I’ve lived in both Dallas and Chicago and I’ve seen more wildlife here. Deer I see on just about every bike ride along the Chicago river trail. I’ve occasionally seen snapping turtles about a foot in diameter and water moccasins crossing the trail.
Coyotes no longer elicit a response. In downtown Chicago alone a coyote made a den to birth her pups in a Metra station. Commuters walked right past her. Another decided to escape the heat by entering a sandwich shop on the campus where I taught and jumped into the cold drinks display. The county estimates about 2000+ live here.
Earlier this spring riding by Soldiers Field and McCormick Place convention center a large bird with about a 5 foot span (peregrine falcon) swooped down on me and nearly hit my helmet. I swore wtf. Then I realized it was aiming for the rabbit ahead of me in the trail and my yelp shooed the rabbit. No dinner for the falcon. Sorry chap.
Canadian geese are everywhere all year. They saunter across the bike path just daring riders to hit them. We just buzz around them full speed a foot away. Neither of us blink an eye.
My brother in Woodstock a far suburb has a bald eagle nest in a dead tree nearby. That nest is huge. Gotta be at least 8 feet across.
Their droppings turn to green slime after a rain. Generally regarded as a pest. Coyotes and racoons abound, as do deer. Peregrine falcons adapt well to urban environments. Very fast (clocked at over 200 mph) but wingspread likely under 47". There’s a large soaring hawk atop the adjoining 19th C. repurposed county courthouse.
A Mr Magoo type False equivalency. The downpour happened at night when people were asleep and in a geographical area where water is even more concentrated into valleys (Texas Hill Country). Also, I don’t live near San Antonio. I live in Dallas. Thats a few hours to the South of me via driving time. Was also referring to weather during daytime activities (clearly).
Your statement did not stipulate it only applies to the Dallas area for transplants to TX. You yourself are probably a relative newcomer. My nephew has lived for 45 years in suburban Houston as an Exxon exec., now retired. They deal with hurricanes as well as the other conditions. No problems.
Parallel has already quietly revised their paradigm twice, and is no closer to cost-effective transportation than when they were touting autonomous vehicles under each end of containers, held only by twistlocks in the corner castings.
It was pretty clear I was referring to people in my immediate area. San Antonio is quite a distance away and I have no clue what soil is around San Antonio. I would also say demographically and culturally, San Antonio is different from DFW. Dallas is different from Fort Worth in a lot of cultural respects as well.
My point has been proven though about Midwesterners views on Texas:
Texas is the same no matter where you are.
Wildlife in Midwest just like in Texas.
Weather is just like the Midwest.
BTW, Houston, is not right on the Coast compared to other Gulf cities (map check). Weather patterns in Gulf protect Houston as well since it is not on a traditional Hurricane track. I think it was 2017 since the last Category 4 and even that was not a direct hit it was just a grazing. Landfall was in Rockport, TX (map check). Gulf water circulation as well puts the stagnant dead zone and a chunk of the pollution off the coast of Houston. Florida gets hit much harder with Hurricanes as do the Deep South states. Florida has better water quality as well due to the Gulf water circulation. Beaches also are pretty bad in most of Texas as well, again due in part to the water circulation.
What I stated though is generally true of misconceptions between other states outside of Texas. This is nothing novel even though your not willing to accept it.
I suggest you ask my nephew about hurricanes in the Houston area. Even in Woodland Hills they got the heavy rain, though not too much wind. I recognize there are huge differences in geography geology, weather and culture in different parts of TX, GA the South, Midwest and even Illinois!
Transplants who try to be “experts” in a few years about their adopted area? Hmm. I’m not sure about your antagonists towards anything to do with Illinois and Chicago. Perhaps a Dairyland thing? Most folks here feel it’s possible to like more than one place to live and work or vacation.
I liked my GA days, even if I was a fairly short timer in grad school getting a PhD. I listened and kept my mouth shut, even with a “friendly” neighbor wondering if I wanted to join his KKK. Seeing the New Georgia steam was a treat and also old CNW scoot cars in Stone Mountain Park.
This one was one that was Stalking my Brother in Law while he was deer hunting in the Coast Range, he would rather have taken a deer home, but the cat pushed it to the point that Doyle didn’t have a choice. Closer to home, in 2018, we had a cat kill, and Eat a Lady hiker on the Hunchback Trail about 7-8 miles from our home. That wasn’t an accidental encounter gone bad, they found the scene of the first attack, where she managed to fight the cat off, and was trying to get back to her vehicle, when the cat attacked her a second time, killed her, drug her into the brush and partially ate her. They were able to track down the cat and kill it, and confirmed by DNA matching flesh in its stomach, that they had the right cat
Of course, not all of our wildlife is so wild or dangerous,
Though I do trust the Bears much more than I trust the cats, we have Black bears in Oregon, we don’t have any Grizzlies, and they are completely different critters. Our Blackies are pretty docile, we have even had sows with cubs come through the neighborhood, if you just remain calm, and stay still and Enjoy watching them, they pretty much won’t approach you any closer than they are comfortable with, and will just keep mosing along their way, to wherever they were going
If it was you being Eaten, you would probably feel that it was worth capitalizing
Capitalizing can also be used for Emphasis
Gee Charlie, going full grammar police in retaliation for a misperceived case grammar policing, that was even apologized for, though it wasn’t intended to be grammar policing?
I don’t know why in an informal opinion forum all the side semantics are important. As long as the post can be read and understood. Should be OK, in my view. Some of the older folks here have eye issues and potentially other disabilities and there needs to be some tolerance in my opinion.
Cite the post where you stated how many years since you moved into the TX Metroplex then if you can. Your comments sound like those of a relative newcomer, even if decades!
too