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Crunch Fitness is a solid middle ground. More equipment than PF, actual free weight area, $25-30/month at most locations.

If you're lucky enough to have a Gold's Gym nearby, that's still the gold standard for serious lifting. Some locations are better than others though.

YMCA is slept on. Some of them have surprisingly good weight rooms, plus pool, basketball courts, and sauna. $45/month for an adult membership at most locations.

Tinted windows, remote start, and a good sunshade for the windshield. That's the holy trinity of surviving Texas car heat.

Local independent gyms are where it's at. Not the chain ones. Find the gym owned by one person that's been open 15 years with equipment that's older than you. Those gyms have the best equipment and the best culture.

Year 8 here. You don't stop hating it. You just hate it quietly and then enjoy October through April knowing you earned it.

Some shops will charge less. The dealer quoted me $250, an independent tire shop did it for $120. Call around before you pay dealer prices.

You get used to it in the sense that you learn to work around it. You go outside before 10am or after 7pm. You accept that June through September is indoor season.

The electricity thing. I had no idea you have to CHOOSE your electric provider. Signed up for a variable rate plan my first month and got a $380 bill in August.

Kroger digital coupons are annoying but I save $15-20 a trip when I actually clip them. It takes 3 minutes on the app.

The deregulated market is the problem. Nobody wants to invest in reserve capacity because there's no profit in power plants that only run during emergencies. So we have zero buffer.

Rain + Texas drivers = absolute chaos. The first rain after a dry spell might as well be an ice storm based on how people react. Either 25mph in the left lane or 80mph tailgating. No in between.

TPMS is the most annoying inspection failure. My car failed for the same thing. $180 to replace a sensor that does nothing I can't do with a pressure gauge in 30 seconds.

I bought a whole-house generator after 2021. $8K installed. I shouldn't have to do that but I have elderly parents living with me and I'm not risking it again.

The healthcare shortage in Texas is real. We have fewer doctors per capita than most states. It's not you — the system is genuinely overwhelmed.

Check on your elderly neighbors during heat waves. Seriously. Heat stroke can kill and not everyone has working AC or the ability to get to a cooling center.

Hail. Nobody told me about the hail. First spring here my car got destroyed. Get comprehensive insurance immediately.

Apartment dwellers are still screwed though. No home charging means relying on public chargers which are slower, more expensive, and sometimes broken. Until apartments have chargers, EVs are a homeowner thing.

HEB store brand stuff is genuinely good quality. Their creamy creations ice cream competes with Blue Bell. I said what I said.

The 2021 storm should have been a wake-up call. 200+ people died. And here we are still running the same grid on hope and prayers every summer.

Compared to where I moved from in the northeast, this is still a bargain. But yeah the trajectory is not great.

Allergies. Cedar fever in winter is not a joke. I never had allergies anywhere else. Moved here and now I want to die every December through February.

Nobody in this state understands the zipper merge. Two lanes go to one and everyone treats it like a personal insult.

How big everything is. Nothing is close. Even the grocery store is a 15 minute drive. Coming from a walkable city this took serious adjustment.

Red light running is the Texas state pastime. The light turns red and three more cars go through. I wait a full two seconds after my light turns green now.