What is it like to live in Texas?

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Xantippe said:
Or, to look at it differently, miles of lush, tropical suburbs. I haven’t lived there, so this is just a from-the-window-of-a-car impression. Houston’s humidity is ferocious, right?
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Houston weather is miserable for 3-4 months out of the year. No getting around that one
Xantippe said:
My doctor made the same warning. He thought that the combination of fried food and food-centered Baptist socializing are a dangerous combination.

I have to say, just about everything tastes better deep-fried. (Case in point–okra.)
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Biking and walking are still a foreign concept here and food is plentiful and cheap. You might live across the street from a shopping center but still have to drive because there is no infrastructure for crossing the road.
Xantippe said:
Yes. Texas is GREAT for people with moderate incomes–inexpensive, but with actual employment. That is a rare combination these days. Cost-of-living was why we left DC–I was discovering that it was close to impossible to find a house in a decent neighborhood for under $400k. You would not believe how many $475-495k houses in slummy neighborhoods that I visited, back in the day.
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Suburbs of Katy, Sugar Land, Woodlands, Kingwood all have affordable homes and good schools. I remember looking in New Orleans and I would have had to spend close to 350k to get a comparable home to the one I have here for 190k.
 
Burt Macklin said:

“Houston weather is miserable for 3-4 months out of the year.”

Our drier area is also. But then you get the other 8-9 months, which are fabulous.

I think outside San Diego, just about every part of the US is miserable at least 3-4 months out of year in some respect. I grew up in Western WA, and there are only two months out of the entire year where you can reliably see the sun. Otherwise, 10 months of rain and overcast.
 
I’m not a native Texan, but I love this state.

Texas is a wonderful huge state with diversity in just about everything … race, religion, climate, food, , etc. Texans are a proud bunch. Sometimes to the extent of being blowhards. 🙂

My advice is to pay more attention to those with positive offerings about this state, rather than the naysayers.

I live in Amarillo. Perhaps the real " Windy City". But, consists of wonderful people, low humidity , reasonable cost of living and low unemployment.

It’s 5-6 hours to mountains, skiing, or fly fishing or whatever else people enjoy .

Consider this about this large, wonderful state to give you an idea about its size… It’s about the same distance from Amarillo to Chicago, as it is from Amarillo to Brownsville. Tx
 
Xantippe said:
iepuras said:

“Houston is humid, but it also doesn’t get above 100 all that often (unlike in San Antonio or D/FW where it is not so humid). If it does, the humidity is also way down.”

Exactly–in our area, also, there seems to be an inverse relationship between the heat and the humidity. Our most humid days are often in the high 70s or in the 80s, while the 100+ degree days are very dry and oven-like. So you don’t have to deal with high humidity and super high temperatures at the same time.

Oh, and nobody has mentioned the bugs yet.

“This is one of the largest common cockroaches in Texas, reaching 1-1/2 to 2 inches.”

insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/aimg22.html

That’s not including the antennae, either.

The first time I visited our town in Texas, a future colleague of my husband was walking me around a rental house that had been vacant for a while. I noticed some huge dead bugs.

Me: Are those roaches?

Husband’s future colleague: Everything’s bigger in Texas.
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Yes, the tree roaches. Out west there are scorpions. And we have mosquitos. The winter was so bad even in Houston, that the bugs actually died. We keep a clean kitchen and spray around the windows, entrances and garage and don’t have a huge roach problem. When they make the mistake of coming into our house, they die.

I have boys and they love the bugs.

Every place has pluses and minuses to living there.
 
A few years ago, we had a record-breaking summer with over 60 days over 100 degrees.

I don’t remember if anybody’s mentioned NASA outside Houston. That is a great place to visit. It’s amazing how small and low-tech the control room was. It was great to watch Apollo 13 recently and realize–we were there! (Or at least just outside it.) NASA has a HUGE multistory indoor play area that is very popular with children.
 
There are also poisonous snakes in places where you wouldn’t expect them. Our family has seen a diamond back just blending into the leaves in a big city park and my husband was once very surprised to find another poisonous snake (copperhead?) underneath an archery target, also in the same big city park.

As soon as you have any sort of nature at all (or even in newish suburban neighborhoods), you start seeing that kind of thing. Not all the time, but it does happen. Some friends discovered that the rattling noise coming from their suburban driveway at night was (of course) a rattlesnake which was enjoying the warm asphalt.

The further south, the more scorpions, I’ve heard. They’re not a big deal.
 
If I can say, I like El Paso and San Antonio, great cities with traditions
 
dilsey said:
I’m not a native Texan, but I love this state.

Texas is a wonderful huge state with diversity in just about everything … race, religion, climate, food, , etc. Texans are a proud bunch. Sometimes to the extent of being blowhards. 🙂

My advice is to pay more attention to those with positive offerings about this state, rather than the naysayers.

I live in Amarillo. Perhaps the real " Windy City". But, consists of wonderful people, low humidity , reasonable cost of living and low unemployment.

It’s 5-6 hours to mountains, skiing, or fly fishing or whatever else people enjoy .

Consider this about this large, wonderful state to give you an idea about its size… It’s about the same distance from Amarillo to Chicago, as it is from Amarillo to Brownsville. Tx
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Great city, but lets be honest, if Houston gets beat up for being too hot 3 months of the year, one from Amarillo should admit to it being way to dang cold 3-5 months of the year. 🙂

I could see myself living in almost any part of Texas. A great state to live in.

Did you know: that when you are in Texarkana, you are closer to the Atlantic ocean than El Paso. When you are in El Paso you are closer to the Pacific ocean than Texarkana. When you are in Brownsville, you are closer to Mexico city than Dalhart. And when you are in Dalhart, you are closer to Canada than Brownsville. So yes: lots of diversity in geography. Lots of diversity in ethnicities. But more importantly, not much diversity it how nice people are in the state.

And if you ignore Austin, there are not too many wackos (just joking).
 
A good book:

amazon.com/Texas-Got-Right-Sam-Wyly/dp/1595910743/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395253352&sr=1-1&keywords=how+texas+got+it+right

BTW, as far as the Catholic element of the Great State. In general, you will find the parishes in Texas to be more conservative and traditional than most other parts of the country, certainly than the Midwest. Of course that is a generalization, but the pattern is certainly there. It is unfortunate that Texas cities tend to have higher tuition rates at Catholic schools than many other parts of the country. I do not know why, but based on what we pay around here, and what relatives and friends elsewhere pay, that pattern also seems to hold valid. Lots of very full churches on Sundays, we need more parishes in the larger cities due to the very large immigrant population. Parts of the state (eg the northeast) is still very much predominantly protestant. But it seems that almost all anti-Catholic sentiment is gone from the state.
 
lax16 said:
I am curious what life is like in Texas and if it might be a good fit for our family.

Please clue me in on weather, friendliness towards newcomers, conservative parishes…and anything else you can think of to help us navigate the great state of Texas.

(We currently live in Utah)****.

Thanks!!
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I’m glad you asked. I’d like to know how Texans feel about people who move to their state just for the winter months and then return to the north when Texas weather gets too hot.

:winter: It has been a long winter where I live. Hot doesn’t sound too bad right now, but I think a having a summer home here and a winter home somewhere in Texas sounds nice. :tanning:
 
gardenswithkids said:
I’m glad you asked. I’d like to know how Texans feel about people who move to their state just for the winter months and then return to the north when Texas weather gets too hot.

:winter: It has been a long winter where I live. Hot doesn’t sound too bad right now, but I think a having a summer home here and a winter home somewhere in Texas sounds nice. :tanning:
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I can’t speak for all Texans, but this Texan has absolutely no problems with the Snow Birds (or Winter Texans)!

I don’t know where you live, but it does get very hot in Texas. Of course, all (or almost all) states have hot weather during the summer, but our summers are long and, specifically here in Houston, very humid.

Peace

Tim
 
Let me tell you about my city. 😉 In general, San Antonio, TX, has good weather. Sometimes it will get really hot…a few times in may get really cold. But generally we have a temperate climate.

As far as things to do in San Antonio…well…what can you imagine? We have a highly commercialized river bank—the River Walk. We have professional sports teams, namely basketball, as well as college football. Museums downtown as well a professional symphony orchestra and chorus. I think there is also a rodeo in town. Finally we also have an extensive City of San Antonio Park System, some of them are located near the public libraries—so there is a double source of leisure right there.

As far as Catholic life is concerned, I would highly invite everyone to visit my own parish at least once: Our Lady of the Atonement (Roman) Catholic Church, the first Anglican Use parish in the country and indeed the world. There is also the National Shrine of the Basilica of the Little Flower (I will let those who have attended comment). I am also told that St. Mary Claret Catholic Church has beautiful liturgy, and from their website, it appears they have an SATB choir which sings occasionally. Eastern Catholics include the St. George Maronite Catholic Church as well as a Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic community which meets on the first, third, and fifth Sunday of each month for Divine Liturgy and every Lenten Friday for Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts (google St. Anastasia the Great Martyr Byzantine Catholic Community). There is also a Syro-Malabar Catholic parish in north San Antonio (I have not been here). Another community of note is the TLM community, which I think celebrates the Sung Mass at least once a month (I will need to check that place out myself). They are currently meeting at St. Pius X Catholic Church, though it is an archdiocesan parish, not an SSPX one.

Another city I would recommend (about 4 hours east of San Antonio) would be Galveston, near Houston. It has beaches, so if you are interested in that kind of thing, check that place out. It does get kind of humid there.
 
angelic06 said:
Another city I would recommend (about 4 hours east of San Antonio) would be Galveston, near Houston. It has beaches, so if you are interested in that kind of thing, check that place out. It does get kind of humid there.
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Padre Island is much closer and the beaches are better!

Peace

Tim
 
Orogeny said:
Padre Island is much closer and the beaches are better!

Peace

Tim
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Both are good. Galveston catches a lot of flak for its beaches, but the city more than makes up for that. Very cool city with lots of things to see and do.
 
tafan said:
Both are good. Galveston catches a lot of flak for its beaches, but the city more than makes up for that. Very cool city with lots of things to see and do.
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Agreed. And the beaches are better on Padre Island.😃

Peace

Tim
 
Steakhouses!!! Mexican food!!! Yummy!!!

I don’t live there, but I have driven through on the 10 and the 20 several times. Plus at least once on the 40. Big, big state. For them that like driving fast, there’s a section of the 10 east of El Paso that has an 80mph speed limit. Nice. Think it’s the only place in the country that has that high a speed limit.

Spent a few weeks in San Antonio and Austin, a few days in Dallas/Ft Worth and checked out the local real estate. 2% tax rate and north bites; it’s probably why houses are so much cheaper than their counterparts in California (1% cap). That tax on business capital is a strange one, taxes on businesses in general must be lower overall if they are drawing companies from other states.

Think I liked San Antonio best.
 
To quote Zzyzx Road in the above post:
“For them that like driving fast, there’s a section of the 10 east of El Paso that has an 80mph speed limit. Nice. Think it’s the only place in the country that has that high a speed limit.”

Zzyzx Road, next time you’re through Texas, you might also enjoy a large stretch of road between Houston and Austin where the speed limit is 75…and a toll road between Austin and San Antonio where the speed limit is 85!! My husband enjoys that 85mph toll road a little TOO much. Just saying. :D:eek:
 
lax16 said:
A breakdown of the different areas of the state would be great.

Good schools, conservative parish, friendly people, good restaurants, etc. would be on my wishlist.

Any info is helpful! 🙂
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So the answer to that is “yes”. Texas has all of that. That doesn’t narrow things down any, however.
 
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