Plainview Again--

Finishing the July Fourth parade and moving on to other sights in Plainview...

 Here are several pics of what used to be a public pool near the park where we watched the parade. It seemed to have been a great facility at one time and why it closed and became a ruin is a mystery. The alien we encountered led us here, but what exactly he wanted to communicate is unclear. He did tell us that it was once a popular place.

 

Plainview In View

Plainview has several streets that look like "main streets". On one of those pseudo-main streets we found a small restaurant with a long name, something like: JUST A FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD DINER TO HANG OUT AT. Something like that. As soon as we got in I noticed the stink of cigarette smoke. There were several seedy-looking old farts sitting at a bar smoking and drinking coffee, and sitting around small tables smoking and drinking coffee. I suggested getting out of there but then my wife remembered that all of Plainview is like that. They have no no-smoking ordinances. Fortunately, the place we chose was fairly well ventilated, except the men's restroom, which was an inferno. It was a good place to squat, squeeze, light up a cigarette and sweat like a hawg, if that was your pleasure.  Yee HAAA! At any rate the hamburgers we ordered were good and the menu was interesting. Most of the hamburgers listed featured hot ingredients like pepper jack cheese and jalapenos. While we were there I noticed that the folks in Plainview look at you funny. They even look at each other funny. By this time I was freaking out and ready to have Plainview in my rearview mirror. But we drove around a little bit more before we left. As a side note, Plainview had the only remaining Spud Nut joint in Texas. These were doughnut shops but the doughnuts were made from potato flour and were really quite good. There used to be one in Lubbock across from Lubbock High School. Buddy Holly might have eaten a Spud Nut or two. But that one went under many years ago. And Plainview's Spud Nut shop bit the dust relatively recently. So now you can no longer enjoy a potato doughnut anywhere. That's kind of sad.

The Fourth From Plainview-- Revised

We were lucky enough to enter Plainview on the very street on which the parade would take place, just fifteen minutes before the start. We didn't KNOW exactly where it would be when we left but when we entered the town we could see "downtown" type buildings ahead, police cars, and cars lining the streets and spectators. We found a good parking spot in the parking lot of an abandoned VFW hall. Some other folks had arrived from out-of-town and a lady asked us whether this is where the parade would be held. I told her we had no idea, but we were assuming so. She decided to ask one of the local cops, parked near us on a side street. As she approached the cop, the cop drove away! I'm sure she was close enough to be seen. I'm sure the cop saw her. But he drove off, and parked on the other block, across the street! But that's Plainview. That's Plainview weirdness. 

I also thought it was odd that there was no music-- no marching bands in the parade, and no live music in the little street fair area. And nowhere was there any place that would serve as a restroom. No portable toilets. There was not much food in evidence, unless you count kettle korn as food. The scene didn't quite gel. Everything was a bit "off", for me. We were hungry and we asked a bunch of tattooed teens under a tent where we could find a mom and pop type place to eat. They laughed and directed us to a place called Grumpies and gave us directions-- it was less than two blocks away-- but we searched and searched and there was no such place. We wandered around taking pics. Then we left and found a place to eat.
8-17-2015: Well, come to find out, there really IS a place called "Grumpies" in Plainview. We were just not able to find it. Our bad, as they say today. I feel terrible about misjudging those teens and we apologize after the fact, for what it is worth. Someday we will return to Plainview and eat at Grumpies, provided the stink of cigarette smoke does not turn our stomachs. What a foul and repulsive habit smoking is.

POP CRAP FIZZLE-- July Fourth 2014 Came And Went

We decided to escape the crowds in Lubbock. We drove to Plainview, a town of about 30,000 southwest of Lubbock, and home to Wayland Baptist University, among other things. We arrived just in time for the parade.

I'll have a lot more parade pics and other pics of Plainview later. This is just an introduction. The parade was the right size to be friendly. No bloated extravaganza here, and the little street festival downtown was the right size too. You could find a place to park! You could actually walk easily through the modest crowd! We encountered a guy with a big camera who approached us and tried to make conversation, except it seems he had no clue. It was difficult and painful. Non sequitur followed non sequitur. He gave my wife an uneasy feeling. He gave me an uneasy feeling. He seemed not to really understand social conventions, though he looked fairly normal. We didn't know whether he intended to follow us or not, or expected us to invite him to have lunch with us, or what-- we couldn't read his intentions. He seemed to not understand what was expected of him, but he also seemed curious. We managed to get away, more or less politely, but we both had a very uneasy feeling. I've concluded that he was either an alien or a time-traveler. Only in Plainview! We learned that in Plainview there are no smoking restrictions in place. We found a little mom and pop type burger stand, and noticed there were people smoking in there. I wanted to leave but my wife, having visited Plainview several times years ago, remembered that Plainview never had any restrictions on where you could smoke, and apparently it still doesn't. 

I'll have more on our Plainview adventures later-- gotta post this and start getting some stuff done!

Back To Lubbock Again

This was hard to do. I got a Kodak Easy Share for $3 at an estate sale but I did not have the appropriate USB cable. Is there any excuse for all the different connector types on devices? Probably not. I bought a "universal" adapter kit that is far from being universal but at least I can connect this camera. My wife's computer has a card reader that accepts the memory card but her DSL is too slow to upload anything, it seems. Of course. She is with AT&T. Service sucks. The CEO is a sack of pus.

It's all done, and it was an incredible freaking struggle getting these pics to upload.