I guess I'll do AT&T first. My wife's employee perks expired and I was faced with the need to modernize service. We resisted Uverse for a long time but I spoke to someone named Robin in Dallas and she convinced me that would be the best option for what I wanted. She made a good deal for me and I have to admire her sales ability. The set up was painless and I'm pleased with the way everything is working. It was easy to connect my other computer, which used to be on a cable modem, to the new modem via a wireless NetGear device using downloaded software. Dropping the cable modem service left me with a monthly phone bill a couple of bucks higher than what we used to have with my wife's retiree perks, but the service is MUCH better. After complaining in the past, I feel a need to restore the balance by describing something that went well.
And now for more garden. Those sunflowers again.
In the next batch of pics you will note other things. It is not all sunflowers.
These pics are a mix of Canon SX100 and Nikon D200. With the Nikon I am using the usual lens, a stabilized zoom auto-focus. Not exactly wide angle but I really don't like wide-angle. I prefer to focus in.
Remember, there are no mistakes. Only happy accidents. For this wisdom I am indebted to BOB ROSS!
In fact, I need to start using Adobe Photoshop, so I can extract more from those happy accidents.
There will be more of this next time. I hope to get more new stuff this weekend. I will start using Photoshop in the near future.
So enough of the old stuff. The backyard garden is back, bigger and better than ever. It is so easy to take pictures of the stuff growing back there, and it changes from day to day, that I can't resist using it as subject matter. So we are going to start seeing a lot of sunflowers, for one thing.
Sunflowers grow well in this climate, they are spectacular, and they attract all kinds of wildlife in the forms of birds, bees, lizards, and a variety of spiders and other bugs. Of course, butterflies visit. Combine that with birdbaths and bird feeders and you've got a little habitat going. Of course, that's not all I have. New additions are milkweed, hummingbird mint, zinnias, and many wildflowers. I've even got corn growing in one corner, along with several varieties of tomato. Oh yeah, there are day lillies as well. And weeds. I have no problems with weeds. I like a garden that's semi-wild. I just regret that I don't have an old tractor in the middle of this stuff. If I expand the garden next year, as planned, I'll have room for one. If I can't manage that, I know where I can find a vintage horse-drawn plow. That would work.
I was just messing around, switching between the Canon and the Nikon. A cold Shiner Bock (or two) helped make these photo sessions a pleasant escape.
Well, there's gonna be more of this next time...
Yep, more of that turn-of-the-century stuff. This is what the RC flying field west of Lubbock, off of 19th Street, looked like in the early 2000's.
It looked then much as it does now, although it is getting more and more "developed" in that area. I predict that this field will go away in the near future, and houses will be built there. Or maybe storage units. Lubbock has many, many, storage units. Lots of people have more crap than they can stuff in their dwellings, so they pay to store the crap. Does that not sound stupid?
Hell, it IS stupid.
It was a great flying field, and still is, if you can handle the wind.
I crashed my first RC plane right about here. It was a Goldberg Eaglet 50.
There are even places there where you can fly control-line aircraft. When I took these photos, the technology was still primitive. You had to monitor frequencies, and 2-cycle internal combustion engines were the norm.
The old days.
And now, my favorite hamburger stand, as it was in the early 2000's.
It is still there, but much worse for the wear after so many years. It is out of business. It has been flooded several times and vandalized many times.
As it deteriorates it becomes more interesting. I have used this location several times.
I think it began life as "Mr. BB's". Then it became "Andrew's", and then it was gone.
Gone but not forgotten.
This was the drive-up window.
These are other ruins nearby. Today it is a kind of homeless campground.
Lubbock's homeless population has increased steadily.
Lost and gone. Ruins. Debris. Entropy!!
I'll be back there someday. I'll document its current state of decay.
In the next batch of pics you will note other things. It is not all sunflowers.
These pics are a mix of Canon SX100 and Nikon D200. With the Nikon I am using the usual lens, a stabilized zoom auto-focus. Not exactly wide angle but I really don't like wide-angle. I prefer to focus in.
Remember, there are no mistakes. Only happy accidents. For this wisdom I am indebted to BOB ROSS! 
In fact, I need to start using Adobe Photoshop, so I can extract more from those happy accidents.
There will be more of this next time. I hope to get more new stuff this weekend. I will start using Photoshop in the near future.
