The Neighborhood

Fort Worth is an interesting town for several reasons. First of all, the speed limit is either 35, 40, or if you are lucky 45. Secondly, all the houses have wooden fences surrounding their back yards. So when I drive down the street I either see stores upon stores or wooden fencing. Some of the fencing is nicer than others but all fences are whole. What I mean is, if a slat in a fence breaks the owner is most likely to just replace it with another slat, even if it is not of the same wood. This is because in order to replace a fence in Fort Worth you have to get a permit.

This does not make sense to me. We all get to enjoy the sight of nasty fences as we cruise down the road at 40mph only because it takes too long for the owner of the fence to get a permit. Now, I would understand the nasty fences if the speed limit was more like 50 or 55 because then people would be passing the fences so fast they would not have time to see what condition they are in.

Honestly though, there is a lot of traffic around Fort Worth and so you do not want to go any faster than the posted speed limit. People turn without using their directionals, slow down at the last minute, and sometimes there are two left turn lanes out of the blue. Once again I have to bring up the "fire lanes". They are not only in front of every curb, they are also in front of every parking spot. In other words, do not back part-way out of your spot and just sit there because you would be in the fire lane.

I was driving down one of the roads yesterday wondering what the speed limit was when suddenly I saw a speed limit sign. It just so happened to be in someone's back yard propped up against their metal swing set. Evidently someone had driven through the fence after knocking over the speed limit sign. I am guessing the owners are hoping for a reprieve on fixing their fence since the speed limit sign is still be properly displayed:)

On this particular drive I had run several errands, one being grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. The funny thing is I was less than 10min from home and passed another Wal-Mart on my way home. Why do they need so many duplicate stores? Because the stores are always busy with people. You see, the yards are small and houses built close together so we can cram in the Texans, like the state isn't big enough already. You wait, within a month I will be all about Texas pride.

Texans are quite a different breed when it comes to "bad weather". There was a low turnout at a church activity Monday night because it was really raining outside and ice was forcasted for the morning. Well the ice did come Tuesday and Wednesday. True, it was a nice thick layer on everything but the Texans still freak out over it. I was warned by many people at church NOT to drive when the roads are icy because of all the idiots on the roads. (like guys who drive big pick-up trucks and up on the news b/c they crashed after "only moving into the other lane". duh! you were driving way too fast!)

Let me get this straight, some people are so scared of the ice they stay home all day, other people think they are invincible and can handle flying down an icy street, and I'm stuck at home laughing because I don't dare get hit by an idiot even though I know how to drive on ice. Yeah, I think I'm starting to fit right in around here.

I feel like all I've blogged about is traffic but that is the biggest change for me. Ever since I got my license I lived in Idlewood, at the lake. Going down Lakewood Blvd. is busy but I would usually be the only car left by the time I got to 168th. There just wasn't traffic on Lakeshore Dr. unless it was summer and a good beach day at Tunnel Park.

I'll try and have some more fun experiences before I most my next blog;)