One of the things we have to do here is get our vehicles inspected to satisfy some kind of state-driven "emissions testing" or, in other words, a tax. But it's not so onerous, 7 bucks, and while the rig was being checked out I took the opportunity to go walk about, in the heat.
"What's it like downtown," I asked myself, "in the heat?" No trees, for a start. Can't have those, thought the geniuses in charge of our small, bucolic farming community. No, can't have those, let's root them out and award ourselves concrete contracts.
Of course no one walks, how could they, but if they did they'd notice "Glitz and Glamor" is open for business, one of our few shops in the aftermath of asset-stripping. So is Texas Through The Ages, which I think's a kind of dinosaur fossil museum adjunct, nice.
Then there's the Discipline School, which sounds dangerously racy but is, in fact, a regular school room where ill-behaved teenagers have to wear a uniform, chinos and a polo, not speak in class unless spoken to and actually do their schoolwork. Huh, much like "school" as I recall it.
Resisting the urge to declaim on the utter failure of our Marxist controlled, taxpayer funded, fake-as-you-like education system, I wandered over to the old Presbyterian church. It gleamed whitely in the sun and comes complete with a little bandstand/outdoor worship area. Nice.
Next door lies the old courthouse and gaol, complete with iron shutters, a reminder of the days when this town was a notorious den of outlaws, rustlers, thieves, bandits and ne'er do wells. You see, some of these boys had just demobbed from the War and weren't about to give up the fight, in whatever form that took.
Walkabout over and strangely not melted into the sidewalk, I made it back to the shop, "Mr. LSP, truck's passed." Well done, shop, we move onwards and upwards.
Cheers,
LSP
When I first came to Texas and went for a walk to the supermarket to go shopping people asked, "Why on God's Earth are you walking?"
ReplyDelete"Ummm... because I have legs?"
I was immediately given a car and told not to walk - Texans don't do that.
What a funny thing! Once my ice-cream melted in my bag though, I thought they might have a point. But even going for a stroll, just because, seems alien to people over there.
Why are there no trees? How insane. SHADE is a thing needed in Texas for one and, err, it looks green and pretty. I don't understand this.
I love the old gaol.
Oh, Juliette, I know, and it caused all kinds of dissonance when I moved here back in the '90s. I was used to walking around London and tried to emulate that in Windsor/Detroit. Dangerous, come to think of it.
ReplyDeleteSaying that, I stroll over to the town square often enough and see lots of people walking by the porch, mostly kids, on their way to the park. So.
And then there's the genius movement of genius to uproot all the shade trees. Dear Lord, are we controlled by idiots? Maybe and certainly grifters. Who got to lay all that concrete on the town/tax dime?
Word to the wise, don't walk across the I35 bridge unless you're homeless and even then, be careful :)
Well, trees need watering and trimming. Their roots break concrete. They drop leaves and twigs around.
ReplyDeleteWho needs all the fuss? Especially if one is a city or town officer, and that's something that takes money away from one's personal fiefdom or pocket.
Used to be, businesses had awnings to help protect customers and pedestrians from the sun, from rain.
Why worry about customers and pedestrians? According to our elite masters, they are just icky things that get in the way.
Same reason for taking parking away from businesses. From closing roads or narrowing roads in high traffic areas. For mistiming traffic lights. For spending money on cobblestone walkways to just have to then remove them because they are falling apart, destroy cars and aren't wheelchair friendly.
I remember walking and biking to the corner stores, to the local marts. Then the elites decided to 'clean up' the world and 'make it safe' for us peons by getting rid of the ability to do things.
Why, exactly, do I need a license to fish or hunt? Permission to cut a tree on my own property? To collect rainwater or to use a gas stove? Why do I need to provide 3 kinds of identification to get a bank account, a job, a driver's license, to rent or to buy a residence?
Control. It's all about control.
All done without the Blue Heeler at ...heel.
ReplyDeleteOnly mad dogs and .... in the Texas sun.
ReplyDeleteP.S. real Texans wait for sundown, then go for their walks.
But Beans, are you somehow suggesting you don't love our rulers?
ReplyDeleteI would never, not for a second, suggest they haven't made our lives better as they relax on the sun soaked beaches and infinity pools of their demonic private islands.
I know, LL. I miss that Blue.
ReplyDeleteAnon, I'll not argue with that for a second. But here's the thing, I got bored and restless sitting in the shop's waiting area, so I sallied forth.
ReplyDelete