Fort Worth Texas

I was in Fort Worth Texas this week at a sales conference. I've heard it said Fort Worth is the plain older sister to Dallas. Given I didn't see anything other than the hotel and the conference center across the street, I cant say much either way. The big event this week in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is the Super Bowl on Sunday.
The Pittsburgh Steelers were staying in my hotel and though that meant a sizable group of die hard fans camped out in the lobby, players were thin on the ground.
Cops checked ID before you could get in the elevator, but all in all it was pretty low key as you can see....... I did ride the elevator with one player.
No idea who he was.
Diamonds, diamonds and more diamonds.
God knows how much the watch on his wrist cost.
What I couldn't get over was how small the dude was.
Fit?
Yep undoubtedly.
Big?
No not really.
Not at all actually
TV adds size I guess.
Linemen are bigger I'm told.
During the day, odd Pitt and Texas wild life milled around outside the hotel.
Given the crap season the cowboys had I was surprised how anti-Steelers the locals were.
This was supposed to be the season Dallas played in their brand new Billion $ stadium in the Super Bowl.
Instead they stunk out the bottom of the standings and two small town teams used to playing in the wind and snow are battling it out under a domed roof.
The NFL is nothing if not democratic. I tried to explain to British colleagues that this match up was the equivalent to Middlesborough vs Portsmouth in a premier league championship.
They were astonished.
I was smug.
Ahh so you don't know EVERYTHING about the US do you?

The only other thing of note for the week was the weather. When we arrived it was in the mid 50's F. By Tuesday the temperature plunged, an inch of snow fell overnight and the roads had become skating rinks.

Texas is worse at coping with a little snow than the UK.

I was relieved to see the bars in the hotel ban unlicensed weapons.

That made me feel safe.

Liquor and legal weapons present few problems.

Its clever to serve armed people bourbon.

Mutually assured destruction ensures peaceful drunkeness.

I saw lots of drunkeness.

Thank god for the 2nd amendment.

Guns are good.

Off to Brazil tomorrow.

Stay well

T

Don't Mess with Texas

I spent less than 24 hours in Dallas, but packed quite a bit in.

Texans are an interesting bunch.

I guess my expectations of the place were coloured by all the obvious stuff: Cowboys, big hair and the "everything is bigger in Texas" cliches.

What I didn't expect was this little confectionery for sale in the hotel gift shop.

Are you kidding me????
At least its diabetic friendly.

I'm not sure it's particularly Texan, but I've never seen or heard of it anywhere else.
One cliche I did partake in was a visit to a traditional Texan Emporium: A Discount Gun Shop.

I was a little timid getting the camera out, but I needn't of worried.

The staff were friendly.

There was an almost joyful exuberance to their enthusiasm.

No one had a full head of hair.

All favoured a micro short or shaved scalp.

Everyone in the store was white.

Did they all look a little scary?

Yes they looked quite scary but they were very friendly.

I was the only one (apart from one of my colleagues) wearing a suit.

T shirts were the order of the day.

The other customers consisted of 4 soldiers (dressed in fatigues) and a couple of Buddha bellied good ole boys.

I can't say that normally I'd consider these "my people" but confess within 10 minutes I was laughing and trading jokes with them.

They were without exception, in love with guns.

I've never met anyone in love with guns and I always thought such people very misguided souls.

I can't say there was anything in our conversations, outside of the occasional "that'll drop a man no problem", which gave me pause .

Love of firearms will never be my thing, but I guess I won't automatically think of someone as retarded if they're enthusiasts in the future.

I'll still wonder why they love guns but won't be as quick to judge. I've never seen so many weapons in one place.
A "his and hers" valentine set caught my eye.

There were weapons of every size imaginable, from single shot pistols small enough to fit in a cigarette pack to the "mighty hog" below.

They loved the mighty hog and its ammunition.

Big bullets indeed.
$8 a pop and every 4th a tracer round.
That seems kind of cheap doesn't it?
The targets were a bit of a sociological study.

Evil, scary clowns stay clear of Texas.

So what did I learn from this little field trip?

• Guys who work in gun shops are quick to laugh and turned a timid middle aged guy in a suit into a timid middle aged guy who was no longer afraid of machine guns or guys who work in gun shops.
• I'm still afraid of pistols. I hate holding them and always will.
• Crazy clowns make good targets. It must feel good to blast an evil clown.
• Gun shops are probably the least likely places on earth to be robbed. Especially gun shops in Texas. No one is that stupid

Texans are a nice bunch.
Love to all and stay safe

T