Houston

Nothing clever or long on this blog, since it's bedtime here in the heart of Texas. Just random observations about this week's travel to Houston...

• The infrastructure around the city itself is probably the best I've ever seen for a city of any decent size. It's like they knew to have wide roads and plenty of extra space for ramps, HOV lanes, even tolls, way before anyone else. That, or their civil engineering is vastly superior to the rest of the country. Name one large city that doesn't seem to have pretty much outgrown its highways. I'd throw Houston up there as the first one I've ever seen.
  
• Speaking of tolls, this place has a beltway and a couple of spurs in/out of the city that are pay roads. Put it like this - it's worse than the Garden State Parkway when it comes to the frequency and amount of the tolls. I guess I know how they pay for all those infrastructure improvements.
  
• I skipped a Springsteen concert to do work and eat Mexican food; weak, I know. I must be getting older and more mature, or something like that. I just had waaaaay too much shit to do this week (channeling my inner Lehman) and I have another chance to go see him in Chicago I think. Besides, it wasn't just Mexican food - this stuff was KILLER. If you're ever down here, do yourself a favor and go to Lupe Tortilla. There's a good chance if I ever lived here I'd be there 3x a week.
  
• Something about Houston appealed to me... so far it's been the most pleasant surprise of my trips. Truth is, my work travel hasn't been very glamorous... they don't exactly put trash companies in Beverly Hills. Other than the 2nd half of the first week in LA, it's been fairly nondescript, and nothing about Detroit, Dallas (other than the absurd enormity of the new Cowboys Stadium), or LA made me ever think I'd want to live in any of those places. Yes, LA was nice, but all that great weather (ok, so so weather) and beautiful views come with the price of the 2nd biggest city in America and all the negatives that come with it - traffic, crime, an overly frantic pace, and specifically dealing with all the issues of a big city without many of the benefits (like the relative ease in getting around in cities like Philly, Boston, and NYC once you're actually in the city itself). It's like LA is one big sprawling quasi-suburb. Anyways, the point to all this is that Houston seems to have a heck of a lot going for it - plenty of commerce, lots of space, proximity to a shoreline (from downtown Houston to Galveston is actually closer than Philly to AC), good food, seemingly very nice Texas folk... all in all, I saw a lot of good things here, compared to very few drawbacks. I'm not planning on packing up the Jeep anytime soon, but if I ever had to make another move, Houston would definitely be on the "Acceptable Cities" list.
  
• I had four presentations/training classes this week, and something went wrong in each and every one of them, and all four of them were completely beyond my control. It makes for a frustrating week when planes are delayed, accounts are locked, PCs aren't imaged right, and power cords aren't shipped, but it ended up working out in the end. If that's all I have to complain about (it's not, but still) then things really aren't that bad at all.
• Not Houston related but I've been an uncle for all of 7 days now and love it. This is like all the benefits of having a child you love and care about, without the actual responsibility of caring for said child on a consistent basis. I like it. Go ahead J&T, have another!!
  
• There's probably more but I am tired and need to hit bed, so until I remember something else, that's all for now - off to Orlando, then Indian Rocks Beach, and FINALLY back to Ft. Lauderdale after a(nother) ten day hiatus.