snow was wind-dried to a hard crust on top. My friend and I were exploring the cemetery when my feet broke through the crusted snow and I slipped down, landing flat on my back. Right there among the grave markers. It was a little bit unsettling.

Nothing like that happened today.)

Lubbock, Texas

September 2

Would it be redundant for me to point out how much I like to take really close shots of things, so close as to nearly make them abstract?

Yes, I thought it would be.

Lubbock, Texas

September 1

I guess I am working on a little bit of a reinvention of myself. Today, I added a component to my morning walk: I took my homework with me to the park, and sat at a table under the picnic shelter and read the chapter on description. And ate an apple.

The park is busy in the mornings, busier than I knew when I had an actual job. At least half of the people are walking dogs. Almost everyone sticks to the path, crunching along on the red gravel, which is nearly worn away on the center of the path, but is piled higher against the concrete curbs. In other, older, parks, the City made walking paths that meandered around the park and that had grass and trees on both sides of the path. Here in this park, though, the outside edge of the path is the street's curb. It's not nearly as pathlike as it ought to be.

That doesn't bother me: I strike out across the grass, taking my own direction. Today I learned, when my left shoe was nearly pulled off my foot in a patch of smelly muck, that avoiding the greenest grass is a good idea, because that's where the water pools. And the muck lurks.

Chas. A. Guy Park
Lubbock, Texas

PS - Periodically, someone alters the wooden sign at the corner of the park so that it reads "Chase A Guy" - I like that name so much better than, in my mind, that IS the name of the park.