Lubbock Updates And Guitar Collection Updates

Yes, just a few more pics of things here in Lubbock, Texas, and some pics of new guitars.

 UMC/TTUHSC is our vast medical complex consisting of a teaching hospital associated with Texas Tech's School of Medicine, and Lubbock's County Hospital. They are back to back and constantly expanding, and they are major employers here. Quality of care is absolutely top notch. We are fortunate to have this in Lubbock. I show only a tiny glimpse of some new construction in these pics.

 This is an area near the vast, sprawling, TTU campus.

We are north of 4th Street and west of University Avenue, in a largely Hispanic part of town.

 I found this Epiphone Les Paul jr. in a local pawnshop and got it for $75 "out the door". I like it. It plays great and sounds fine. In the photo below you can see how I had to set up the bridge in order to get good intonation. It would have been better if the bridge had not had the raised saddles. A simple Gibson style "stop" tailpiece would work better as a bridge.

Below, is my new Squier VM Mustang in Sonic Blue. Great tone! The rosewood neck is so dark it looks like ebony, and I like that too. This guitar reminds me of one I saw in Harrad's Music Store, on Avenue Q here in Lubbock years ago when I attended what was then Texas Technological College. I was shopping for a guitar and could have gone for the Mustang but I chose a Candy Apple Red Fender Jaguar instead. Mistake. The Jag was too much guitar for me at that time-- too much finesse required. Over the years I had many opportunities to buy a Mustang but never did it until now. I'm glad I did!

And the guitar above is the Squier 20th anniversary dreadnought I found in a local pawnshop several years ago. Solid spruce top, nice tone. This one was $100 "out the door". I always haggle over prices when I find something I like at a pawnshop. Most of the time they are eager to get rid of it and will take a reasonable offer. That's how I got my Jagmaster. They'd had it on the shelf for a while and I believe they sold it to me after I offered them $90 plus the sales tax. That, too, is a very playable and satisfying guitar.
 

Let's Just Finish These Views Of Lubbock...

... so I can move on to something else.

 Somebody lives in this house-- not much like Tech Terrace is it? 

 This illegal dump is right across 66th Street from Lubbock's Pump Station 6, which is part of the public water supply system!

 Yep, part of the water system is right across the street!

 I really do not understand why this dump has not been cleaned up, given its location.

Documenting Lubbock's Squalor

Rest your bones, set a spell... heh, heh.

 Who owns this property? Is it generating tax revenue? Are there not many code/health violations here? 

 I will tell you this: city departments are full of deadheads who become very indignant when you ask them to work. They like to have meetings. They like to attend meetings. But work is offensive. Please don't ask them to work.

 It is important to understand that the majority of Lubbock's employees are considered to be managers. Managers at various levels, managing other managers, and the job of a manager is to manage. A manager is not a WORKER.  A manager supervises the work of OTHERS. In most cases, a manager in the city hierarchy is supervising a lower level of management, and not a single WORKER can be found. Pity the poor people on the bottom of this contemptible structure. They are outnumbered by the jobs they have to do, on the one hand, and the layers and layers of management above them. That's why very little gets done in Lubbock. That's part of the reason the city is so inefficient, and so mired in debt. 

Lubbock's Waste, Ruin, And Illegal Dumping

You see lots of waste, ruin, and illegal dumping in some parts of town.

You can also see a lot of inadvertent abstract expressionism.

Mattresses and couches are the things that are most often dumped in town. Hard to dispose of things like this.  It would not surprise me to learn that these dumping grounds sometimes conceal human remains. If that's the case, I think local law enforcement would just rather not know. In my opinion, city officials are as rotten as the moldering debris you see in these pics.

When I see things like this, I have the feeling that I'm looking into the very heart of the "whited sepulcher" that is Lubbock, Texas. That's not to say there aren't good people here; it's just that there aren't enough of them where it counts.