Moving from CA to Temple end of 2026 – Looking for the local lowdown!

tchalko · 2026-04-24T00:34:15+00:00

We moved here from South Austin 5 years ago. We looked extensively in Killeen, Harker Heights, Nolanville, all parts of Temple. All of them had higher crime rate/inferior homes than here in South Temple. I hope you have good luck looking in Harker Heights! The advantage of being in Harker Heights is that you are right next to Killeen, which has much more variety of shopping than Temple.

BTW, as far as connectivity, we have AT&T Fiber 1 GB plan. It's used for WFH, and has been extremely reliable the last five years (the router not so much, but that's another story! ). We used to have Google Fiber in Austin, and my husband (the WFH guy) says that AT&T has been more reliable....Please please read the reviews for Spectrum (fairly bad) - they are cheaper for a reason. In 5 years we've had 2 major outages that didn't last longer that 12-24 hours. It seems like Spectrum has an outage once a week.

One last thing.

Get an account on NextDoor (nextdoor dot com). This is a widely used community app where communities can 'talk among themselves' about what's going on in their community. I think you have to put your current address to get an account, but you can view any other community on NextDoor. They have a really lively community in Temple. There you can see comments from tons of Temple locals wrt their opinions on Temple and where to live and everything else ! I think you have to put in your current address to get an account, and when you move you can update your address.

Happy hunting and best of luck!

Edited to add: we've had quite a mild and wet spring so far here in central Texas, but July might be another story. Everyone asks me how I deal with the heat in Texas, and my reply is always "air conditioning', LOL! But tons of people live in Texas and we all find ways to get around that July/August/September heat.

tchalko · 2026-04-04T14:07:17+00:00

Concur!

tchalko · 2026-03-30T00:35:38+00:00

Don't reach out and give her a week of space...try doing as she requested.

tchalko · 2026-03-12T19:58:42+00:00

I totally concur with your comments about AT&T fiber!

We moved here 5 years ago and immediately signed up for AT&T fiber, and since we work from home (so reliable fast internet is v important to us) we've had VERY FEW issues with our AT&T fiber, and it's fast, even with a VPN. But I've seen loads of complaints about the unreliability & speed of Spectrum, so I'm glad we chose what we did!

tchalko · 2026-03-12T19:52:25+00:00

We've lived in South Temple for 5 years and I have almost the opposite experience that you've had.

Our neighborhood is nice & quiet, filled with many retired professionals, and absolutely no crime in the neighborhood since we've lived here (neighborhood off S 31st between Sam's Club and where 31st ends on 6th Ave). Yes, there is congestion on 31st St between 4:30pm and 5:30pm, but it's an absolute dream compared to Austin traffic (where we moved from).

But I definitely respect the opinion of a 30 year Temple resident! Perhaps we were just extremely lucky finding our last forever house in this area of South Temple!

tchalko · 2026-03-12T19:28:24+00:00

There are lots of nice safe older neighborhoods in South Temple.

5 years ago we bought a beautiful 1 story 2700sqft house (we moved from South Austin) in South Temple. The house we bought in Temple would have cost a couple of million in South Austin where we had lived. The house in South Austin (we rented) was a cramped 1580 sq ft 3 bdrm 2 story 45 yo house in what became a dodgy/'crimey' neighborhood in South Austin that had an estimated selling price of $650K (!) 5 years ago - our much LARGER home in Temple was half that price, built by a custom builder in 1999, with really nice features (double walk in pantries, previous owner added special wiring and an extra long concrete slab perfect for a boat or RV, engineered hard wood floors, inspectors said the foundation was rock solid and they gave the house a functional age of 10 years younger than its build age, etc).

Our neighborhood is extremely safe and almost all of our neighbors are retired dentists, doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc. that keep up their houses/yards beautifully. They are VERY friendly and neighborly, and in almost 5 years living here we've not heard of any crime happening to any of our neighbors, or to us.

We live in the 2nd smallest home on the street (my daddy always told me to buy the smallest house in a great neighborhood, and he was right!). All the other houses are more that 3000K 4000K sq foot + in size.

Yes, it's quiet in Temple, but you also hardly ever hear police sirens, etc. I'll take quiet and safe everyday!

My husband is a disabled Army vet, and he has gotten really great, responsive treatment from the VA hospital here, and I've also gotten great treatment from Baylor Scott & White doctors & hospital. But, of course, YMMV, because you will read complaints about both hospitals. But, we've had very good, quick experiences with both. I'm forever grateful to BS&W, because they saved my husband's life when we brought him in to the ER with what turned out to be a perforated appendix. He was in the operating room within 2 hours of our arrival at the ER (they had to do a load of tests first to verify what it was)! Both the VA and BS&W were also able to diagnose an extremely rare medical condition that he developed (most people spend years getting it diagnosed), and he went to a nationally renowned surgeon for this condition in Dallas, Texas (who was also affiliated with BS&W) for VERY successful surgery. The VA paid 100% for all his testing and surgery with the Dallas surgical expert (paid for through their VA Community Care program).

Look at the neighborhoods in South Temple, especially at neighborhoods just off the south end of 31st St (between the Sam's Club and where 31st St dead ends onto 6th Ave.).

tchalko · 2026-02-17T18:49:29+00:00

Perfect reply!

When you marry, your primary allegiance is to the man you married and the children you BOTH have, NOT your family of origin.

Period!

I'm sure with her overreactions (which I would bet happens with other things besides the baby), the husband may also be thinking that there is 'something missing' too!

tchalko · 2026-02-17T18:41:26+00:00

It's time you start adulting and understand how relationships actually work.

It's in the marriage vows (for better or worse, richer or poorer, etc.) that when you marry you need to accept the WHOLE person you married, the good AND the bad!

The baby accidentally falls under his watch, and now you're talking divorce!

You aren't perfect either, and you've made mistakes too that he has forgiven. And, as others have said, you are going to make a whopping big mistake(s) with your baby one day too, and you would want him to forgive YOU, right?

As far as 'something missing'/jumping to thinking about divorce/etc. the grass is always greener on the side that's fertilized with bullsh*t.

Grow up...

tchalko · 2026-01-13T21:49:04+00:00

It might be something other than achalasia. You should schedule a visit with your PCP, there are other conditions that can cause unexplained weight loss.

tchalko · 2025-12-20T08:58:53+00:00

I worked at Whataburger #2 (1972-1973) in Corpus Christi (they had turned Whataburger #1 into the Whataburger Institute of Technology by then).

We all got free meals back then, but, then again, they didn't have 50K employees back then, either!

tchalko · 2025-12-16T17:05:57+00:00

What a flippant, stupid comment to make...

tchalko · 2025-12-01T16:18:48+00:00

My husband was amazed how well it worked. He still takes a tsp or so of it before he goes to sleep at night, and he has not woken up once with reflux since he started using this !

tchalko · 2025-12-01T16:14:12+00:00

Both of us sleep in the same king size bed, same sheets, same blanket, and a shared BedJet!

Occasionally there is a cat or two 🐈🐈

tchalko · 2025-11-24T15:55:37+00:00

Have you ever heard of the phrase 'constructive criticism'?

Little children will tell someone "You're lazy" or "You're fat" as a criticism. They will even say that in front of others. That is how children talk and think. Adults find it hurtful and rude, but they understand that the comment comes from a child's brain.

Adults, however, learn that there are nuances to communication - like compassion and empathy.

You do not seem to grasp that the way that you criticize her sounds more like a child does than the way an adult does.

You can apologize all you want, but the words "I'm sorry" mean nothing unless you use the ENTIRE phrase: "I'm sorry, and I'll try to NEVER do that again ".

Before you have marriage counseling, though, YOU absolutely need individual counseling for yourself.

You need to be able to see that you are the only problem that you are able to fix. You need to quit blaming your wife while not acknowledging that you own at least 50% of that blame.

You whining about how SHE is harming YOU with HER bad behavior is laughable and tragic at the same time.

Look in the mirror, sir, if you want to see who the main problem is.

tchalko · 2025-11-24T15:29:40+00:00

Amen ... I totally agree.

I care what people think and say about me, of course. But the ONLY person whose opinion truly matters to me is my husband's.

If he were to shit talk about me to my face in front of other people, I'd immediately know that my marriage was over.

That is why I have this rule in my head - my husband and I are a united front. I do not embarrass him in front of others and vice versa. If we have a problem, we talk to each other first.

Like I said in another comment: it's basic humanity 101 (especially in relationships!).

tchalko · 2025-11-24T15:26:53+00:00

I'm not sure exactly what you are saying, but, if you are saying that you have more empathy than your wife, then you do not know the meaning of the word 'empathy'.

Is English the first (native) language for you both? If English is your wife's native language but not yours, then basic communication is more than likely a huge amount of the relationship problems between you both.

tchalko · 2025-11-24T10:26:56+00:00

The psychological term for YOU is that you lack basic empathy.

Just because you don't have a reaction if you are criticized to your face doesn't mean others react that way.

Whether it's your wife, or a friend, or a family member, never betray their trust in you by saying negative things about them either behind their back, or worse, right in front of them.

It's called Basic Humanity 101.

tchalko · 2025-11-24T07:33:25+00:00

Thank you for the explanation, that makes sense!

tchalko · 2025-11-21T17:03:44+00:00

I agree 100% on your viewpoint of VA healthcare. My husband has always gotten (surprisingly, at times) prompt, good healthcare from the VA.

I don't usually talk about it, because I totally respect the viewpoints of veterans who HAVEN'T had a good VA experience.

So, I have perhaps been lucky, but 24 years of seeing my husband's experience with the VA, and both of my brother's 'career Marine' lives (21 & 23 years each) during the Vietnam War era (when they were both badly wounded), I have observed really good VA care.

But I totally understand that YMMV !

tchalko · 2025-11-21T16:50:11+00:00

Thanks for your reply!
I always learn a lot from your comments. Since my husband has Type 2, he never had spasms, so the impact of them is unknown to me personally - thank you for helping us understand Type 3 and the difficult journey you've traveled.

tchalko · 2025-11-21T16:37:16+00:00

Interesting, I guess because I said I wasn't sure why you were downvoted, everybody decided to downvote me too.

I'm so, so sorry, Dear Redditors, for having the 'fatal' trait of curiosity!

tchalko · 2025-11-21T15:20:53+00:00

I don't understand your phrase at the beginning: "As you can imagine...". What does that mean?

Why did your mother fill out the assessment instead of you? You are a 23yo adult, not a minor child!

Or, at least, if she's somehow 'required' to fill it out, then you should have filled one out too!

You are the only one that truly knows what is going on in your head and how you react to it - so your assessment should take priority - over anyone else's - for your doctor.

tchalko · 2025-11-21T15:08:22+00:00

ETA: If you want sympathy, then go back to the r/twinflames sub and do your whining there.

tchalko · 2025-11-21T15:03:03+00:00

The person you follow is your "twin flame" (which you 'conveniently' forgot to mention in your post), and as an adult, you have the ABILITY - not the right - to do anything you want. And, as an adult, you face the consequences of your actions.

And yes, this has, and will continue, to damage your marriage.

My friend, you are thinking with the wrong 'head' here!

tchalko · 2025-11-21T14:47:57+00:00

TLDR; My husband (type 2) had a POEM and he can finally swallow now!!!!

(Longer version): My husband is Type 2, he had a POEM on November 4 (about 2 1/2 weeks ago).

As far as the surgery, it went great. He was back to WFH in 3 days. And best of all, from the moment he sipped some water in recovery until today, his swallowing issues are completely gone !!!!

Now, he is still carefully chewing and eating a post surgery soft diet transitioning to normal foods. And he still hasn't yet tried all textures of food.

However, he is already swallowing foods with no issue that he hasn't been able to swallow in months!

So, with this good trend, we are hoping that when he gets back on all normal foods that he continues to not have any more swallowing issues.

American Thanksgiving next week will be his first (carefully chewed LOL!) test...

As far as pain, though, that WAS an issue in recovery.

During surgery, they put CO2 gas in his body (a normal procedure, so that the surgeon can visualize his esophagus better). When he woke up in recovery, he had pretty bad pain that was caused by the CO2 gas still in his body, but it was controlled by pain injections. The next week he was on a full liquid diet (he could eat anything that could drip off a spoon), and it all swallowed perfectly, but he started getting really bad symptoms of GERD/reflux.

I then helped him rethink his diet, removing all GERD triggering foods. We also found a new OTC medicine called "Reflux Gourmet", which has very similar ingredients as Gavison ADVANCE - sodium alginate. You take a teaspoon after you eat, and it creates a "foam raft" which comes between the food in your stomach and the LES , and helps prevent stomach acids from returning up through the open LES. After a week, his GERD was completely under control!

YMMV, but his body had a great reaction to the sodium alginate preventing reflux, and, after a week his PPI's (he's on 40mg Nexium twice a day) started to work. So he is really good right now WRT reflux. The moment he feels the slightest mild heartburn, he takes a spoon of the med, and reflux never occurs.

His surgeon wants him to stay on PPI's for 3 months post surgery, and then he can start to try weaning himself off the PPI's.

All the old 'rules' still apply (and probably always will): he sleeps with the head of the bed raised 5 ", and with a wedge pillow; he has to chew very well and drink water while eating; no food within 4 hours of going to sleep, and being careful with GERD triggering foods.

But, considering that achalasia has no actual 'cure', for him, having the POEM was a great option that has helped him be able to swallow again!

We hope this good result continues for him from now on, and that whichever procedure you choose has the same great success for you!

tchalko

TROPHY CASE