Texas Oddities

In all of my love and adoration for the great state of Texas, I do recognize we have our oddities. Bluebonnets are one of those. I've blogged on this before, but it gets me every year at this time. The beautiful flower of this great state blooms in full force this time of year. Thus, it is time to take our precious children, dress them in their Sunday best, toss them in the middle of the freeway and take their photo. I exaggerate not. So, we don't actually throw them into traffic, but if anyone has spent anytime with a toddler or young child keeping them in a ten-foot (at most) span of open space is next to impossible. As is keeping a large metal/plastic boxy robot machine at 80mph on a road and not the grassy, bluebonnet covered knoll along side. PEOPLE of TEXAS: There are bluebonnets EVERYWHERE! Please find a lovely patch in the field by the grocery store or the local park -not in the freeway median. It takes no more then about five feet of bluebonnets to get a great picture of your little child to send to the grandparents, aunts, uncles and refrigerators.
Second, of this week's Texas traits is tradition. And no more then at Texas A&M University will you find tradition. I had the joy of witnessing the acquisition and dunking of my little brother's Aggie ring. I have a high school ring, but have not invested in a ring from college or grad school, so some of the importance of the occasion is lost on me. I also have concern over folks that want to believe that the ring is more important then the diploma. I disagree. Your ring is nice and brings you a sense of community, but I'm not hiring you for your jewelry. Show me the diploma. And please clean the 4 cans of keystone off your ring before applying for the next job.
Finally, Houston. Houston is known to be humid. A place is humid because it gets a lot of rain. Houston not only gets rain, but also hurricanes. So, why do the streets of there very new (and not lacking in finacial resources) neighborhoods flood? I remain perplexed at the Houstonians who just shrugged at the flooded roads to say, that's Houston for ya and its common to get torrential rain in a couple hours. Now, I'm not a city planner nor have I spent more then 7 days total in the vicinity of Houston, but humid+hurricanes+rains a lot=produce good drainage systems. Houstonians: I'm confused!
I guess in the end, it is a good thing that Texas is God's promised land 'cause we're liable to be in a lot of trouble otherwise.