New England B.S. Thread

I don't know why but Texas seems like a place I would not want to live.

 

For those of you that like to watch things in the sky there is an International Space Station tracker app that works well.

 

Political reasons aside ....

• Cities are MASSIVE - Austin as a whole is about half the size of Rhode island. Dallas fort Worth is the size and more people than Rhode island.
• The weather - it's desert or gulf. The desert is HOT. What I think is cool is some of the northern plains. There's no water mass to regulate it, and it's windy. It can get down to the mid 20s overnight in the winters and then sunny 80 in the days (Amarillo)
• Public land. Take a look at the second map here - Texas does not have much public land access. https://texaslandconservancy.org/why-we-need-to-protect-private-land-in-texas/
• The food - I love it, some don't
• No good pizza - there was a 6 out of 10 place in Austin. The "best" NY pizza in Houston gets a 1 out of 10. The only ONLY thing they did right was put the (wrong kind of) pepperoni on after it came out the oven.
• Driving - it's a regular occurrence to take a 3 hour each way trip, just casually. For us that gets us to the opposite extreme of the region. Mountains or ocean or evergreens up in Maine etc. Down there that's just Tuesday.
• Homeless - everyone sends their homeless population down south for the weather. The same weather that attracts us to avoid the snow is what is healthy for someone to live without 4 walls. When it hits -30 in Bangor, people can die. Homelessness down in some of the bigger cities - I know of Austin because that's where we've looked to move - is a biiiiig problem down there.

I'm highlighting negatives. There are bad parts of rhose island, mass, Vermont, etc too. There's a lot of positives.

That said as of recently - we've been reconsidering Austin and Texas. Heck even I am reconsidering leaving the Northeast, for now.

TBD. I am not one of those guys with a 5/10/15/10 year plan all laid out. It's funny at work they ask "where do you see yourself in 5 years" and I go into like 6 different scenarios. I roll with the lunches.

I am in the landing path for Green - East Bay not right on the runways (poor bastards over there) - I have the flight tracking apps on my phone if I see something cool from the back yard.

There have been a few cool coast guard planes.

 

Nothing political about it.
I can't see myself living in such a flat, spread out area with unpredictable weather. It's boiling hot, floods, and parts of it has ice storms (which they can not deal with) in the winter. No thanks, that does not sound enjoyable at all to me

 

The last year or so... I've contemplated the same....

But, as mentioned...

All mentioned are valid points. That is why we VISIT the LARGE cities/metros... hell, we really only hit San Antonio to spend some time on the Riverwalk.

The geography is MUCH better here, much more diverse. The climate is hell.
Spent 20 minutes outside, hooking my 1 ton up a battery tender, and my hands and toes are frozen.
I DO have to spend significant time outside for work, depending on the jobsite, and I don't care who says what, when you need dexterity, you can't have gloves that'll keep you warm.
Yeah, traveling 3-4 hours is something that happens...but, at least you get there.... it can take 3 hours to cover 80 miles in this region....
Cost of living here is nuts, and getting worse.
Physically, Im absolutely miserable. Only content from June to maybe early September.. hell we had a morning in the 40s this past July.
It all boils down to what is best in the big picture.
Is any one place better than the others? Not really.
Honestly, Socal would be the best fit, climate, geography, but,( again, politics aside), we are back to ridiculous cost of living, and excessive legislation.

I hated Hampton Roads when I was stationed there...
Now, it looks like a decent option... except I would have a difficult time making money there....

 

Oh I was just saying I won't get into any political differences power grid is sort of in that list

Typical winters are sunny and 65-70 with some chilly mornings.

Houston is a lot more consistent in climate on the gulf with the water.

Hill country is where it's at. Between the oil fields and the Colorado River.

Fair point - it took me 55 minutes to go 7 miles to work the other day. But that could happen anywhere if there is construction.

So Cal is out for me. Big fat no.

Phoenix. Albuquerque. Tucson. Mayyybe Santa Fe. I want to check out El Paso too.

If we do go chances are we'll land somewhere near San Antonio. Austin is cool but hot damn is it big and busy. But yeah cost of living too.

I think the desert Southwest not California will be where we end up looking. I really liked Phoenix and Tucson - so we'll probably end up moving down there and renting toward Austin for a while and explore the rest of it.

I can do remote, wife can't really so we will need to find a place to settle a bit.

But yeah man if I was working outside I'd be out of here in a heartbeat - maybe into Kentucky and Tennessee area if you don't want the hottest of the heat, decent geography, decent people, doesn't get AS cold in the winters.

 

Well nobody can argue the cost of living here is crazy but salaries are usually based on such as well. I personally don't agree with you about the climate but that's my personal opinion (and others have theirs).I personally like the changes in weather we experience here in New England. I like winter almost as much as I like the summer. Skiing, snowmobiling and sledding are all things I like to do in the winter.

 

65-70 in the winter doesn't interest me.

It's interests me when it's frozen! Hockey would suck in a pond!!!





You can't do this either!

https://youtu.be/7OMpodVYn94

Vice grip garage is so funny!

 

Back home, I can still ride year 'round, and go watch a game at the American Bank Center...
We DO have ice rinks in the south....

 

I ain't gonna lie we went to Austin between Xmas and New year's 2019 just before the covid stuff became a thing - they had an ice rink for the holidays and it was uhhhhh.... I mean it HAD ice. It was about the size of my living room.

 

Download the SkyView app...I paid the $5 for no ads...It's amazing for identifying everything. It really helps when I'm out with my telescope.

You really can enjoy a telescope around here AFTER the first frost...otherwise you are just feeding the mosquitos.

 

Your living room?


PS...been here...it's amazing.

 

I'm sure most know my feelings on the weather etc. We're in a holding pattern b/c my folks are older and refuse to leave, but are starting to need a little more help.

Agreed re salaries, but in my case I could sell my house here (those of you who have seen it such as @Pugga can attest it's no mansion etc), buy a similar or slightly bigger one in the Carolinas, pay cash and have a good chunk left. More importantly, Cupcake could retire early (which I would love to give her that gift, she's worth it).

 

Corpus isn't Austin. AB center is AHL rink, so..

Does it compare to pond? Hell no...
But, controlled ice temp, air temp and humidity... I'm in.
I DO still have my skates...but, don't use them.


I jeed the ocean/beach, otherwise southwest desert would be on the list... I also need significant humidity....

Was in Corpus last time yall were in Austin...

If that happens again, lemme know, come on down, better to see a place from a locals perspective, than otherwise.

 

I used similar when I was planning wedding stuff. I had an app I could hold up and it would tell me where the sun was going to be in the sky at the time and location and angle.

....it rained and we were inside but whatever.

 

Love Vice Grip Garage! His videos are a hoot to watch!

Anyway, I agree with you Rob, I couldn't live in a state that doesn't get any snow!

 

To be clear, while I have NO use for snow, it adds something to barren and dead landscape this time of year... so, I have nothing against it, other than, way too many idiots in this part of the country have no idea how to DEAL with it.

 

Just go a couple hours west for lower cost of living. My house is probably worth 1/3 of a comparable house on the eastern end of the state. I would make more there - we have a state email group where salary data is often shared and my position seems to be 50-60% higher on the eastern end of the state, even for small districts. Not sure if that's enough to justify the added costs.

I am totally with you on changes in weather.

 

I am in East Providence. When we bought we were looking in the 200-225 range in late 2017. If we went 4 seconds to the east we'd be in Seekonk. The same house in Seekonk would have been 400 ish. We looked at one in Rehoboth but it was the same idea, the property values in mass are insane. Don't know what or why but yeah we avoided that. We landed in East Providence. It's worked out well enough so far.