Be Afraid, very afraid

Close Encounters of the Zombie Kind: Three near-misses in one day in westHouston

Truth is often stranger than fiction and I swear every word of this is true.

By lunch time on Halloween I had run into three zombies. In broad daylight!

Mind you, these weren’t the kind of zombies you’d expect to see on a day like Halloween, and surely not until a little later when the sun was down and the ghouls were out in force. No, these were real zombies and infinitely more frightening than the costumed kind.

Zombie encounter # 1

My first experience was with a lady driving her car in my neighborhood. Let’s call her zombie #1.

I was minding my own business, idling at a stop sign. (I'm a big Halloween fan and decorate my west Houston home inside out with ghoulish trinkets. There’s always one last minute idea to enhance my front yard cemetery before the candy troops arrive so I was on my way to Lowe’s to get another spotlight.)

This lady zombie turns onto my street and into my lane aimed straight at my car. If she hadn’t caught herself in time she would have hit me head on.

With eyes focused on something far, far away (like maybe another planet) she slowly glided past my car as if it was invisible.

She never glanced in my direction and her face had no expression (as in, “Hey, I could have just killed somebody.”) Instead, she continued her journey in an oblivious state.

Zombie encounter #2

Barely having time to recover from my first real live zombie encounter on Halloween (I confess my heart was still kind of pounding from it) I was next almost hit by a pair of zombies in the Lowe’s parking lot.

This looked like a husband and wife zombie couple, the husband was driving. He wandered into my lane and I swerved out of their way. As they puttered on to endanger other people, it was obvious they were totally unaware they’d caused a near-death experience.

Mine.

As I bravely (stupidly?) continued my drive toward the store entrance, I marveled at how eerie it was to have two zombie encounters within minutes of each other. Then, lo and behold, I almost ran into (or rather almost ran over) a third zombie!

Zombie encounter #3

He looked for all the world like a normal man as he walked out of Lowe’s and across my lane and into my path.

Zombie #3 looked straight ahead, presumably towards his car, in an apparent catatonic state. I came to a stop and waited for him to shuffle across at a pace that would make a snail look speedy. No, he wasn’t talking on his cell phone or 100 years old. He was just in a zombie state of mind.

Zombie #3 will never know how close he came to making a CultureMap contributor hit a pedestrian.

Superstitious people say bad things come in threes, so hopefully this is the end of my zombie encounter for a while.

As I sat still trembling in my car, however, scribbling this story in the Lowe’s parking lot, I was thinking, did I really need one more spotlight for my Halloween scene?

Or should I play it safe and just go back home?

No way. Even with the threat of Zombies everywhere, my graveyard came first.

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income news

This is the income it takes to be middle class in Houston in 2026

Photo by Dennis Lamberth on Unsplash

Who needs a raise?

A new study tracking the upper and lower thresholds for middle class households across the nation's largest cities has revealed Houstonians have to make at least a few grand more than last year to maintain their middle class status this year.

According to SmartAsset's just-released annual report, "What It Takes to Be Middle Class in America – 2026 Study," Houston households need to make anywhere from $42,907 to $128,722 to qualify as middle class earners this year.

Compared to 2025, Houstonians need to make $1,153 more per year to meet the minimum threshold for a middle class status, whereas the upper bound has stretched $3,448 higher. The median income for a Houston household in 2024 was $64,361, the study added.

SmartAsset's experts used 2024 Census Bureau median household income data for the 100 biggest U.S. cities and all 50 states and determined middle class income ranges by using a variation of Pew Research's definition of a middle class household, stating the salary range is "two-thirds to double the median U.S. salary."

In the report's ranking of the U.S. cities with the highest household incomes needed to maintain a middle class status, Houston ranked No. 80.

In the report's state-by-state comparison, Texas has the 24th largest middle class income range. Overall, Texas households need to make between $53,147 and $159,442 to be labeled "middle class" in 2026. For additional context, the median income for a Texas household in 2024 came out to $79,721.

"Often, the expectations that come with the term 'middle class' include reaching home ownership, raising kids, the comfort of modest emergency funds and retirement savings, and the occasional splurge or vacation," the report said. "And as the median household income varies widely across the U.S. depending on the local job market, housing market, infrastructure and other factors, so does swing the bounds on what constitutes a middle class income in America."

What it takes to be middle class elsewhere around Texas
Two Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs – Frisco and Plano – have some of the highest middle class income ranges in the country for 2026, SmartAsset found.

Frisco households need to make between $96,963 and $290,888 to qualify as middle class this year, which is the third-highest middle class income range nationwide.

Plano's middle class income range is the eighth highest nationally, with households needing to make between $77,267 and $231,802 for the designation.

This is the salary it takes to be a middle class earner in other Texas cities for 2026:

No. 28 – Austin: between $60,287 and $180,860
No. 40 – Irving: between $56,566 and $169,698
No. 44 – Fort Worth: between $55,002 and $165,006
No. 57 – Garland: between $50,531 and $151,594
No. 60 – Arlington: between $49,592 and $148,77
No. 61 – Dallas: between $49,549 and $148,646
No. 73 – Corpus Christi: between $44,645 and $133,934
No. 77 – San Antonio: between $44,117 and $132,352
No. 83 – Lubbock: between $41,573 and $124,720
No. 84 – Laredo: between $41,013 and $123,038
No. 89 – El Paso: between $39,955 and $119,864

smartasset finance income reports salaries houston