Oh stop it! I know what you’re thinking. I don’t mean that kind of ‘HAD’. Wheesht. I mean at one time, all at once, there were 10 Houston Fire Department First Responders in my house.

But more of that later…

We’re nearing the end of month five in year two, here in Houston Texas.

Houston, Texas and the USA continue to surprise, delight and horrify me in the roller coaster of normal life here, albeit ex-pat style.

The surprises

Having ‘retired’ over a year ago officially, I find that my “webbie’ skills are still quite useful. Starting tentatively, a few friends needed websites and a bit of help with their own sites. But this has snowballed very quickly. There is a small but definite demand for a ‘helping hand’ through the maze of DIY web builders and creators.  And I can be that helping hand.

People find  out quite quickly that website building is perhaps not the easy peasy little job that they thought it would be. So, next step, decide if I want to do this ‘properly’, get paid for it and, obviously, set up my own website to promote myself. It feels a bit weird. And a nice surprise.

Being cold in May! Now that was a surprise. The weather has been very mixed, and very wet at times. But the temperatures had ramped up and I really thought we were in for a rough spell of intense heat from now until September.

But then last week, I was actually cold. Needing-a-cardigan cold. And happy-to-wear-long-trousers cold. Ok, so not quite needing-an-anorak cold. And it only lasted a day, or a matter of  hours.

A drowned car! In an ornamental pond in the grounds of a nice apartment block near here. And it wasn’t even raining.

The delights

Maurice has been gigging and jamming at last! And he’s bl***y good. It’s been great to go along to some random clubs and pubs and listen to the great music he’s playing and the wonderful standard of musicianship from the bands he’s hooked up with. We’ve seen the inside of places I don’t think I would ever have found, never mind set foot in, and met a bunch of really lovely people. Long may it continue.

 

More visitors have been and gone and it’s been a pleasure to host them and show them around our home town, H-town.

I’ve been on TV! Along with a very cute kitten who definitely upstaged me.

 

The horrors

Intense thunderstorms have been battering us lately with a particularly wet day last month on what has been called the ‘Tax Day’ flood. 16 inches fell in one part of Houston and stranded many families who are still suffering after the clean up.

The standard of driving – yes, I know I go on about it a lot – but it is truly awful.  It is officially worse than in most European countries but it is better than Turkey or Russia, apparently, but not very comfortingly.

The fact you can get your licence at 15 in this state speaks volumes. 15 FFS!!! These are children with extremely dangerous toys. And they don’t have an ‘L’ plate to identify them so they are whizzing past you all bravado and devil-may-care…  And unless they are particularly small and can’t see over the steering wheel, you’re none the wiser.

They treat driving on the roads like a turn on the dodgems. Great fun and, well, too bad if you happen to bump into someone. Find out more about driving as a young person here in Texas.

A truly awful road rage incident was all the talk of social media last week. And the entire dreadful episode was caught on the iPhone of a bystander. Watch if you can stand to.

Anyway, back to 10 firemen in MY house.

We had a fleeting visit from friends from Aberdeen with two of their family members  on a whistle stop road trip around East Texas.

One of our guests had to take part in a work online meeting while she visited. When she finally finished the conference call, she was obviously in distress – she had a tightness in her chest and her left arm had pins and needles. Not good.

We went through the symptoms, looked up her health care details and called insurance and hospital to find out what to do for the best.

This is when living so close to the Medical Center becomes helpful.

Anyway, all advice pointed to calling 911 which she did.

After all information was duly provided, we waited a matter of minutes and the first truck appeared on the scene, parking outside our gates, and that is when not one, but two, three, four, oh my, five, firemen trooped into my house one by one.

As Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are provided by the Fire Department, if a fire truck is nearest, it is a troupe – or more accurately – a ladder – of firemen that are your first responders.

Within a very few further minutes an EMS vehicle pulled up outside. And yes, five MORE, first responders, this time the ambulance crew, entered the house and went through to attend to our patient, who was by this time feeling a whole lot better, no doubt in part due to being attended to by ten very hunky and very good looking young men.

Gratuitous Photos of Houston Firemen – warning, they are hunky

The five original firemen then left (sadly) and the remaining crew took care of things.

The verdict – our patient was fine, nothing sinister had happened, but she did have to sign a disclaimer agreeing that she waived the opportunity to go to hospital.  All tests done and dusted, she appeared to have suffered a stress attack of some kind.

And then they were gone.

Lovely young men, each and every one. Sorry ladies, but they really were good looking too.

So that was a horror, surprise and delight all rolled into one!

And the kittens? Up for adoption at Houston SPCA and just soooo cute.