I am a construction/maintenance millwright in Nv, working for a federal contractor for the Dept. Of Energy.

I'll be damned if...well, let's just say I might be out of a job, soon.  They'll have to fire me, though.  Momma didn't raise no quitter.

I love Shiner Bock (do the brewery tour, if you can).  I've visited the Alamo twice.  Love Buc-ee's.  I feel at ease in Texas.  And, like half of TX, I did a hitch in the Marine Corps .

I have been married 21 years (the wife's Cajun).  I'm a big SpaceX fan.  I'm big and ornery, and definitely won't help turn the state purple or blue.

    Two kids, a boy just out of high school who can't join the military (FJB) or go to school in NV because our Kalifornia-Lite governor (FSS) loves his overreach powers, and has mandated the jab for higher education.  
    He's a baby machinist.  If I could get him a job at SpaceX or LaRue, I would consider myself a good father.  
The daughter is in 10th grade, so changing high schools would suck, but it might have to happen.

I think I'd make the right type of transplant, if only to balance out the fucking Kalifornians.  G_d knows they've swamped Nevada.

What are my prospects in the Shiner/Yoakum/Victoria area?  I might be able to land a job at the STP, but I am sure they'll require the jab.  I can transfer my book to Local 2232 in Houston (yeah, union scum, but I don't have a union tattoo, or anything), but I am probably up against the same wall.

Any advice?  Or is Texas full?

Best,
JBR

It isn’t many of the Californians that moved to  Texas that voted for Bob the Fake Mexican, they voted for Cruz  by over 15% margin.   Native Texans  voted for Bob the Fake Mexican by a 3% margin.

Either way, Bobby Francis can go fuck himself.

Our Cali locusts are a plague in NV.  Being a military brat, this place was the closest thing I had to roots.  I wanted to retire here.  No longer.

Any input on the Lavaca County area?

Best,
JBR

Don't know too much about Shiner or Yoakum other than both are small.  Only drove through Shiner a few times and Yoakum was home to my Army Reserve unit.
Victoria on the other hand is the biggest city in the area and continues to grow.
It's located to where the all major chemical plants are an hour or less away (Dow, Ineos, Seadrift Coke, Formosa, Invista).   Probably good chance to land a job as a mill wright somewhere down there.
I lived 30 min away in Port Lavaca the last 30 years and worked at one of those mentioned plants the last 12 years before moving to Houston this year

@kenndogg Thanks!  I appreciate  it.

Best,
JBR

Texas is full, and you need not apply.

But if you do, heed these words from our Governor, who has a working brain: "The COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective, and it is our best defense against this virus."

Find a new job first, then move.   Moving then finding job might mean a crazy long commute or a very low paying local job.  

Yokum is a tiny town.  Shiner is even smaller.  Victoria is the "big city" in the area.  

Victoria's unemployment rate is a bit above the state average.  So, definitely find job first, and move second.

Victoria is coastal Texas.  Heat, humidity, and basically swamp adjacent.  High humidiity from early Spring thru late Fall.  Completely the opposite of NV.

Well, bless your heart.

Best,
JBR

Danke.   A change from 100 days of 110 degree heat might be welcome, even if it is sticky.

Best,
JBR

Around 16 countries, war zones, all over cartel-controlled Mexico, multiple trips to Afghanistan, sketchy foreign cities... and Shiner is still the only place where someone has shot at me, aside from IDF

I haven't been there in many years though so I have no idea how it is. At the time, it was a pretty typical quiet small Texas town (I was on a survey crew and someone took a couple of shots at me with a shotgun across a field... I popped out of the brush with my arms out giving a WTF look and he ran back into his house )

No shit.  Man.  That would have been a hell of a way to buy it, after your earlier adventures.
From the crime stats, Gonzales looks like a more likely place to get popped.

Best,
JBR

Worked in the area for the last 10 years. You would likely be looking for a job in the Victoria area. Yoakum is pretty bad all over. We passed on plenty of nice houses that were cheep due to being in the Yoakum school district.  Shiner is a good place to live but is really not very friendly to outsiders or their children. If you have any specific questions I may be able to answer them.

I hear Oklahoma is nice.

Thank you.  Very kind of you.

Best,
JBR

I do, as well.  Unfortunately,  my Cajun bride needs to be closer to home.  5 hours is about the max radius.  I appreciate it, though.

Best,
JBR

I grew up in Victoria and luved in Yoakum many years as an adult. PM me if you want the dirty details...

Thanks.  PM Sent.

Best,
JBR

NV is undoubtedly hot, but coastal Texas is equitorial Africa hot.  Rice fields, air feels thick and oppressive.   Sweat does not evaporate rapidly.   So, you are wet to the skin, hot, swamp ass, and just feel greasy.   Almost a nauseous feeling at times.  

Some folks can deal with it, and even a few like it.  Others, not so much.  

Winters are great, and we get a full 20 days of Fall, and 20 days of Spring.  Then, its time for 8 months of swamp ass.    

We freeze in the winter in NV.  We're either roasting,  shivering or enjoying our three weeks of Spring and 3 weeks of fall, too.  

I assume constantly drinking light beer and three showers a day helps.  It does when I'm at the in-laws in Louisiana.

Best,
JBR

No problem.  I don't mind the weather down here.   Grew up in it so I'm accustomed to it.  

Bunch of people simply hate it.  Describe it as a hellish sauna filled with mosquitoes and that smell of decomposition.  

I even like the smell of DEET.

I use Deep Woods Off like a hippy uses patchouli.
Sweet.

Best,
JBR

Vax-or-fired date is December 8th.  Joy.

Best,
JBR

Check Fayette or Lee County. Drier. More going on, but still rural.
Semper Fi

Bit sticky is an understatement.

There are a lot of Czech and Bohemians in that part of that state.  They like to keep the grass cut in their yards and and don’t have a bunch of trash blowing around.

Gonzales isn’t to bad.  If you like that type of partying, Seguin is where it is at.

I can dig it.  
Those Czech folks have their stuff wired tight.  
And I appreciate CZ firearms, kolaches, Spoetzl Beer, and Katerina Hartlova ( NSFW ).

Best,
JBR

I lived between yoakum and Victoria until I was 14 and went to school in yoakum. I don’t get to see yoakum much these days, but every time I pass through I’m glad we left. The leather shops used to employ most of the town, but most of that’s gone these days. Lots of meth and small town crime.

I'm sorry to hear that.  I have the same feelings when I go back to Yuma, AZ, my hometown.

Meth is a scourge.

Best,
JBR