There vs. Here

I've been meaning to write this post for a while, maybe even making a series out of it. But since we just went through a major move - Denver, Colorado to Small-town,  Texas (exact location not disclosed) - I wanted to outline some of the differences. Here's a few:

Colorado - If you wave at someone you don't know, you might get shot, but at the very least, you'll get a dirty look.
Texas - Everyone waves at everyone. If you don't wave, people wonder why you're having a bad day.

Colorado - If you want to say hi to someone, you nod your head up.
Texas - You nod your head down - or just wave.

Colorado - The mail man leaves packages on the ground near the mailbox.
Texas - If you get a package, the mailman brings it to the door. If you don't answer and your door is unlocked, he'll just set it inside for you.

Colorado - If you want to have your electric turned on, you call them up and they need a credit card on file.
Texas - You must physically go in and fill out paperwork, then they don't do cards, you have to pay with a check or cash.

Colorado - If you have a birthday party, you send out invitations and people RSVP.
Texas - You send out birthday party invitations requesting an RSVP and no one responds, then several people show up anyway.

Colorado - The high on Thanksgiving: 62
Texas - The high on Thanksgiving: 87

And here's my favorite:
Colorado - they have already had their fair share of snow - it even snowed 4 inches in October before we moved. School isn't delayed or cancelled for anything under 2 feet, they don't even do indoor recess unless the temp is under 20 degrees.
Texas - we had a quarter inch of snow today and school was delayed 2 hours. Of course, we weren't expecting that anyway and took our son in. There were several other parents dropping off children, so Mr. Amazing let him out of the car and drove away. Little did he know the door was locked and all of the other kids would return to their cars... When he got to work, someone mentioned that school had been delayed for an hour, so he called me to inquire. We don't have T.V. so I have no idea how to find out other than calling the school. No one is at the school - assumingly because school has been delayed. It's 28 degrees, so I'm not overly concerned, but go about getting the small children ready to drive to the school and see what's going on. Planning on making sure he has some place warm to sit, or waiting with him until the door is unlocked. As I'm backing out of the driveway a police car pulls up... Kainen gets out of the back and the officer explains that they would have been their sooner, but Kainen only knew our house number - not the street name. Of course, we've lived here all of 1 week, I'm not surprised by this - actually, I was surprised he even knew the number already. Then the officer explains that school doesn't start until 10 because of the snow - the 1/4 inch that I mentioned. He also suggests registering for text messages from the school - GREAT idea.

Which brings me to the next difference:
Colorado - You want to register for mobile updates, you sign up online.
Texas - You want to register for mobile updates? You go to the schools website, find the number to call for instructions (which you had to search for because it isn't obvious). The man that answers the phone doesn't know how to do that, but thinks it has something to do with Twitter. I should call back after school starts at 10 when someone else is there that might know how I can get set up... I'm from Colorado. I just find them on Twitter (not listed on their website), and sign up to follow them and get mobile alerts for their tweets (as they only have three in their entire history, two being tests at the beginning of the year and one being about the delay this morning, I'm assuming I won't get a ton of updates I don't need).

So yeah... things are a bit different here.

Here's a nice photo of our new house
(still being remodeled, so it won't always look like this) 

with the nice snowfall that delayed school for 2 hours....

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