If I was asked about some things I like about Texas…

- It's the warm-hearted people that are so wonderful... who
sometimes sew lots of Southern-lace on to what they are telling ya... ladies,
youth and even cattlemen with lots of kind Southern hospitality. They are
"real folk" and they keep life pretty simple around here. We are grateful for
our friends that speak with a drawl.

- It’s the fajitas and FIVE ALARM FIERY HOT CHILLI PEPPERS! Like most people
in interesting parts of the world, Texans adore spicy hot foods.

- It’s the great steakhouses like Al Biernat’s, Perry’s, or Pappa’s Brother’s!

- It’s also the other offbeat places to eat like Ojeda’s, Uncle Julio’s, or RJ’s
to eat at. Restaurants in the Big D are as good as the top spots in New York
– many are from there ...but Dallasites frequent them more per capita than
New Yorkers in NY visit their’s. We enjoy going to Trece for continental Mexico
City Mex food. But we also love Steel, Oishi, Nobu or Kenichi in Victory Park
for Shashemi and Sushi. Sonny Brian's BBQ is excellent too (the original
Inwood location). Liney and I enjoy Abacus, Nove, Nana and Bread Winners
Uptown (a real low-key place) for brunch or lunch rocks. I guess you can tell
that Christian and I are getting hungry about now.

- It's the lower cost of living (especially with real-estate). 

- It's by far less commuter traffic jams and a lower crime rate than in LA, though
the inner city does have some gangs. 

- It's Possum Kingdom Lake with great golfing along the top of the cliffs and the
clear water due to the stone bottom. It's the hunting and fishing at Rough Creek Lodge
where the Bush family go when they get tired of hanging out at their ranch in Crawford. 

- It's Austin and the different music styles that you can find almost everywhere down
there in the hill country.

- It's some of the songs you can still play for a quarter in jukebox on your table at the
old diner.

- It's the wide open spaces or a long drive through East Texas past all the lakes.

- It's the fact that practically all of America (US companies) warehouse their goods
in Dallas due to it's central location, so when you buy anything at the higher retail price
(other than at wholesale as you could find if you only looked), you feel like you sinned
via your lavish extravagance and laziness. 

-  It's great acoustic / e-guitar alternative folk and indy-bands with their various music
styles and flair that is played all over (especially in Austin Texas)!

- It's the packed out open-air jazz festival in Denton, and the techo electronica and fusion
background music that's groove-based non-overbearing and found in the high-end 
Victory Park area of and low-end Deep Elum downtown area of Dallas.

- It's a big raft ride along the Riverwalk in San Antonio.

- It's Juanita's taco stand in the basement of the Alamo …even though there's no
red bicycle to be found there (surely you remember the Alamo ...and that Big Adventure!).

- It's the Midwestern family-friendly culture that is more advantageous that other
areas in other states for raising children without all the excess stress (but any son
or daughter can of course bring some stress). 

- It's the healthy growing small and mega churches that teach us how to live
right (I say the healthy ones, because unfortunately some of them do not hold to
the basic Essentials or to what the Bible really teaches about those popular subjects
of sin, the cross, repentance and a future judgment ahead). 

- It's when they say: "We might could," "She might would," "He might oughta,"
"..fixin' ta," "y'all, grub," "Amen, tell it… tell the Story," "Turn in your Bibles to…"
(Which is very rare to hear in churches any more (especially the Emergent Churches),
but hearing all those pages turn is like beautiful music to my ears!). It's "Howdee
partna," and "Ouwww Yee-Hoo… Yehaw!" Most native Texans in Dallas don't open there
teeth up much while speaking whole sentences, and some of them have chewing
tobacco crammed in their lower lip until it sticks out. They use a flat "i," sound saying
"naht" for night and "rahd" for ride, and they don't make any audible distinction when
pronouncing such words as "pool" and "pull" or "fool" and "full."

- It's that don't rope me in mentality. I've seen some 500 cars exiting the freeway all at
once (due to one car accident up in the distance and no fences along the sides to
keep them back) ..yup, cars exiting up the grassy embankment slope to get to a
different neighborhood road (like a herd of cattle). One day I actually saw a cow
that was laid out by an old pickup truck, on the frontage road due to no fences built. 

The challenging part about living here…

- It's the sudden 40 degree drop in temperature in January that catches you off guard
(there's nothin' much between the North Pole and Dallas except barbed wire).

- It's the ragweed in spring that makes you sneeze.

- It's the triple digit heat in the summer time when you can't find a pool in the area…

- It's the fact that snow skiing is no where to be found in Texas at all, but it's found in
Breckenridge and Aspen Colorado (Texans feel that the Rockies are their playground).

- It's the fact that there are no waves to surf or alps to climb up with my excellent
German mountaineer friend, Eddi.

- It's the people on the highways who switch five lanes in front of you all at once,
driving 72 miles per hour.

- It’s the "black Ice" in the winter as over 300 cars wreck in one night (I saw it). 

- It's the golf ball sized hail that can fall anytime and can total you car.  

- It might be a tornado that tears up the red neck trailer park.

- It's that aggressive water moccasin snake in the lake that's out to get cha!  

- It's the last minute freeway signage that lets you know too late when to turn and
that you might be crossing the oncoming traffic of a frontage road to get to your safe
lane as you exit the freeway.

See more of what I am into ...deep in the heart of Texas at:
http://fish4souls.org/