Houston

This is my month of U.S. travel. I've not been this many places in this short a time in a long time. Atlanta, Houston, and Ohio all in one month.

Houston is where my sister, her husband, and my new niece live now. I've been there twice now. I'm not a fan. But I don't hate it either. It reminds me of any other U.S. city. Lots of highway, lots of buildings, lots of strip malls, and a park here and there. But I like a city with a little more character.

I was there for the 4 days that it was 97 degrees here in Boston. I missed that awful heat wave completely. And, being in Houston, you'd think I would've still suffered, since there, it was 88 by 7:30 a.m. on a cool day. The major difference is two-fold. One, everything and everywhere in Houston is air conditioned. Everyone's house, the schools, every shop, restaurant, everything. Second, nobody walks anywhere. In going from the car to the house or whatever building you are going to, you barely notice it's hot, because you're only outside for 45 seconds.

While I definitely appreciated that, and was able to wear my jeans in the 90 degree heat, I would hate to live like that. I love to walk. I love that Bostonians don't need cars and even those of us who have them are able to stretch a tank of gas out over three weeks or more if we work it right. My car allows me to be lazy if I want to be, but mostly it just sits there.

I also love the outdoors. I can't imagine 5 months of the year where I can't go outside. Now, I realize that those in the South think that we up here can't go outdoors 5 months of the year because it's too cold, but we just don't think like that. We spend as much time outside in the winter as we do in the summer.

The real fact is that I want to live somewhere where it never gets over 65 and when it does people complain of the heat. Northern Scandinavia? Not sure. It's not going to happen, of course, but one can dream. I wouldn't even mind 8 months of winter as long as it was sunny most of the time. Like Denver, only perpetually. (Denver gets mofo hot in the summer.)

Dreams. I know.