Storm, glad to see you posting and taking advantages of your benefits for service to the United States of America.
Carpentry, another great trade, you and EE can go out there and build houses, the I-35 corridor is HOT territory as you know! If only we could get those darn illegals out so the wages go UP again instead of DOWN. One of my brothers is a carpenter and general construction, been in the business his whole life (30 plus years), he is having trouble finding a job in Texas because of the wages and illegals.
Joker has a great point, you gotta get moving and if you have to drive, well, you are retired now, you got nothing but time and the "can do" attitude. My sister by my stepdad's marriage to my mom, she is a nurse at the VA hospital in Temple. She was in your position, U.T. and ACC in Austin had two year waiting lists. But Temple/Waco area had immediate openings, so she drove from Georgetown to Temple/Waco area almost every day. Was it worth it? Well, she got her degree and has been working for VA for ten years plus, so yeah, I would dare to say that she would vouch it was well worth it.
You get that assoc. degree in carpentry, you get preference on Federal construction projects as well!
Though I will warn you, having been a VA work study in my college days after the army, Vietnam vets get preference over EVERYBODY, which is all good, we had a decent homecoming when we got back to Germany after DS part one, and the American based soldiers? Wow, wish I was there! The Vietnam vets? Got spat on and badmouthed and treated like manure.
They deserve hiring preference, IMHO.
BTW, be sure to take before and after pics of your new home, I know you will be using your skills to remodel. I've been taken pics of the house in Mexico and I plan on creating a homepage and using some before and after pics myself.