Car Repair Day

Car Repair Days generally means a trip downtown. I live on one side of Houston, The garage I use is on the other side of Houston. I generally count on Car Repair Day to be an all day afair, sometimes two days. Fortunately all I needed was an oil change, tire rotation and the 45,000 mile maintenance so it was only a couple of hours. I always jump on Metro and headed downtown and the rail for lunch at the Museum of Fine Arts because they have a book store. Shot a few very eclectic shots along the way. But I came home with several hours that I had not counted on to fill.

I spent a little time looking at magazines at the Central Library, watched Cornell X's little George Zimmerman party, road a number of trains, lunched at the MFA. Was surprised to see that Macy's has closed the downtown store. There isn't going to be much left of downtown before long.

Foley's, later Macy's, was a institution in Houston. But then again so was Sakowitz which was across the street. The old Southwestern Camera store has been gone for over a decade, now with Foley's gone no one is going to understand the story of how Janet and I decided to get married walking from Southwestern to Foley's to buy a pair of Docksiders.

The old Sakowitz building has been a parking garage for years and it seems that is the fate in store for the Foley's store. With nothing to go to downtown who needs parking? Houston is far from the city that I visited back in the 1960's and moved to in 1970. I am going to miss downtown. Most people I know are afraid to go downtown--it ain't Detroit people. It is safe to go downtown. Yes, I got hit up twice for a hand out and as usual I had a pocket full of dollar bills--you can even make a temporary friend or two that way. Heard a great story about unfilled promises from a potential employer and even though he said he was trying to get back to Dallas, he headed south on Main Street--Dallas is the other way. But it was a good story.