Friday, March 28, 2014

Continuing Idalou Road

Continuing to document the consequences of being on the wrong ends of the money scale and color spectrum...








Bleak.


Thursday, March 27, 2014

More East Lubbock Images

Developers don't really seem to give a rat's ass about this side of town, and I'd say that's true of the city council as well.  East Lubbock might as well be a third world country nobody cares about.








 

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Lubbock Idalou Road Photo Series

My wife and I found a stretch of road in East Lubbock that had nice new wide sidewalks and newly poured wide concrete driveways, but there was really nothing there but ruins and junk and empty lots with myriads of prairie dogs. Could this be Lubbock's "Bridge To Nowhere"? We took photos, of course.












Is this area marked for future development, or was the paving work nothing but waste, a project, maybe, for some local bigwig's worthless brother-in-law?? There is really nothing much out there.

This Photo Series Ends

Back in Lubbock.





 But we passed through Wolfforth on the way to Lubbock, and that explains the water tower.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

More And More Of Not Much

These photos are really great examples of what you are likely to see if you are on the road anywhere within one hundred miles of Lubbock. It is all very much like this:














People don't travel to this area because of the scenery. They don't travel here because of the recreational opportunities (unless it has something to do with dirt bikes). I don't think anyone in their right mind would visit this area expecting to have fun. Well, they might be masochists. No, people come here because the cost of living is low and jobs are actually easy to find. If you can cope with the privation and danger, you can make a bundle in the oil patch. In Midland and Odessa, for instance, oil patch jobs are plentiful and they pay very well. But there the cost of living is very high and housing is almost non-existent. If you can work like a dog, sweat like a hog, want to risk your life on a daily basis and live out of your car, you can make lots of money, save lots of money, and if you survive the experience with most of your appendages still attached you will be glad you did it. Actually, in Midland or Odessa you can make good money doing almost anything because the oil fields are soaking up the labor pool. Very, very, competitive and a tight labor market.