The weather here isn't too bad ... till summer comes, but thankfully it's offset by pretty mild winters.

I think the early settlers here immigrated for similar reasons early immigrants to Oz did, except that we were never a penal colony. Many came to get away from the status quo that didn quite suit their nature, a spirit that continues on to this day in many of the folks here.

In my own family my great-great grandfather left his wealthy family in Tennessee to forge his own way in the new wildernesses of Texas in the mid 1800s. By my great grandfathers generation the family had mostly moved to Dallas, where every generation since has been from.

Hell yeah we Texans are a proud and boastful bunch, comes with the territory. Many people who have come from elsewhere are proud to call it home too. I even have a transplanted Russian friend and a Canadian who've spent time here and intend to retire here once their workin careers are put aside. Hell, a common bumper sticker and saying by many immigrants says/reads "I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could!".

You cats from elsewhere can talk all the trash you like but .... you can sit down with people all over the planet and draw the outline of Texas in the dirt and they will almost always be able to identify it as Texas. Try that with an outline of where ever you live and see if that works similarly