To be honest, no matter where you live, you have pride of the area you're connected to. I will always love Houston. I was BORN smack in the middle of Downtown Houston. My entire family is Houston attached, but I am also a Texas gal who was raised to appreciate country living, so our new town in the country is a very welcomed change in our lives.
And the photo below is a restaurant that has two tables available for seating --- this is the CLOSEST restaurant to our acreage. No kidding. The food tastes great, so says Sgt. Dave. I haven't eaten there, yet, but am looking forward to sitting at one of those tables and enjoying the country atmosphere. It suits me, perfectly.
Two bits of good news today...the Texas Department of Transportation has agreed that we DO need another culvert installed because, a few years ago, the Farm to Market road at our frontage was raised and it impacted entry to our acreage. This was VERY good news because culverts with industrial size pipes needed for our frontage culverts are high-dollar. TDoT approving our second culvert because of the topography of our property, which means a hefty part of the costs will be covered by their department or all of it. We shall see!
After the state and county mess with your roads and impact your culverts or property access, they CAN be petitioned to make it right. I've gone through a lot of hand-shaking, petition writing, property staking, frontage meetings, etc., with the Texas Dept. of Transportation to make this happen. Thank God they ruled in our favor!
Then, the local phone coop came out today to check our acreage so they could continue making plans to install a land-line and DSL, which could take another two weeks, at least. So, I might have INTERNET very soon!!! I am so excited that I can't even express the bubbling anticipation that comes from NOT having Internet for too long!
Sitting at the Lowe's parking lot is not all that fun and paying extra IPhone costs to have a "personal hotspot" which gives limited data usage for Internet will come to an end.
And, I miss using my new IPad, I'd grown to love that little booger!
As for Houston, it's jam-packed and condensed with high population numbers. So, moving out to the country full-time does include a culture shock.
One thing is...people take more time out to be POLITE. There's hardly any conversation around here that doesn't include "Yes Ma'am" or "Much Obliged" or "Thank you" or "My Pleasure."
Polite courteous behavior with good manners is STRONG in this part of the country. It's even nicer to not take pictures of a person as they are trying to chew their food...
Yes, there is Southern Hospitality in Texas, but city people do get in a rush and are often under the impression that their time is more important than anything else on earth. Sadly, that is a self-absorbed misconception.
Sometimes, I've politely told a rude person who tried to cut in line as they are glance at their wrist watch, "Please do not make YOUR rush OUR problem."
I've been a "big city" person, yet I've seen plenty of city people walk around with the misconception that their rush is indeed everyone else's problem. Sometimes, you must simply keep taking your time to do things, slowly, around them, so they can one day realize that you are not catering to their life of mad dashing. There's a time and a place for everything!
Around here, things are at an easy pace. Well, except for the wild-life.
And Sgt. Dave has seen a snake every single day this week along with this little fellow in the woods at the back of the RV.
I did not invite this little Devil, but he crashed our party in the country! At least no one felt his sting.
As for the VERY LARGE, approximate six foot snake at the RV porch two days ago, I would like to ask you to find another piece of dirt to inhabit...we don't like spiders and snakes, not THAT close to the front door.
And yesterday we hear sirens for the FIRST TIME since we have lived here and we've now been here since the 20th of May. In our old town, outside of Houston, we heard sirens on a NIGHTLY basis. It's taken nearly ONE MONTH of living in the country to hear a siren, but yesterday, the number of sirens and emergency vehicles we heard definitely made the mind go into a dark place of wondering what could've happened. It did not sound good. I think it will be one of those situations that we will either read about in the local paper next week or hear about at the corner store in the next 48 hours.
We have been going nonstop. I can't even keep up with writing about everything.
Yesterday, we also moved our RV upward about 45 feet so it can better reach the septic and electrical pole. The new site is absolutely beautiful! The ground is not as sloped and we are no longer near the falling path of an oak tree that we discovered was rotting. It seems things are moving along.
Also, this past Wednesday, we drove to our old town outside of Houston to bring some things back from that storage room and we worked like DOGS until near 9pm. We drove a trailer load and a truck-bed load of things to Livingston with us and we looked like questionable people as we towed our items strapped down with Persian carpeting covering it all. After Sgt. Dave strapped it all down, we made the two hour trip and didn't lose a thing!
It we weren't tired enough to be slightly humored, we would have been in hysterics at how weird our load appeared.
Today was INCREDIBLE. I will have to write about today's experience TOMORROW! Let me just tell you...it was INCREDIBLE!
Until tomorrow, stay cool and watch out for the snakes!
And yesterday we hear sirens for the FIRST TIME since we have lived here and we've now been here since the 20th of May. In our old town, outside of Houston, we heard sirens on a NIGHTLY basis. It's taken nearly ONE MONTH of living in the country to hear a siren, but yesterday, the number of sirens and emergency vehicles we heard definitely made the mind go into a dark place of wondering what could've happened. It did not sound good. I think it will be one of those situations that we will either read about in the local paper next week or hear about at the corner store in the next 48 hours.
We have been going nonstop. I can't even keep up with writing about everything.
Yesterday, we also moved our RV upward about 45 feet so it can better reach the septic and electrical pole. The new site is absolutely beautiful! The ground is not as sloped and we are no longer near the falling path of an oak tree that we discovered was rotting. It seems things are moving along.
Also, this past Wednesday, we drove to our old town outside of Houston to bring some things back from that storage room and we worked like DOGS until near 9pm. We drove a trailer load and a truck-bed load of things to Livingston with us and we looked like questionable people as we towed our items strapped down with Persian carpeting covering it all. After Sgt. Dave strapped it all down, we made the two hour trip and didn't lose a thing!
It we weren't tired enough to be slightly humored, we would have been in hysterics at how weird our load appeared.
Today was INCREDIBLE. I will have to write about today's experience TOMORROW! Let me just tell you...it was INCREDIBLE!
Until tomorrow, stay cool and watch out for the snakes!
2 comments:
That restaurant looks like it needs a new floor. Congrats on finally making it to the country.
It's a restaurant where the original EVERYTHING is what works, even if it is falling apart! But, it somehow does go together! It feels like an awesome hole in the wall! Supposedly, the hamburgers are the BEST! Maybe I'll test them out this weekend...
Lana
Post a Comment