Pooh's Den

Update

Here is an update on something I wrote a while back,

The house is not going to be sold! I am so glad and thrilled!
It will still remain our home with the walls telling stories and the dumb collapsible gate V always hated!

Seven floors high

It is such a simple thing but it never ceases to amaze me.

As you probably know, V started her new job a couple of months back and her new office is on the seventh floor. And for someone who has forever been in the basement and first-floor the change is dramatic. Her office high up in Uptown Houston faces the busy road and up there - the whole perspective of the world changes.The whole perspective of your world changes if you change your viewing vantage point. Isn’t that the reason why we fight for that elusive window seat in the bus and the train? Remember the time you fought through maddening crowds just to get a glimpse of the idol at the temple during festival season?

I have traveled in that main road in Houston countless time. So many times that I know which intersection comes after the next and which store comes where. So many times that I even counted how many pharmacies exist in that 8 mile stretch. I enjoy watching things move by as I sit along the window and enjoy the sights. I have driven on those roads every day of the week, any time of the day. It is something so familiar.

The attitudes of the drivers, the flashing lights and screeching sirens of cop cars and fire engines, the trees being cut to make way for a new construction, the deliveries at the neighborhood pharmacy, the cars in line at the car wash, the fog covering the tall buildings, the dark rain clouds just overhead! It is indeed a sight to see!

One feels invincible towering over the F150’s and the buses on the road. The people on the street seem like ants and at times of traffic chaos I feel like calling out instructions and acting as a traffic cop. And it is now I understand why we have those traffic police stands in the middle of the road in India. At times the clouds seem so close-by that I get carried away easily into dream land. The world seems so much better and more dimensional when you are seven floors high. And now I wish for an office by the window in the tallest buildings around the world.

The Rodeo Parade

Houston's downtown feels home to me today. The look at the familiar skyline as I approach the city after a vacation or a trip somewhere gives me peace- the feeling of being finally home. I never thought I will feel this way about Houston but slowly Houston won me over. Especially its downtown with the towering skyscrapers and architecturally awe-inspiring structures- it is my kind of place.

And this weekend the bustling metropolis transformed into something from a Wild Western movie - hoof beats, stagecoaches and carriages, cowboy hats and spurs, boots and the Texan swagger. The rodeo is in town and the celebrations were kicked off by the ConocoPhillips rodeo run and the parade through the streets of downtown.

Streets filled with enthusiastic people dressed in their Western best - jeans, boots and cowboy hats, radio talk show hosts vying for attention, the domino pizza man, the cotton candy seller, the cheap toys and knickknacks it was a perfect reminder of the temple festivities back home. Just that it was a little more organized and more clean before the horses started hitting the streets.

The rodeo run raises money for education and was open to participants of all ages. It was heartwarming to see young children walk and skip their way to the end line. And then came in the marching bands from various schools and colleges around town, the trail riders-on horseback they travel from all over Texas and Louisiana to attend the rodeo, the decorative floats, the Congressmen and Senators, the Marines and the police department and anyone else you can think of.

It was a colorful show-off of the other side of Houston. Of the culture deep-rooted in native Texans. It is fun and family-friendly. With the weather gods smiling on us, this years rodeo parade was a spectacle worth watching.

Head over to R's blog for pictures and more details.

Pooh's Den

Update

Seven floors high

The Rodeo Parade

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