Lubbock sucks

I occasionally visited Lubbock a few times when my sister was going to Texas Tech here. At the time I thought Lubbock was pretty boring. Now that I actually have to stay here a while, I think it's having a real negative status effect on me. It's so economically depressed and stagnant. The land is flatter than hammered shit in every direction, the streets are named either numbers or letters, no buildings are newer than the 1980s. Really, I went into a supermarket for groceries and it was like I was warped back to 1983. Wood paneling, ugly tile, paper bags, and just an old funky smell. I couldn't buy any alcohol there, since the entire county is dry. A desolate place like this and the residents aren't allowed to drink? That's just cruel. So we had to drive to the next county to get booze. Our evenings consist of drinking beer while we barbecue some meat-of-the-evening, watching the pimps and hos circulate through the parking lot of our motel 6, just doing nothing. That's only entertaining for so long though.
The work itself ain't so bad. The only unexpected twist was the human waste that showed up in the river we were drilling on. Yeah, thanks for that, Lubbock. Man, we were going through cases of Purell. There was one morning I was dead certain I'd wake up with pink-eye or e coli or something worse. It was while we were drilling out there that I began to understand the plight of the rural man. Looking across the miles of stupefyingly flat land, filled with nothing but stinking cattle yards, crops with swarms of weevils overhead, and abandoned businesses, I caught myself thinking, "Yeah, I'd do meth too, if I lived out here. Either that or stick a gun in my mouth." I could not live here. It is just too depressing.
I was supposed to be leaving to Dallas today, but on the last day of work the water truck broke it's driveshaft. That means we have to stick around till Monday at least to get it repaired. You can guess how happy I was about that.

I played right into Google's hand

Fool me twice, shame on me.

Like I'd mentioned, we're (or at least I'm) done with work here in Lubbock and I'm just waiting around till the truck can get repaired. So I had today off. Considering I've spent 150+ days this year in a hotel, I wanted to get out for a bit. I didn't have my truck, as the other driller is using it, but that wasn't gonna stop me. Renn Faire is getting close and if I'm gonna have a costume of my own, I need to get started on it. I want to do a ranger sort of costume. I thought I'd go look at patterns. I googled the Hancock Fabrics here in town and headed out. On the map it looked close, just an hour of walking, according to Google. The first hour of walking was fine; it was hotter than I expected, but it was enjoyable to be outside of my own freewill, rather than working. The second hour . . . I started doubting. I was walking along the main street that Hancock's was on, so I knew I wouldn't miss it, but I didn't think it was this far. I kept telling myself to go one more block, then one more block, just one more block. I was getting hot and thirsty, but told myself that I could take the bus back to the hotel after I got to Hancock's. Two and a half hours after I started walking, I came to the loop on the far side of town and still no Hancock's. By that point I was done. I had hotspots on my feet that would turn into blisters if I kept walking and I wasn't in any mood to be looking at patterns anyways. So I ducked into the nearby Whataburger and spent a good half hour just cooling down and drinking lots of tea (plus a burger, but I was really just there for the fluids). Then I sat down at the nearest bus stop. According to the route map, it would take me 95% of the way back to my hotel. Thank goodness, because my dogs were barking. After a few minutes of waiting I looked again at the map and read, "Bus routes do not operate on Sundays or holidays." Aw monkeyfuckshit. What the hell? People in Lubbock don't go places on Sunday?
Ugh, the walk back to the hotel sucked. Blisters and thigh chafing (which is a new thing for me, apparently I've got fatter thighs now. Hooray.). Five hours of walking in 98º heat for nothing. That was a wasted afternoon. When I did finally get back to the hotel I soaked in the tub for an hour or so; I like to pretend I was re-absorbing all the water I'd lost over the day. I am pooped.

Screw you, Google.