u/illimitable1

For various reasons, I cannot permanently relocate to the UK; nonetheless, I'd like to explore the country at length. I am retired in the US. I can spend about $5250 a month, though I have ample savings squirreled away that I may use. I don't need to work for an income.

In October last year, I visited the UK for the first time. Being fascinated with the canal system, I stayed with a friendly liveaboard I met here for a couple of nights. I also volunteered for a day on a workboat cleaning up a section of canal.

I now idly daydream of buying a boat. I then spend a relatively short time, as in about six months, as dictated by visa requirements, faffing about and continuously cruising the canals. When I'm ready to leave, or must leave because of the terms of my visa, I would sell the boat via a brokerage.

Alternate versions of this involve purchasing and living aboard as above, but mooring the boat for whatever period would be required for me to exit and return to enjoy it.

I want to know if this is an entirely daft idea, this buying a boat for six months to sell it and/or buying a boat to moor it while I am away. Would I get a similar sale price as what I paid to begin with? Do those who pay for a permanent mooring? Would I be able to see and do interesting things (museums, historical sites, hiking) while based on the canals?

I grew up in Atlanta-- Decatur, to be exact. My dad worked in international development among people from India and Pakistan. Buford highway has so many options for desi cuisine. Decatur (Lawrenceville x Church) has a thriving mini-India going on, with stores and services for the diasporic community. I grew up eating all manner of Bangladeshi, Pakistani, and roughly Indian food, both in restaurants and at the tables of my dad's colleagues. Our family went out to a Bangladeshi buffet for Sunday dinner many weeks. I cook some of this myself, somewhat poorly.

I feel somewhat knowledgeable about this sort of food, though I'm no expert.

Today at about lunch I happened upon Sitar. I'd heard of it and decided I would try their buffet.

Frankly, I was underwhelmed. It met my needs for lunch, but I found myself wondering if this is the best that Knoxville can offer for Indian food. The tandoori chicken was dry. The chicken tikka masala (a British dish, really, innit?) was too chewy. The dal makhani, cucumber aloo, and chana palak, were fine, but not exceptional. The dal were not as creamy as I imagined they would be.

My greatest impression was a lack of heat in the food. The dishes all had the taste of spices that make the usual overall flavor profile-- curry, garam masala, cardamom-- but lacked the warmth that causes one to perspire a bit around the temples. It was as if the chef had today forgotten the chilis, the ginger, and the cumin.

I should say that the price was fine and that they served hot milk tea upon request without additional explanation. I would go back, but I wouldn't go out of my way.

Am I wrong about this? What other options are worth considering here in town?

What sort of work is available as a licensed aviation mechanic, and how much of it is such grind that I'd hate it? I'd hate to spend two years driving back and forth to school to never actually find a job I liked.

I turn 51 in September.

In 2019, I experienced a financial windfall. If managed conservatively, I could live frugally for the rest of my life without working for another. I was able to quit working in a call center. Other work done has included early-days IT stuff three decades ago, civil law enforcement, social science research, and program evaluation.

For the past seven years, I've been "funemployed." I have biked across the US, taken sailing courses, become a certified bicycle mechanic, taught and performed American folk dance (like square dance), and hiked the first third of the Pacific Crest trail. I invested in rental property.

I've been working for about eight months on a glider private pilot license. I've started back on powered private pilot, too, after running out of money a decade ago. I'm not obsessed, but airplanes are pretty neat!

Recently, I've felt like I should consider re-entering the workforce. I want to make sure I will be financially secure. I want to have more structure in my life-- and people depending on me to be someplace everyday. I want to make a contribution I can be proud of at a job that I'm good at-- and am getting better at all the time. I want a transferrable skill that I can take with me if I want to move to a more costly US city.

I visited the local aircraft maintenance program at the community college, located on an airfield about an hour away. I can attend there for twenty months, just sort of two years. They will have four months of classes for the general test, and eight months each for airframe and powerplant. It'd cost me $8k in tuition plus the cost of tools and books.

I know I can afford this. I'm wavering about whether starting at this career late in life is worth it. Airlines are said to be the best jobs here, but they have a lot of shift work and can be a grind. I wish there were more flexible jobs with good pay in this industry, like contract jobs I could do for a while and then quit, or self-employment. I also liked what I heard about heli mechanics who did months on and months off and the like.

I'm concerned that if I spend two years getting my A&P, I'll be too old to find the sort of work that would be well-compensated AND suitable to my lifestyle goals.

I feel like my dream job would be running an FBO, working as a pilot-instructor-mechanic someplace rural, or something like that? Bush pilot and mechanic? Flight school owner? Not sure. I met a guy recently who does all the maintenance at his skydiving school. Similarly, the owner-instructor at the gliderport has her own IA so that she can service all the gliders on field.

Are the only good jobs working the stereotypical shift grind with the airlines? What else ya got?

I'm thinking of moving from Knoxville, TN. Could you help me think about my options?

I spent a lot of time from 2001-2006 at San Francisco Zen Center and its affiliates. About ten years ago, I went to Tassajara for part of the summer, spent a month at Green Gulch, and then had an ill-fated attempt at residential practice in a struggling temple in Pittsburgh (Sewickley). These are all recognized US manifestations of sotoshu. They are heavy on the bells and smells, so to speak.

I now live in Knoxville, TN. A visit to Chapel Hill Zen Center, five hours away, made me realize how much I miss a formal Buddhist practice. I'm thinking (maybe daydreaming?) about where I could move to have a daily lay practice in such a center or temple.

I have other wants, as well. I want to live in a place where most of my tasks can be accomplished on foot or by bicycle. I want to pay less than $2000 a month to own a home or condo. I prefer a mild climate; both snow and the sort of sticky heat we have here seem to demoralize me. Finally, I'm involved with a sort of dancing called "contra dance," and would prefer there be a weekly dance event in this style within an hour by car.

Obviously, I'm going to have to compromise.

Do you have any ideas? I'm especially interested in what I might have overlooked on the east coast

Places I've considered

• Bogota, Colombia -- It meets the climate requirements. It's far away
• Atlanta-- the zen temple on zonolite was founded by someone with very little training and not a lot of connection to other teachers or lineages.
• San Francisco or Bay Area -- I have an obvious attraction, but $$$$
• Minneapolis, MN-- Minnesota is cold, man, but Katagiri was a great teacher
• Arcata, CA -- Eureka and Arcata are relatively inexpensive. The Soto Zen place in Arcata is warm and pleasant, but lacks some of the formalism that I'm finding attractive right now
• Pittsburgh, PA-- Zen Center of Pittsburgh meets the formalism requirements, but it's in the 'burbs
• NY or LA-- I find these cities big and overwhelming, but would love to know more
• Seattle-- it has a Rinzai temple I once attended. The Soto temple doesn't seem to have a daily practice. Expensive housing.
• Milwaukee-- daily practice in my preferred lineage. Cold, tho
• Bloomington, IN -- It's such a small town, but Sanshin looks appealing. I'm not sure what else I would do
• New Orleans-- this Soto Zen temple is attractive, but NOLA loses out on some of the other interests I have
• Ashland, OR-- I fell in love with this temple. Ashland was expensive.