A Thousand Miles' Difference

Whew, what a week!  I'm sorry, but for the amount of work I've done it should be Saturday already....
The highlight of my week was coming home from Illinois.  I spent the first twelve years of my life in Illinois, in a cute ranch-style house with forest-green shutters on my bedroom window.   Brick houses were only found in the (rare) high-end neighborhoods or in apartments, and occasionally small businesses.  This is Texas.  Everything's brick.
The saying "everything's bigger in Texas" is surprisingly accurate, and I'm blaming our mild subtropical climate.  I mean, the grasshoppers are the size of my thumb, and the toads are the size of Illinois bullfrogs.  (Almost.)  I once had a grasshopper land on my chest while I was sunning in the park.  I jumped up so fast I hurt myself.
Texas, far from the desert most people think it is, tends to be pretty humid.  At any rate, it's much more humid than Illinois.  I remember stepping out of the airplane and thinking I'd landed in Mexico.  It's also windier than even the Windy City itself, and the storms here make Illinois thunderstorms seem like a sprinkle.  We've had three or four tornado warnings since we've lived here.  This is our fourth year.
The most laughable thing about Texas is the weather.  I'm not just talking about the heat (although yes, it's suffocating), it's psycho.  It changes its mind more often than a teenage girl. While we get snow about three days out of the year, it was once still sitting there in the 70-degree heat.  People down here don't know what snowplows are, and they put sand instead of salt on the roads.  It doesn't do much of anything.  (Then again, Illinoisans don't know what sweet tea is.  I swear it's the state drink of Texas.)
What's your favorite thing about the state you live in?  I'd love to hear it!.  Leave it in the comments below.  God bless you, dear reader, and have a wonderful day!