Top 5 Things I Will Miss About Texas

I love the fall weather we've been enjoying this month. On my commute to work this morning the sky over Ft. Worth was a dark gray-blue, threatening to unload a torrent of water any minute. The native oak trees and cottonwoods in the Trinity riverbottoms glowed a fresh green, as if they could already taste the promised rain (it never came, by the way). The color combination of the trees and sky just before or after a Texas thunderstorm is something I will really miss. That got me thinking about other things I will miss once we move north. Here, in no particular order, are my top 5.

1. The aforementioned native trees/dark sky contrast just before or after a thunderstorm.

2. Armadillos. Yes, I know many people think they are a pest, but they are just too bizarre. I woke up the other morning to the sound of another one building a nest under our deck. Although we have any number of creatures living in our back yard, I could tell it was an armadillo just by the time of day, and the scraping sound of her hard shell against the deck beam as she gathered fallen leaves with her front feet (paws?) and scooted backwards into the space under the deck.

3. February. I have always hated February. To me, February has always meant gray skies and dirty snow, a fake romantic "holiday," and the middle of a winter that never seems to end. At least, that was what it was like in Wisconsin. Texas is so much further south that the winter days are never as short (nor the summer days as long), and by mid to late February there are already some beautiful spring days. By February, I am already harvesting lettuce in my garden and enjoying the blooms of violets, snowdrops, daffodils, leatherleaf mahonia (complete with honey bees), and winter honeysuckle (also with the bees). I will miss the year-round gardening.

4. Running into people I know when I least expect it. I know that's not unique to Texas, but it's unique for me. I've lived in the area for nearly 17 years, and in this house for 10. I had never lived anywhere more than 5 years prior to this, so it's a novelty for me to know enough people that even in a town this size I occassionally recognize some. I ran into an old coworker at a garden tour in Ft. Worth last Sunday, which was a pleasant surprise. And if they are people I don't want to see, it's always easy enough to pretend I didn't.

5. Surprisingly for a social misfit such as myself, the fifth thing is also people. No one could ask for a better neighbor (and friend!) than we have just to the west, and I will also miss our Sunday breakfast (and garden club) buddies. Work will be a whole different ballgame, too, as I transition to a full-time work-from-home employee. I'll still get to talk to my coworkers on IRC, but I will miss the lunches and the gossip that can only happen in person.

There are plenty of things I won't miss about Texas. I will maybe save them for another post.

Or maybe not.