Text 16728, 145 rader
Skriven 2011-04-12 02:45:50 av Richard Webb (1:116/901.0)
  Kommentar till text 16711 av Roy Witt (1:387/22)
Ärende: Australian immigration
==============================
HI rOy,

On Mon 2039-Apr-11 14:53, Roy Witt (1:387/22) wrote to Richard Webb:

Roy> The humidity in Jacksonville is higher than I expected. So-Cal is
Roy> dry as a bone in comparison. Surprisingly, south Texas was dryer
Roy> than Florida.

YEs, found that to be true as well, more transition between
the warm coastal plain and desert out there.  I lived there
about 3 weeks out of a motel after Katrina, and Kathy and I
had started to maybe consider just sitting down there and
calling it even.  We'd found a church we liked there, etc.
I wasn't sure about the studio market, and housing looked to be a bit spendy,
and I wanted enough place I could at least
acoustically tune one good room of a house for audio control room etc. and a
bit of a ham station.

 Rich>> OF course, but think about it, a lot of those folks retired in the
 Rich>> midwest for a variety of reasons, lower overall cost of living
<snip>
 RW> YEp, which might be why it won't surprise me in a few years
 RW> if my sister returns to the midwest from so cal.

Roy> My neice returned to Illinois last year after living for 20 years on
Roy> the east coast of Florida around Cape Kennedy. She moved her eldest
Roy> daughter with her, who tried, but moved back to Florida about a
Roy> month ago. My neice is always commenting that she misses her friends
Roy> and the weather and I expect that she may also go back soon. My
Roy> sister tries to discourage that, but she knows how nice it is to
Roy> live in an area without the cold and snow.

THat's my basic problem, I'm too far north now for my
liking.  But yet, MEmphis isn't near as good for transit
options as N.O. is/was, where I could do pretty well for
myself in Minneapolis or Chicago, even though I detest the
weather.  But, as long as we can keep Kathy healthy enough
to drive I've got my options.  I'm a day's drive with remote truck to ST.
Louis, LIttle rOck, Nashville, or NEw ORleans.
SO I'll put up with a little more winter than I'd really
like.
Had I stayed in SAn Antone I would have been doing the
apartment dweller and looked for out of the way warehouse
space to lease and customize for studio, and had we still
decided to buy the remote truck rig would have had to find
secure storage for it, whereas here it sits outside my
office window and I can personally keep an eye on it.  IF
I'm realy concerned about it I just let the dog out, and she can reach its back
door while on her chain <grin>.
A 130 lb Rott is a bit of a deterrent.

 Rich>> YEs, in CA you have quite a variety of things to enjoy when
 Rich>> retired, but enjoying a lot of those things, hunting, fishing,
 Rich>> etc. is much ore expensive elsewhere.

 Roy>> The hunting and fishing in Calfifornia isn't as good as it was when
 Roy>> I first moved there in 67...too much development took out hunting
 Roy>> areas and the only fresh water fishing in Southern CA was in
 Roy>> resevoirs.
YEah I know, I wouldn't care for that.  I can get to the
MIssissippi river around here, and some good fishing
grounds.

Roy> This wouldn't be the place. There's not much public hunting land to
Roy> speak of and I'm not about to pay the price for a lease. I'm getting
Roy> too old to be trapsing through the brush anyway.

DItto here.  Were I ever inclined I could always go back to
Iowa for the season,  I"ve got two or three places I could
go to set up a stand to hunt deer, etc. back there.  wHEre
we first lived when we got here after Katrina landlord
wouldn't let us have hunting privs on it, we were out in the woods in a mobile
home.  HIS relatives got the hunting privs and had a great stand on a trail to
a lake for hunting deer. I always thought about getting tags and setting Kathy
up on
the porch with a bow though, they used to browse on the
foliage in our yard in the mornings, and bow hunting can be
quite silent, he'd never know the difference, and I'd have
meat for the freezer <grin>.

 RW> sOrt of involuntarily semiretired here, and this isn't the place I'd
 RW> choose to do it.  At one time I was pretty happy with the La. gulf
 RW> coast, southern la. anyway, but it seems like we're determined to
 RW> kill off any economic sustainability there so I'm not sure anymore,
 RW> but I like the climate.

Roy> I like being tucked away where the weather doesn't create anything
Roy> more than a small bit of cold nad snow in the winter and some
Roy> thunderstorms in the summer. The high heat isn't so bad once you get
Roy> used to it, kinda like being in the desert in California.

YEah I know, that was a big selling point in favor of us
just staying in SAn Antonio.  wHen we started going to that
one church there a couple of them were really encouraging
us, but I think they were looking for some help with their
music ministry program and some other stuff from yours truly <grin>.  I did go
out to their church camp with them a
couple of days and help renovate a couple of old buildings
so they could do a little more for some Katrina refugees
they were housing out there.  After all, I didn't have
anything else to do but sit on my butt and watch the idiot
box in a motel room <grin>.  iT was something useful to do,
and the physical work was just what I needed at the time
<grin>.

 RW> LIke south TX too, but other than Austin there's not a big market for
 RW> the sorts of things I do, and Austin's swamped with every wanna be
 RW> from all over the country.

Roy> The competition is pretty stiff too. Even in the small suburb of New
Roy> Braunfels called Gruene (Green), up the road a piece, they have
Roy> different players every night. And there are plenty of those places
Roy> around too.

YEah, there's at least another good remote truck outfit out
there, and lots of studio stuff too.  I'm where I might have to travel more,
but I'm setting myself up in a niche where I do classical style gigs and don't
hassle as much with full
blown productions needing rock 'n roll sound reinforcement
and all that stuff.  THese are much easier recording gigs.
But, SAn Antone sure was tempting with the climate into
early fall when we were there.  I've kicked myself a couple
of times for not just deciding to stay there and get more
seriously into the housing hunt.

 RW> All things being equal I'm gonna sit it out and take my time making a
 RW> decision before I move. Cost of living here is as inexpensive as it
 RW> can get, at least cost of housing, and that's a big factor, so long
 RW> as i can keep Kathy healthy enough to drive.
<snip>

Roy> We just had a visiter from Minneapolis last month. She stayed a week
Roy> and found herself a small trailer to rent for next February and
Roy> March. Nancy says that she might get comfortably situated in that
Roy> small trailer and find herself acclimated enough to stay...

I could see how that could happen, compare SAn Antone in FEb to MInneapolis. 
Yeah I think I'd decide SAn Antone was the
place to be.  Were I ready to think seriously about retire
that's one place I'd go in a minute.

Regards,
           Richard
--- timEd 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin:  (1:116/901)