This is Texas - Roads

We went up to the Dallas Arboretum this weekend to take some family pictures for my husband's parents 40th anniversary.  It was beautiful out.  The kids were even fairly cooperative--smiled and stood still and everything (most of the time). Don't have any pictures to share myself because I figured the photographer (who happened to be my husband's cousin) would take more than enough. 

On our way there we spotted something that drove me crazy when I first moved out here....TEXAS sized road bumps.

You know those little safety disks that they put on the middle of the road or the edge of turning lanes?  They're usually about the size of a half a tennis ball...if that.  Well, in some parts of Dallas and Fort Worth, the "safety bumps" in the turn lanes are about the size of salad bowls.  These things are intimidating.

Here's a picture I found on flickr:

Picture by  Diorama Sky 

Here's some other features of Texas Roads and Texas Driving:

• Do Not Drive on Median You'll see these signs on the edges of highways and freeways.  And you know why they need a sign?  Cause people do...frequently.
• Useless Turn Signals.  My biggest pet peeve about Texas driving (specifically Dallas driving) is that no one uses their turn signal to change lanes...they just inch over.    I don't take "inching over the line" as a sign you're about to turn...I take it as a sign you're drunk.  But the reason people don't use their blinker to show they're moving over is probably because if you do people often speed up to close the gap and keep you from coming into their lane.  UG!  Texas civility ends as soon as people get in a car.
• Roads With Multiple Names.  It's not unusual for a road in Texas to have both a name, and and number.  It's also common for one road to change names several times, even in the same city.  I've gotten lost due to road name changes many times, and it makes asking directions really frustrating. 

My Dad

This month my dad passed away.  He was a native Californian...grew up in Hollywood when it was more farmland back then than movieland, though he later joined the studios as a Grip (back then putting up backings and setting up camera mounts paid more than being an aircraft mechanic...that still floors me). He would have fit in here in Texas, though he had no desire to move here.  He wore this cowboy hat he had beat up to look like the one John Wayne wore.  "Never got it quite right"  he said.  And though I never knew him to ride a horse, he was a cowboy at heart.  He flew planes, lived on a 50 foot converted navy launch (i.e. a big old boat, emphasis on the old) until my mom convinced him to move to the mountains when I was ten, and he shot guns from when he was a teen (probably earlier) until he couldn't anymore.

Since he died, a song has been running through my head...just the main verse, which I changed drastically because I wasn't sure how it went and thought it was a Christian song.

My lyrics go as follows (the first line is the same as the original):

Walk on the ocean
Step off the shore
Hope becomes water
Grace becomes sure

Here's the real song with the real lyrics...



Of course, the song below is the kind of song my dad would have liked (He loved big band marching songs). One of the versions I looked for on YouTube that didn't sound as good had big navy ships firing artillery...and my youngest said "Ships..(pause)...we got to fight them!"  (Guess the whole military theme wasn't lost on him...LOL).



Anyways, that's why I missed all the regular things I do each month like the gardening tips and Wherever Wednessday. That and the case of bronchitis that hit our whole family the day after Dad's memorial. The nice thing about blogging is you can stop when you need to...and I needed to.

Win a City/State Pride Onesie

Aren't these cute?  You can win one over at Hardly Housewives.   Giveaway ends 2/24.

Central Texas Photography Giveaway!

The Intentional Mama is having  a photo session with Shelly Negrete Photography, who does photography around Central Texas.

Click here to enter.

Sky Watch - Grackles

On the street corner

Grackles perch on the phone lines

Hoards waiting to fly

Sky Watch Friday

This is Texas State Pride

If you were blindfolded and flown from another state to Texas, it wouldn't take you long to realize where you were. There are reminders everywhere.

Like this plate I found over Christmas...

Yep, that's Santa in a cowboy hat holding Christmas lights like a 

lasso in front of the Alamo.  Where did I find this?  Some cutesy little souvenir shop next to a state monument?  NOPE!  I found this at the grocery store. 

Oh yeah, there's LOTS of state pride to be found at the 

grocery store!  Check out this "Lone Star Pasta" with little

macaronis in the shape of Texas, boots and stars.

 Browsing down the aisles of my local HEB I also

found chips and crakers in the shape of Texas.  Didn't get 

a picture of that, but Texas Type A Mom got one of the chips...

and a lot of other Texas Pride she found around town.  Actually, 

it took her TWO POSTS to share all the stuff she found.

Want more?  Here's some stuff I posted earlier here:

1. A Texan Birdfeeder, 2. Texas-Shaped Grill, 

3. Texas Waffle 4. Texas Brick

Found that stuff on Flickr.  I've also seen a Texas shaped jacuzzi 

and a whole sidewalk paved with Texas Shaped bricks.  And the number of 

Texas flags and Texas stars I've seen decorating people's houses

are countless.  

Never saw anyone put a California State flag outside their house.  When I lived three I'd occassionally I'd see something with California Poppies on it, and sure, you'ld see surfer and palm tree stuff.  But I've never been to a state where I've seen AS MUCH state pride as I've seen here.

What about you?  What symbols of "State Pride"  have you seen lately?  (Or City Pride, regional pride, etc.)  You can just let me know in a comment, but if you want to do a whole post on it, I'll share a link (and pics if its ok to share) on this blog next week. PLUS, it would make a great post to share over at Whatever Wednessday.

Wikipedia Blacks Out in Protest of SOPA!

Guess what I found on wikipedia today....

Nothing! Well, ok, not nothing...but not what I was looking for (which was, ironically, a list of internationally banned books).

If you're reading this AFTER January 18th...wikipedia basically shut down its site in protest of the SOPA bill, which if passed has the ability to greatly undermine internet freedom of speech. You can read more about it here. The bill is meant to protect copyright...but can block websites which publish user content (like blogger, you tube, pinterest, Facebook, university websites which publish student work, flickr, etc..) if their users postup copyrighted material.

(Full Sized Version Here)

My husband accually just got a change to meet with a representative of John Cornyn along with some other geeks (um...sorry...computer professionals) who were concerned about the implications of this bill.  Since he was a sponsor (or co-sponsor...can't remember) of this bill I'm not sure if it will help but we're hopeful!