In a rare act of defiance not seen since my teens, I plunged my shovel into a snowdrift in December 1995 and left it there. I had finally joined Iowa’s brain drain – mercifully, they don’t require IQ tests to join those ranks – and headed to Texas.

Gone were the days of backbreaking shoveling, bitter cold temperatures and cornfields. Hello mild winters, long, long summers and crops that no one could precisely identify. And there was more: fire ants, huge cockroaches (the natives call them “waterbugs”) and the two-hour commute.

Then there were the clever made-in-Texas witticisms, such as the perennial favorite: “If you don’t lahk the weather in Tex-us, just wait a spell.”

So it wasn’t without much deliberation that I returned to Iowa in February. As I drove north on Interstate 35, I saw a Prairie Meadows billboard with a beautiful woman holding cash and a message touting, “We have loose sluts.” By God, I thought, Iowa’s changed. (I learned later some wisenheimer apparently painted half of the “o” in “slots.”)

With any transition in life comes the good and bad:

Good: All things downtown Des Moines, with special kudos to its new projects.

Bad: A reported $900,000 architecture bill for a downtown landscape design. (I will do it for $90,000, and include snow-shoveling service for the first year.)

Good: Iowa has two dominant political parties (unlike Texas, where out-of-power and rarely seen Democrats vote like conservative Iowa Republicans and Republicans vote like fire-and-brimstone ministers).

Bad: Is Gov. Vilsack a Democrat or Republican? His backers, I hear, want to know.

Good: Gray’s Lake – wow.

Bad: Urban sprawl (don’t follow the lead of Dallas-Fort Worth or we’ll have another Dallas-Fort Worth, but with hills.)

Good: Greater Des Moines’ wonderful neighborhoods (my personal favorite being Beaverdale).

Bad: Seventeen-or-so municipalities in the metro area, all of which have separate city halls, city staff, city services. Is it just me, or is this a waste of taxpayer money? (Hint: yes.) Or could it be a fight among government officials over their fiefdoms? (Hint: yes.)

Good: A decent, affordable housing stock.

Bad: Most of the good homes are in the ’burbs.

Good: This isn’t Texas politics, where the Legislature put a cap on pain-and-suffering awards in medical-malpractice lawsuits. (“Sheesh, sorry if my screw-up is going to cause you intolerable pain for the rest of your life but, hey, with $250,000 burning a hole in your pocket …”)

Bad: The Iowa Legislature’s perennial fight to follow states like Texas. (Hint: Let’s look at reasons other than outlandish jury decisions – which seem to be pretty nonexistent here in Iowa – for ever-increasing malpractice insurance premiums.)

Good: Friendly faces, like Gwen at Michael’s Restaurant and Lounge.

Bad: State income tax. (Make that really, really bad.)

Good: Being a Yankee again and proud of it.

Bad: Not being treated as a Yankee.

Good: Iowa State Fair.

Bad: German bees outnumbering people 267 to 1 at any outdoor venue.

Good: Being close again to family.

Bad: Being close again to family. (OK, you saw that coming.)

There are a lot of things Iowans should be proud of: clean air (mostly), high educational standards, four seasons, an intelligent and educated population base. We should exploit the heck out of these attributes, and back them up with money. That’s the only way Iowa can effectively compete to attract people and high-quality businesses. Eventually, that could stem the so-called brain drain.

Or we could do like Texas, which, in addition to its comparatively mild weather, mandates that schoolchildren know everything ’bout the grate stahte of Tex-us. Never mind that they think neighboring Louisiana is a foreign country. Those Texas children can spout a dozen or so wonders of the Lone Star State. But ask them to find Iowa on a map …

Des Moines native Jim Flansburg recently moved back to Iowa from Texas to become director of operations for Business Publications Corp.