Where have I been, part 3

Computer: Still sick.

Solution: Ship to Apple for repairs

Me: Still taking photos, but without computer (and PhotoShop) that's as far as it goes.

Blog: Will get caught up as soon as the computer returns.

Where have I been part 2

It doesn't make any sense, but it looks as though the logic board (what ever that means) has gone out on my laptop. And my local Mac guy can't fix it, but he is nice enough to take it to Dallas to the Apple store. And we hope the geniuses there can get it working again.

My Mac guy says logic boards "hardly ever" go bad, so I am one lucky girl, aren't I?

At any rate - don't worry: I am still taking photos every day and as I can find computers with PhotoShop that I can use (and hopefully not ruin MORE logic boards) I will be posting.

Thanks for your patience, and maybe it won't be too long before I get a computer back.

Lubbock, Texas

November 22

A building at the mostly abandoned White River Retreat.

White River Lake, Texas

November 21

A couple of nice rocking chairs on the porch of the lake house where I spent the weekend.

White River Lake, Texas

November 20

Poor games - they just have to sit in this tall stack in the closet. No one plays anymore.

Lubbock, Texas

Where have I been???

Bad news on the computer front: perhaps it is H1N1, or something else like a crashed hard drive. But my computer is down.

The computer guy just came and took it away to run diagnostics, asking me as he left, "Is it still under warranty?"

Oh no.

But I have been taking photos, so as soon as I have a computer again, I will post them all.

Maybe that will be later this afternoon.....

November 19

A silver building along the highway out of town.

US 385,
near Levelland, Texas

November 18

Sometimes I just can't understand the way my mind works.

Tonight is a good example. I stopped at the shoe store and looked around for a while And, then, really from just out of nowhere, I started thinking about a Steve Martin book from the late 1970s.

The book: Cruel Shoes.

Weird, huh?

Lubbock, Texas

November 17

Henderson Street, between 5th and 6th.

Austin, Texas

November 16

This kind of makes me feel sad for the people in these photographs. The photos are piled in a bowl at an antique store, and for sale for a buck each.

How would it make you feel if you saw a member of your family in one of these pictures?

Uncommon Objects, South Congress
Austin, Texas

November 15

Take that, New England: we have leaves that change color, too.

Lubbock, Texas

November 14

Here's what I need to write a novel this month:

notecards (not that they really help, it just seems like a good idea)
a list of chapters that I have already written (again, not that it really helps)
a Sharpie (because you can't do anything without a Sharpie)
coffee
daily word count (3,154 for today)

I am 53% complete today, which leaves me only 23,516 words to go before midnight on November 30...

nearly halfway through National Novel Writing Month
Lubbock, Texas

November 13

Yum...tapas! And wine.

La Diosa Cellars
Lubbock, Texas

November 12

Here's an inexpensive little decorating tip you won't see on HGTV: cardboard coffee sleeves.

(It is only inexpensive if you don't count the cost of getting to Cowboy Joe in Elko, Nevada.)

(And, is it just me, or does that coffee cup graphic over the word "Melvyns" look like a dead, feet-up bug?)

My office
Levelland, Texas

November 11

Magnet art installation provided by guest artist Hannah, age 2.

Lubbock, Texas

November 10

My drive to work includes ten miles on a farm-to-market road, so I get twice daily updates on the cotton harvest.

On Monday morning, I saw that my favorite cotton field had been picked (stripped, we say out here) over the weekend. Is it odd to have a "favorite" cotton field? Go back and look at the photo from October 14 - there, behind the sign that says "wells" - is my favorite field. The cotton wasn't open yet in October, but when it did open, the fields were fluffy with it. This particular field had plants that were taller than most, so it was actually pretty spectacular. And it reminded me of an old picture I have of my grandpa, standing in cotton that was up to his waist. He wasn't a tall man, but that was nevertheless some tall cotton.

But that doesn't have anything to do with this picture, which was taken about seven miles from town, just after the turn from US 385 to FM 1485 - you know the place, right?

Hockley County, Texas

November 9

(This is not downtown Lubbock)

Hockley County, Texas

November 8

It's a the third day in a row I have a photo from downtown Lubbock.

This one, as you can see, is from what we shall call the "less urbanized" side - 9th Street nex to the railroad.

Lubbock, Texas

November 7

Downtown Lubbock two nights in a row - that is sort of unprecedented. Tonight was a concert by The Flatlanders.

(See June 2 photo for daytime shot of this same building, backed by an approaching storm.)

Lubbock, Texas

November 6

I found this interesting entry way of a building downtown tonight.

Lubbock, Texas

November 5

I like words that start with Z. I find them to be somewhat zesty!

zax
zaffer
zinhanthropus
zill
zwieback
zydeco
zyzzyva
zygoma
Zouave
zooid
zither
zloty
zig
zag
zig-zag
zinnia
zabaglione


(with the American Heritage Dictionary, 4th edition, on my desk)
Lubbock, Texas

November 4

With the time change, it is starting to get light when I leave for work. That's a nice change: ever since I started my new job at the end of September, the drive to work has been in the dark.

But now, I get rewarded with scenes like this smooth lake at the end of my street.

Chas. A. Guy Park
Lubbock, Texas

November 3

Just a random clay pot on the back porch.

I really MUST start taking some pictures somewhere besides my house...

Lubbock, Texas

November 2

Hint: my side of the closet isn't NEARLY this organized....

Lubbock, Texas

November 1

I have been working on this little roadside cross project for something like twelve years. It is a combination of digitally-manipulated images and poetry, and it was completely stalled out. It was so stalled out, in fact, that I was very close to abandoning the written parts, and turning it into a photography project.

Until the week before last, when I spent a week-long writing retreat working on it. During the retreat, I deconstructed the project, then rebuilt it. It's got a different focus now, and I think a stronger one.

I have divided the images into sections, and that is what is in the photograph: long taped-together photographs, by section. They are hanging on the closet door in my office, rustling in the breeze from the ceiling fan.

I am ready to work on it now: that writing retreat could not have come at a better time.

Lubbock, Texas