The Wild-Wild-West

There are a few things that I have been missing lately about the West Coast. Things are just different down here in the South (and we are not even in the deep South.) We are also learning very quickly that being Vegetarian is a very strange and weird concept to Southerners. Anyway here is what I've been missing:

#1: Crisp Bean Burritos with Green Sauce from Taco Time.


#2: Sunflower Market (they have the best produce ever-and for cheap!)


#3: Trader Joe's (for those of you who don't know what Trader Joe's is, I feel sorry for you.)


#4: In-N-Out fries. We may not eat the hamburgers but no one can resist fresh cut fries!



#5: The Dog Park. One of my favorite things about Las Vegas was the dog park. Not only did our dogs LOVE it, but it was such a great social tool for me and Dan. We would hang out with our friends for hours there. Plus Vegas was so dog friendly. Sure a lot of people have dogs here, but there are not as many places that are dog friendly.



#6: Snow. Yes, I do hate driving in it...but it's nice to have a change of scenery every once in a while.


#7: My old job at the Children's Hospital. I miss my friends, and working. (I really do enjoy working and being productive.)


#8: The Mountains.

#9: My friend Deanna (who just had her first baby yesterday- 5 weeks early!) She is such a good listener, who is always positive and happy. I just miss her...


#10: My Grandma.

God Bless Texas!

On April 21, 1836 the Texas Republic forces engaged General Santa Anna’s Army in an 18-minute battle 25 miles east of present day Houston. This was the final engagement in the Texas Revolution. Today the battlefield is “holy land” to Texans and the crucial event has been memorialized with one of the largest monuments in the United States standing at 570-feet.

This land is so sacred to Texans that on the cover of one phone there was a photo of the monument with a pillar of light coming down from the heavens as if God was blessing the former battlefield with His own hand.

However, if you step back from the monument about a mile this is what you really see. Can you see the sacred memorial? Texas's “holy land” was scarred and desecrated by industrialization years ago. How sad. What kind of people willingly allows greedy oil tycoons to come in and permanently ravage the very place where the Texas Spirit shined so brightly? After all, the monument was built in the 1930s, preceding any oil speculator by decades.

Granted the battlefield remains pristine but in every direction for ten miles there is nothing but stinky refineries, oil tanks, and noisy machinery. Even if these plants shut down today the damage is done and what was once a beautiful, historical landscape will always have the remnants of big, ugly, mechanization.

After hearing that more than half a million gallons of oil and other chemicals have been poured into the bayous, rivers, and lakes after Ike I have began thinking about the damage all of these chemicals are doing, not only to the land but the people that live here. Sadly, and not surprisingly, Texas ranks pretty high in several “Toxic Chemical Releases” categories. According to one watch-dog group Texas is:

#1. Toxic Chemical Water Releases

#1. Toxic Chemical Underground Injections

#1. Toxic Chemical Total Off-Site Transfers

#1. Toxic Chemical Total Production-Related Waste

#1. Toxic Chemical Recognized Carcinogens to Air

#2. Toxic Chemical Non-Cancer Risk Score

#2. Toxic Chemical Recognized Developmental Toxicants to Air

#2. Toxic Chemical Recognized Reproductive Toxicants to Air

#4. Toxic Chemical Recognized Reproductive Toxicants to Water

#5. Toxic Chemical Air Releases

#5. Toxic Chemical Ozone Depleting Potential

#7. Toxic Chemical Recognized Carcinogens to Water

#9. Toxic Chemical Recognized Developmental Toxicants to Water

#11. Toxic Chemical Cancer Risk Score

#12. Toxic Chemical Land Releases

No other state had that many #1 or #2 rankings, arguably making Texas the most polluted states in terms of dangerous toxic chemical exposure. For a people so proud of their history and their land they have been surprisingly willing to allow horrible, irreparable damage done to them. Ironically, the individuals that own these chemical companies live as far away as possible leaving the average Texan in Pasadena, La Porte, Baytown, Galveston, Texas City, among many others to inhale the toxic aroma readily emitted into their air, land, and water.

They may have defeated Santa Anna but less than 200 years later they are allowing business executives in slick suits take them out one-by-one with carcinogenic chemicals. So...God Bless Texas...were going to need all the help we can get.