the same but different....

I've been here for a year and a month and i noticed some differences between the 2 locales. I don't know if it is a difference between large city vs big city or central Texas vs middle Tennessee. As a public service, here are the top 3 differences between here and there....

1 - I go to the store twice a week and I have yet to see anyone graze at the grape display. Are people hungrier in Austin? Why are they always sampling the grapes?

2 - My vehicle in Texas was a Honda Accord and I loved that car. I took great pains to park it far from other cars but after a year, it was covered with small door dings. sniff. After 13 months in middle Tennessee, my Mazda 3 doesn't have a single ding and I work at a construction site. Freaky.

3 - I run at 5:00am and I'm struck by the number of empty vehicles warming up on cold mornings in neighborhood driveways. It does get a little colder here but it's not frigid. Were people scared to idle their cars in Austin for fear that they might get stolen?

No one probably finds this stuff interesting but there it is.

i'm dreaming of a white january 12th.....

We had our first significant whiteness today. It doesn't compete with a New England snowstorm but it was still a little exciting. It was 47 degrees this morning and by the end of my work day it was 24 degrees. The weather reports mentioned flurries but they said there would not be any accumulation. That type of forecast and miss is rare - they usually predict life threatening storms and then nothing happens. It will be curious to see what tomorrow looks like in terms of work attendance. Most people will take advantage of the snow and stay tucked in bed in the morning. Remember how we would walk to school in the snow when we were kids? Barefoot? Up hills both ways? Jeeesh.