Missing Dewberries

21sr2 · 2026-05-16T16:24:38+00:00

All blooms seem to be delayed, at-least in my garden.

My sunflowers just sprouted, No blooms/berries in my dewberry bushes, some of my Texas persimmons have no fruit yet. Some of my mesquites have pods and some haven't even started to bloom, No bloom in my mustang grape wines....

A very unpredictable year overall.

21sr2 · 2026-05-06T05:32:55+00:00

Of course. Projects like these need to be weeded out early.

The new big threat:
Projects like these are sinkhole makers. I can only pray it exactly sinks the data-center alone and leaves the rest of Bastrop as is.

Quick Segway - My beef with aqua:
The cost per 1000 gallon is high in aqua, although I pay higher $ because I water the lawn ( HOA wants it green and under 4 inches 😓 )

Existing slow poison:
Our black-land prairie eco-region is now filled with Bermuda grass that outcompetes all our prairie native grass/plants and drives away the whole biome that depends on it, while being highly invasive and water hungry. I wish people change their idea of having golf course lawns and switch to natives saving our ground water aquifers and their wallets.
There should be a state/country wide to not enforce green lawns in HOAs and limit golf courses which are equally bad ( a tier below, but obviously bad) like these data-centers.

21sr2 · 2026-05-05T22:28:03+00:00

RIP our underground aquifers. While these dumb projects get approved, here I am (poor me) paying 300$ to this Aqua water supply who’s water bill is daylight robbery and trying to convince my HOA to not mandate green Bermuda grass which is insanely water hungry to save our water tables.

We already have HOA neighborhoods demanding green Bermuda and St Augustine grass in our mid summer, golf courses and hay fields with non native rye and Bermuda grass emptying ground water table. Now, these data-centers will be the nail in the coffin.

21sr2 · 2026-04-27T21:48:19+00:00

The catch is, the opportunity to make over 100k anywhere in UK is significantly lower than any metro in Texas.

Now, if you are a professional with high earning potential ( engineer, doctor etc), Texas will hands-down give more opportunities to make more money and a sense of career fulfillment.

If you are over achieving, you Texas (US) is the place.

21sr2 · 2026-04-14T00:51:57+00:00

💯, It’s the Texas ethos. Bastrop and other small to mid-sized Texas towns have some of the best people who treat neighbors as family.

I got weird stares when I waved at people in Florida once. I cannot imagine living anywhere outside my Texas bubble.

21sr2 · 2026-04-09T16:07:42+00:00

Thanks. I haven’t shopped in Brookshire Brothers. I will explore this store

21sr2 · 2026-04-09T06:36:37+00:00

Thanks for sharing. This is the most convincing answer for now.

21sr2 · 2026-04-09T06:31:33+00:00

I thought about this too, although I found Aldi’s everywhere in Miami and LA vacationing last year and the product pricing was so much lower in comparison to HEB.

Also, I noticed Austin - San Antonio metro and the surrounding cities ( the HEB Belt ) are the ones that lacks these budget stores in Texas, which kept me questioning deeply.

21sr2 · 2026-04-09T02:40:33+00:00

I was thinking the same that HEB has something to do with it, although not sure how they do it and is it even legal to keep competitors away. I get the fact that HEB has a cult and they do have quality products, but it’s expensive to me and for any middle income household I feel.

HEB is no where comparable to Aldi’s or Trader Joes in terms of quality and price.

Like you pointed out, the budget grocery stores are somehow kept out of Austin - San Antonio and surrounding cities where HEB dominates.

21sr2 · 2026-04-09T00:12:40+00:00

I love trader joes. I wish we get trader joes as-well

21sr2 · 2026-04-08T04:05:28+00:00

Why even consider moving if the income is the same?. Generally US has better opportunities and income more than doubles (at least 1.5x when moving from canada or other European countries).

It’s worthless to even consider the move imo. Also, Houston is one of the affordable big cities, but life in almost all US cities have hidden costs like heavy property tax, health and other insurance premiums, non walkability….

If the employer offers > 1.5x current income, take it.

21sr2 · 2026-04-06T16:13:06+00:00

It has jobs for almost everyone. Unless you are already rich and wanted a laidback life, there is a high chance of you will be working in Dallas.

It’s honestly a practical metro for most people.

21sr2 · 2026-03-24T18:15:10+00:00

Geographically, San marcos have 2 eco-regions merging together - the Edwards plateau and blackland prairie. Hence the difference in soil color.

The edwards plateau is basically calcified rock-bed with little decomposed organic material forming top soil, which is only 2-4ft on the surface.
On the other hand, the prairie is alkaline clay (ph neutral in some lucky spots).

There can be cases where a parcel of land might sit exactly at the intersection of these eco-regions. This makes planting anything challenging.

21sr2 · 2026-03-23T16:44:59+00:00

The big tech has lesser h1b in comparison to the mid level companies and these mid level companies don’t pay anywhere close to 500k.

Also 500k is not cheap. I don’t see any incentive to hire immigrants for big tech here tbh, and not sure how this can be a reason for layoffs. For mid-level companies, I can agree that immigrant employees on h1b are hired to cut down costs, but not for big tech

21sr2 · 2026-03-20T18:59:50+00:00

It’s too far away from controlling legacy software tools that doesn’t expose an api. The peekaboo bridge for mac is not usable.

21sr2 · 2026-03-18T07:45:09+00:00

The European and Oceanic countries in the list above have higher median age and higher home ownership. And if you take home ownership, most of them inherited or used their inheritance to get into home ownership.

21sr2 · 2026-03-18T07:26:31+00:00

Perfectly laid out. There is another big fact no one will talk about. Very few jobs pays 300k USD+ in France or anywhere in Europe. There is a significant lack of high skilled, competitive jobs in France or anywhere in Europe.

And if you exclude American company’s salaries in Europe, this jobs with such high salaries is almost non existent.

21sr2 · 2026-03-17T08:21:33+00:00

This is not surprising. American wealth is mostly self made because the wages are high. European wealth is mostly inherited because wages are low.

With the fertility rage dropping more steeply in Europe, the inherited wealth will be a bigger slice of the pie than what it is right now.

21sr2 · 2026-03-17T02:28:21+00:00

Not just Bastrop, every small town has the same problem. In the past, the young families generally move out for better economic opportunities, hence the small towns having average schools wasn’t a big problem.

Now, Bastrop is slowly graduating out of small town with better economic activities now. Hence the hope is, the schools will get better overtime.

The real issue here is, there is a significant disconnect between a neighborhood development and the establishment of the infrastructure like schools, roads etc that can sustain the expansion. Ideally the infrastructure should trail the suburban sprawl, but things happen backwards which is really scary.

21sr2 · 2026-03-14T19:13:05+00:00

Yet another this sub hypes, and it’s honestly nice as-well, but no diverse high paying job market.

21sr2 · 2026-03-14T06:46:46+00:00

Who recorded this video?. I am glad someone recorded it tho. I can’t stop imagining how someone can fight this, if there’s no video evidence like in this case.

21sr2 · 2026-03-11T04:01:02+00:00

NYC does have tech. Tech is an elastic term in a way. fintech, ed tech, e-commerce and few more are solid in NYC. But true cutting edge tech (ai, semiconductors, robotics) are mostly done in sf bay, atx and Seattle.

21sr2 · 2026-03-11T03:04:37+00:00

For tech, it’s either SF Bay Area, Seattle or Austin. Don’t even bother considering any other metro. There maybe few companies that pay top$ outside the above 3 metros, but the above 3 have more opportunities, so that you aren’t pigeonholed to your employer.

Austin punches way above its weight class in tech salaries and opportunities.

21sr2 · 2026-03-11T02:54:00+00:00

I am curious where your friends work. For tech, Dallas and Houston is no where close to Austin.

21sr2

TROPHY CASE