I was rather pleased with my first post – the one about bugs. But unfortunately, when it came time to write another post, I felt somewhat paralyzed. I thought the next post had to be just as good as the first one, so I didn’t write anything! I finally decided to give myself a break, and just write SOMETHING… so here it is.
I make lots of observations each day, and mentally note them to include in a future blog. Before I begin, let me make one thing clear – my observations are of the part of Texas where I live. I’m in Spring, about 20 miles north of Houston, just inside the Harris County line. Fun Fact: Did you know there are 254 counties in Texas, and only 36 in Oregon. Considering the total square miles of each state, Oregon counties average more than two and a half times the size of Texas counties – 2732 sq miles vs. 1033 sq. miles. (Please excuse the math geek in me.) So here we go....
Observation number one: Gutters
As I recall, gutters are REQUIRED in Oregon. I
remember many a real estate appraisal that required gutters be repaired,
replaced, or installed. Not so in Texas. Most houses either have NO gutters, or
only have gutters on the front of their house. Some houses will have a piece of
angle-iron on their roof to direct rain water away from the front door. You
might find this odd, especially since the Houston area gets more average annual
rainfall than the Portland area – 50 inches vs. 43 inches. The big difference
is in HOW the rain falls. In Oregon, it will drizzle for days on end. In the
year I’ve been here, I don’t think I’ve seen it drizzle more than once, and
then for only a few hours. Instead, when it rains here you feel like you’re in
a tropical monsoon. We can easily get 2 or 3 inches in a couple of hours. (Sometimes
we have to drain water out of the pool so it doesn’t overflow.) Then when it
stops, the sun comes out and it’s lovely again – although often quite humid.
When the rain is its most intense, the gutters don’t really do much anyway –
they ALL overflow. Another interesting difference is that the downspouts don’t
tie in to any sort of storm management system. The water just gushes out on your
lawn, into your flowerbed, or across your driveway. The streets, however, have
huge curb cuts that allow for rain runoff to flow into the storm sewer. I swear, a small animal or child could get swept into these gutters!Now if I continue here, I will be talking more about the weather and less about gutters, so I think I’ll stop. The weather will be another post for another time. I promise, I’ll try to post something much sooner this time and not wait 6 months. Let me know if there are specific topics you’d like me to discuss. I’d be happy to accommodate your interests.
