Thankfully, there is less of this sort of thing around two weeks after Hurricane Ike. The Houston area is slowly returning to something resembling normal, though truly "normal" is weeks, perhaps months away. The Harris County tollway system reinstated fares as of today. All tolls had been waived since Hurricane Ike rolled through, which has made for some interesting and unusual traffic jams in places that don't normally see such things. There are still areas where traffic lights remain inoperable, and it may be November before all lights are up and running. Generally speaking, though, things are certainly in much better shape than they were when I first arrived. This shouldn't be taken as an indication that things are good, however. With thousands still without power, and many homes still to be repaired or razed, "good" is still little more than an abstract concept.
Travel outside the Houston area, and you'll notice right away that progress has been much harder to come by in certain areas. I'm still coming across people in rural areas who still don't have power...this more than two weeks after the storm hit southeast Texas. It's one thing to be without power in Portland this time of year, where the weather is cool and tolerable. It's quite another to be without power here, where the highs are still in the high 80s and low 90s, and the humidity can still be 60-70%. This might help explain the large numbers of angry, frustrated, and surprisingly aggressive drivers I still have to dodge on a daily basis. (Memo to the [rhymes with "rich"] who crossed three lanes of traffic to cut me off on the I-10 service road in Memorial City, and then flipped me off when I had the temerity to honk at her in frustration: people like you are part of the reason I left Houston. I understand your frustration; Hell, we're all frustrated having to live like this. Still, your refusal to exercise even the barest shred of common courtesy is typical of far too many people here. You and people like you deserve to live here in this hellhole. May you live in interesting times.)
Part of my frustration stems from the reality that I'm exhausted. In the past nine days, I've driven 1800 miles (almost half of what I've put on my car in Portland over the past year), and when you combine that with working 12-15 days with no time off...well, you can probably understand that my patience and forebearance are at low tide.
After a week and a half here, I'm beginning to remember why I left Houston last September (the drivers are only a small part of it). Today marks exactly a year since I left Houston for Portland, and while I can say that it's not quite this simple, I have no regrets about leaving. Jeebus, what a godforsaken fugly place this is. Yeah, once you get past the heat, the humidity, the traffic, the @$$hole drivers, the refineries, the mosquitoes, the fugly landscape, and the ridiculous distances involved in getting just about anywhere around here...you've pretty much found yourself smack in the middle of something close to Paradise.
If y'all are expecting me to wax rhapsodic on what a wonderful, vibrant, and resilient place Houston and southeast Texas are...well, you're in the wrong place. I'm back helping out after being a year separated from the 3722 days I lived here (not that I was counting or anything....), and the absence has definitely NOT made this heart grow fonder. Indeed, I'm grateful that I'm living in place where I do feel I belong, and that does feel like home. If there's an uglier, less inviting place in this country than the Houston area, I've yet to find it. This is my opinion...and we all know what opinions are like...but Houston is a miserable, nasty, thoroughly fugly place that I'll be glad to once again leave behind. If I ever come back, it will be too soon.
Go ahead; ask me how much I miss this hellhole....
