Recent content by ospreyjp

Well the day finally came! I retired at 56 from my Fed job on Monday the 27th with a nice (low key) send-off. I already had my bags packed and took off from Texas for our home in the mountains of Western North Carolina. I have to say, I already feel more relaxed. No more meetings, writing...

If you get nostalgic for that heat + humidity you can always make the three hour drive over to Houston! That will definitely put into perspective 100 degree days in San Antonio.

Not to beat a dead horse, but water bills in San Antonio are also a serious consideration. To keep my old home's third of an acre lawn alive, I regularly paid in excess of $200 a month to SAWS (the water company) during the summer months.

NC statewide is 4.75% but counties add to that. The total for the county we have moved to is 6.75% total. Score again...

Fortunately, filing jointly the first $21,500 of a pension is tax exempt in NC. SS is fully exempt. In my case, I won't be paying any NC tax. Sales tax rates are more favorable than Texas as well.

Just sold our home on the far north side of San Antonio and bought a home in western North Carolina. Overall, San Antonio is a liveable, if sprawling, city but has two strikes against it in my book - high property taxes and long hot summers. The home we just purchased in the Blue Ridge...

I've lived in San Antonio for most of the past 10 years while I wasn't overseas and agree that this is a great town to visit, both the city and the nearby Hill Country. However, the heat and the endless tracts of suburbs and sprawl is less than ideal for the long haul. I agree that west of...

Brisket for $3.50 a pound? I forget how lucky we are in Texas when it comes to beef prices. My local Sam's, and Walmart too for that matter, frequently have brisket for as low as $2.25 a pound. Throwing a whole packer on the smoker at that price makes it hard to want to return to the local...

For those that get to Florida and decide 9 months of summer isn't for them, they can become "half-backs". That is they return halfway back to the Northeast or Midwest and settle in the Carolinas, Tenn, and other mid-Atlantic states.

I have lived there before (in the 90s) and am doing an ER back to WNC this summer too. Depending on your budget, and where you are coming from, housing in Asheville is pretty pricey. Check out the City-Data forum too for some WNC specific discussions of relocation. In my family's case we are...

Terrific slides! Thanks for sharing... I would like to go back in the warm weather next time. Our trip was very atmospheric with snow on the ground and falling for most of the two weeks we were there at. Christmas time. Your Brasov stay looked like the same AirBnb we stayed!

We stayed a week in Sibiu on a trip around Transylvania and loved it. Brasov and Sighisoara were other towns we stayed in but Sibiu was our favorite. That region of Romania felt like a spot I could picture retiring too and, of course, was very affordable. I also forgot to mention, nice wine...

I envy the sense of nervousness that the imminence of being two or three months out will surely bring. September 2021 still feels like a long time away...

Our positions often take a while to fill as well, although my new manager (coincidentally a GS-14) was recruited fairly quickly even in the midst of COVID this summer. I figure I will split the difference and let my manager know in April when we have the annual performance review. I like the...

Some of what I have been reading for Feds seems to say that 2 months is a good minimum to make sure CPO has time to work on everything. That is interesting that the one colleague you mentioned wasn't treated that well after letting people know 12 weeks out. Another reaction that I am...