California and Back

I went to California and ... I know it sounds like a song just can't think which one. This last weekend I went to California for my mothers 80th birthday. March in California is usually like March in Texas, springtime, sunny, warm, beautiful flowers. It was cold, sunny, windy, and on Monday when I left I nearly froze at the airport.

There will always be a spot in my heart for California. I grew up there, spent 43 years there. But I couldn't wait to get back to Austin, and hill country in particular. Where people drive the speed limit. And don't honk at each other at a moment's notice. If the light turns green and the car in front hasn't moved, they just ... wait!

I guess when golf carts rule the road like they do in Lago Vista and Point Venture life just goes at a different pace. Trucks don't drive as fast as when there are sports cars everywhere.

And the deer. I missed seeing them up close and so big. How could their coats change so much in one weekend. They've been shedding their winter coats and the deer looked smoother, more ready for summer. Of course it rained today, so the weather wasn't all that different, but when you watch the rain on a lake with an acre of field and trees spread out in front of you it just feels different. The air was warm. It smelled of manure (oops, that was my son's dirty shoes).

I knew I was in back in Texas when on the way home from the airport I saw a car flying the Texas flag.

And it was good to be home again.