Currently sitting in a hotel in an undisclosed location somewhere in the city of Charlotte, NC. It’s been seven years since I was last here (not counting driving through it on the highway to get to destination farther south), so I think most of the warrants have expired. Not sure if that is the case for AngryBlackLady, but she is on the west coast and they’ll never catch her, the coppers.
At any rate, I am here because I am helping my parents transition to their winter place down in South Carolina. It’s just too much for them and the dogs to go the full distance in one day, so we stopped here. Tomorrow we will finish the drive, unpack, and then on Monday I will return back home to my lovely critters.
I was going to bring Lily with me, but when I asked her this morning if she wanted to go for a ride, she woke up long enough to lift her head, look at me, and then fall back asleep, so I just left the old gal at home. I also thought about taking Thurston when Lily said no, and then immediately thought “WHY WOULD I DO THAT TO MYSELF?”
So I am alone in a room with the tv off and no animals, and the sensory deprivation of it all may mean I will be in bed by 9:30. And I am ok with that.
trollhattan
Er, enjoy? Never been, myself. IIUC there’s BBQ and such. Hope the parental relocation goes smoothly and the weather cooperates.
pat
I had a dog interaction today. Was walking down the street when a young man and a black doberman-type dog were coming toward me. Suddenly the dog BIT me. On the right arm. Below the elbow. FORTUNATELY I was wearing a jacket (Cabela’s) that shows absolutely no marks, but I have two large bruises with blood in the center on my arm.
I asked the young man for his name and phone number and went on my way, but soon began to consider what would have happened if I had not been wearing a jacket. My arm would be in shreds.
Long story short, a nice young policeman came and took my report and I hope they find this dog before he can do some real damage.
Mai naem mobile
Why would your parents voluntarily go to SC instead of NC? SC sounds like a real shithole state. I know you’ve said your parents are Republicans but they must be Republicans with standards. NC at least sounds like they have edumacation standards. Anyhoo, I got Sirius XM back with my new car and I’ve been listening to music I haven’t listened to in a long time – ( ‘I wanna be a cowboy so you can be my cowgirl’ hehehe and Robert Palmer’s ‘Looking for Clues’)
jl
I think Thurston or Rosie would have loved the trip, because they would have fun ripping up all the places Cole traveled through, and making his trip a living hell. But Cole ruined their fun and blamed on Lily. As one of the oldsters in my family used to say “What the hell makes some people so god damned mean.. just mean for no reason…”
But even so, I hope the Cole tribe has a good trip and John G. Cole’s parents settle into their second home nicely.
lamh36
Never been to Charlotte before…I have been to Durham (20 or so years ago I attended a program by the AMA for minority students who want to attend Medical School)…close to Charlotte right?
ElwoodPDowd
Total lurker here.
Remember the trip to DNC with ABL.
As I recall, there was a shady picture or two from JC’s adventures here in the Queen City.
I do work at the Register of Deeds and Courthouse. The security for DNC was like nothing I had ever experienced. Wife and I are considering leaving town for the upcoming RNC.
Can not contemplate the gathering of all those MAGAts. Yikes!
Heartbroken McCready lost. Resident of the gerrymandered district.
Anyway – safe travels John.
I have enjoyed the blog for many years.
Elwood.
eclare
@pat: That is scary! Glad you are ok and filed a report.
spudgun
I will just tell you what my mother always says to me before driving anywhere long-distance: Drive carefully, stay cool…
Also, not to be contrary, but if you already tell us you’re in Charlotte, NC, that’s not really “an undisclosed location,” is it…? I mean, – ok, you don’t name the hotel, so I guess that’s undisclosed…
Hey, give me a fckin’ break, it’s a cold, rainy night here in this undisclosed location somewhere in Northern California and I’m bored as shite!! ?
spudgun
@pat: Wow, that is frightening! That dog should’ve had a muzzle.
Very glad you weren’t too badly hurt. Did the policeman say what they would do when they find this guy?
pat
@eclare:
More details… When I got home a few hours later I had determined to call the young man and say that I was planning to report the incident, but the phone number he gave me connected me to a woman who has moved to North Carolina and works with rescue dogs. She did not recognize the name that the man had given me, but found him on facebook. She was the one who convinced me to report it to the police. If this was an unprovoked attack (it was) this dog should be put down, was kind of where she was going.
Two little girls walked past us as we were on the sidewalk as I was telling this young man that he needed to put a muzzle on this dog, and they were at the height where this dog could have ripped their faces off. The whole thing was just totally unexpected. Even my asking for his name was an afterthought and fortunately I had a pen and a piece of paper.
ThresherK
I had a much nicer doggo incident: A guy was tying up two leashed dogs on the bench when I stepped out of the coffee shop. I asked if his dogs were pettable. (They were black Labs.)
He said “Go ahead”, and when I got into reach they slobbered and hopped up on me like no tomorrow. Turns out it’s a mother and a daughter, and typical Lab “smother you with kindness”. We had Labs when I was growing up, and it’s always nice to greeted by them.
pat
@spudgun:
I hope that they find him. Not sure if I will be informed but I did say that I could ID the young man and the dog.
I really wonder what the history is. The dog was wearing a serious choke collar but why was he being led down a busy downtown street? Has he attacked before? Did he not like my gray cap and pink jacket? Who knows.
All I can say, when I look at my arm, is thank goodness I was wearing a jacket.
pat
@ThresherK:
I love to give skritches to doggies that I see being walked. DId not even consider it with this big black doberman. hmm, maybe he felt disrespected.
WaterGirl
Oh my gosh, was that 7 years ago? Time flies.
spudgun
@pat: Oof – choke collar is a bad sign…
Glad you reported it!
WaterGirl
Fuck it, we’ll do it live!
NotMax
So you’re communicating via
(wait for it)Charlotte’s web?
eclare
@pat: Unfortunately that rescue person is right. I once worked with a guy who tragically had to put his dog to sleep because it attacked a vet who was trying to do behavior counseling. The guy had two little girls, who as you said, were at face height. Sad all the way around, but he couldn’t take the chance.
Yeah, I would have been stunned, also.
pat
@eclare:
Bottom line, if this ever happens again (it won’t) I will say, you stand right there while I call 911.
So there.
raven
My dawg experience sucked too, the tigers ate us alive.
SteverinoCT
@ThresherK: I was in a store, looked down, and the shopping cart next to me had a Boston Terrier laying there looking at me. I had already exchanged pleasantries with the young lady attached to it without noticing the dog. I said, “Hey, doggie!” and extended the back of a couple fingers for it to sniff, which it did and then indicated it would like to be scritched, please. Who can say no? The lady smiled and we exchanged some more pleasantries.
Having so many support dogs around these days adds another layer to the “can I approach it?” calculation. Where I used to work in Hartford there is a nearby place that trains seeing-eye dogs, and they would often be out on the street being worked. I hated it: not only should you not interrupt a dog in harness, but in this case *they* would get corrected if they responded.
Jeffro
Cole, wassup?!?
I’m here with my family for the ACC Championship game! ??
UVA is…not defying expectations ?
Mainmata
One of my sisters lives in Charlotte (our family hails from Pittsburgh but has long lived all over the world). Charlotte is the largest and most economically important city in NC. It’s interesting in some respects but is a typical Southern very spread out city with lots of highways everywhere and no obvious land use planning. But it is quite close to Columbia, SC, the capitol (not sure if that’s your parent’s destination).
eclare
@raven: What was up with that turf? Throughout the game, there were clouds of black particles.
Denali
Seem to remember the Charlotte was the place you ended up remembering that you forgot your. . .pants. Has stuck in my little mind.
ThresherK
@SteverinoCT: Is downtown West Hartford the place you’re used to seeing the dog training? It’s got everything you’d want in pedestrians, autos, street crossings, etc.
debbie
@pat:
I once walked past a girl walking a Rotweiller that wheeled around, clamped down on my calf, and wouldn’t let go. I wore Frye boots (thick, thick leather) and Jeans (back before they sold prewashed). It took her about a minute to get Emmet to let go. No blood, plenty of bruising, and some muscle lumpiness.
Big dogs, unless I know them, still scare the shit out of me, all these years later.
Raven
@eclare: It’s called Field Turf.
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
?
On, Wisconsin! On, Wisconsin!
Plunge right through that line!
Raven
When I was in grad school I rode my bike to class. One day a german shepherd was sitting on his porch and I whistled when I drove by. He came off the porch and bit me on the leg. I called animal control and they were obviously not going to do anything. I talked to my neighbor and he said the dog had done it several times so I went down, banged on the door and a college kid answered. I got all up in his ass and told him other people might let it slide but I wasn’t going to. The kid broke into tears “It’s not my dog and my best friend just died in the Value Jet crash in the Everglades”! I was feeling pretty small after that one.
debbie
@David ??Booooooo?? Koch:
They can be slow getting started sometime.
Mainmata
@Mai naem mobile: NC, despite its racist politics, at the state level, is a much more interesting place at the local level in the cities than SC. RTI in Chapel Hill/Durham is a major research/teaching and consulting center. NC also has many other centers of excellence that were built during the years before the reactionaries got into power in the 1990s-2000s. Raleigh and Charlotte are important cities. (And I say this without any interest in ever living there.)
Ben Cisco
I remember your visit, Cole – always regretted that I couldn’t meet up with you and ABL; even more so now that I moved away.
I wish you safe travels.
Ruckus
Worked in Charlotte a couple of times and there were some good restaurants. Mostly BBQ
Also drove once due south into SC and stopped at a shop where I got a close look at a real life honest to goodness KKK robe and hood. BTW it wasn’t at all what we were shopping for. Sort of made my being stationed in Charleston for 2 yrs a complete and shitty circle.
Never had the desire to go back or live anywhere near there ever again.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: LOL
mrmoshpotato
@raven: :( Go Badgers!
Raven
@mrmoshpotato: I’d love to see the team my Illini beat do the same to the Bucks!
mrmoshpotato
@David ??Booooooo?? Koch: Fuck the Bucks.
eclare
@mrmoshpotato: Agreed. Plus added bonus of pissing off Gym Jordan.
mrmoshpotato
OT – to hell with these Christmas car commercials.
I just saw a Aston Martin commercial. $1699 a month apparently. Just saw it again!
Raven
(CNN)North Korean state media are reporting that a “very important test took place at the Sohae Satellite launching Ground” on Saturday.
According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the test produced a “successful result” and was of “great significance” and that it will “change the strategic position of North Korea in the near the future
chopper
@debbie:
i was bitten by a 140 lb rottweiler in a bodega in brooklyn, of all places.
trollhattan
As a PSA, there is nothing weird about the weather, at all.
Shorts in December now, even when raining. It’s how we roll.
Patricia Kayden
Omnes Omnibus
@eclare: Jordan went to Wisconsin as an undergrad.
Mary G
When I was two or three I was bitten on the face, very close to the eye, by a German Shepherd police dog off duty. I hadn’t even tried to pet it or grab it, just got excited and screamed “DOGGIE.” I was terrified of big dogs for years later.
trollhattan
@mrmoshpotato:
Your teevee knows what you want. I blame Putin.
eclare
@Omnes Omnibus: Did not know that.
Amir Khalid
@mrmoshpotato:
I’ve always wondered: are James Bond’s Aston Martins government issue for 00 agents, or are they his own?
mrmoshpotato
@Raven: So. Much. Winning. No longer a laughing stock.
J R in WV
John, you might consider spending a night northbound in Charlotte, as well. Long distance driving gets more difficult as we age. I no longer drive to AZ in the winters, I fly out and have been renting a truck. I thin I’ll try to buy one this winter, and save that rental charge.
Anyway, do be careful on the big road, Southbound AND Northbound!
geg6
Poor Thurston! He would have enjoyed the ride. And the attention. He’s a sweet boy.
khead
Charlotte has been the landing spot for many a Mountaineer since the early ’80s. I’m guessing I know 50+ folks in the area if I include family and friends. They don’t call I-77 the Hillbilly Highway for nothin’. Always thought I would end up there too but it just never worked out.
jeffreyw
Conservatives would say that the story of Christmas chimes with their values, as it involves a pregnant refugee being treated quite badly.
Guardian link, like a Tony Jay comment, but shorter.
mrmoshpotato
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes, but the ignored molestation was at Ohio State, and, as the saying goes, “You get tied to where you ignore molestation, you rat bastard.”
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan: Oh yeah. Like that’s a sensible car for Chicago. It’s like the Lamborghini morons and idiots that make their Civics sound like racecars. Enjoy never being able to open it up.
eclare
@mrmoshpotato: Does anyone know why the Buckeye fans wave a shoe in cheering?
Omnes Omnibus
@mrmoshpotato: Lake Shore Drive at night. Just sayin’.
debbie
@geg6:
Seconded!
mrmoshpotato
@eclare: What do you expect from a school whose mascot is a nut?
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
This is beautiful, as always.
mrmoshpotato
@Omnes Omnibus: Get your ass arrested and car impounded. Just sayin’.
debbie
@eclare:
A Michigan player tried to stop the QB by yanking his shoe off. Or something like that.
Omnes Omnibus
@mrmoshpotato: If you are going to be that way about it, then just enjoy your Gremlin.
Amir Khalid
@mrmoshpotato:
Aston Martin don’t make a sensible car for anywhere, do they?
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir Khalid: That really isn’t point of that marque.
Amir Khalid
@eclare:
My guess: they’ve lost the other shoe by waving it about, and are asking if anyone has seen it.
geg6
@debbie:
I feel so bad for him! When we visited Cole this past summer, he was such a lover boy. He’s ever so much sweeter than his sister, who is the alpha dog in our house. Cole is so mean to him! ?♥️
mrmoshpotato
@debbie: si.com/college/2019/11/30/jk-dobbins-shoe-untied-michigan-ohio-state
I oddly don’t remember seeing this last Saturday.
eclare
@debbie: Thanks!
mrmoshpotato
@Omnes Omnibus: Pinto!
Omnes Omnibus
@mrmoshpotato: I stand corrected.
debbie
@geg6:
He’s the ignored middle child who gets shoved to the back row in the family Christmas photo card!
mrmoshpotato
@Omnes Omnibus: Hehe
Amir Khalid
A question for the jackaltariat:
Does it make sense to get a laptop with no optical drive, if I get an external USB optical drive to use at need?
geg6
@debbie:
Yep. I can relate, being number five out of six. Of course, Cole is an eldest child, so he has no idea how a little love can avert pooping in the hallway to the bathroom.
debbie
@mrmoshpotato:
It was all over the local news. //
dmsilev
@Amir Khalid: Yes. At least for me, optical discs have become a ‘need to read rarely’ thing rather than a regular requirement, and have been happily using a laptop that doesn’t have an optical drive.
frosty
@raven: LOL, that one took me a minute.
Nicole
@pat: I’m sorry about the bite, glad you are okay, and you are doing the right thing, following up. A dog that displays aggression towards humans (towards other animals is a different story) should be muzzled on walks.
The woman at the dog rescue you spoke to is not wrong about putting down a dog that has repeatedly demonstrated aggression towards people. Especially, unfortunately, larger dogs as they can do more damage, purely because they’re bigger.
Good luck with the cops; I hope they follow up. I was bitten by a dog on the street once (a small mop dog, but the teeth went right through my pants and broke the skin), and the woman who had left the dog tied up unattended outside a store (which is how I got bitten, as I passed him), spun some story to the police about how her boyfriend was a cop and before you knew it, they had no interest in doing anything, and told me the dog had been abused and I should have sympathy and blah blah blah. I had to call the animal’s vet myself to find out if the thing had its rabies shot.
As a dog owner myself, I have to say- lots of people out there who really shouldn’t own them.
mrmoshpotato
@debbie: I mean during the game. :P
Jerry
If you’re in the uptown area of Charlotte, make sure you hit Mert’s for some great soul food. Never had breakfast there, but I’m sure it’s amazing
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid: How thin you want that laptop?
Ruckus
@Amir Khalid:
A lot of brands you can’t get an optical drive and have to use the USB type. I have apple and there hasn’t been an optical drive in the iMac for at least the 7 yrs that I’ve had them. And non of the laptops have them either.
I have one of the optical USB drives and it works fine. Even though I rarely use it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: Most laptops don’t have optical drives anymore.
debbie
@mrmoshpotato:
I’m not sure anyone knew about it until after the game when the team was giving interviews.
Mike in NC
Stay the hell out of South Carolina.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
All opinions which follow are strictly my own guidelines and not meant to be any kind of definitive listing.
External optical drives, unless you need to run it intensively, can be had very inexpensively. Drawbacks to keep in mind, especially if you tote your laptop around a lot , are (1) Oh crap, one more thing to keep track of and lug along and (2) Where do I sit the external drive when in use so it is stable and doesn’t get jostled if the laptop is on my lap?
With current modern laptops, most don’t even offer the option of a built-in optical drive anymore. DO look for a laptop with an SSD (solid state drive), though, if you can find a model within your price range with at least a 512GB SSD – the more commonly found budget-minded 256GB SSD keeps the initial price down but could become an impediment later on down the line, dependent on what you use the laptop for. Also, RAM – again, if it is within your price range, 8MB of RAM at the minimum if running Windows 10 strongly encouraged. Another consideration is not only the number of USB ports (more is preferable; are they USB 2, USB 3 or a combination of both) but also which side(s) of the machine they are on (is there limited available physical space for wires and whatever they are attached to on one side of where I’m planning to place the laptop).
Last thing I’d mention is the keyboard – is backlighting important to you? If so, is brightness on it adjustable? If possible, visit a store and try typing on a variety of brands’ display models to see if the feel is awkward (or mushy), passable or, better yet, comfy.
seaninclt
Too bad I just saw this, I’d have offered to feed you and pupper or at least taken you to bad daddy’s for a ‘bacon cheeseburger on steroids’. Their milkshakes are crazy good.
EthylEster
@Mai naem mobile: IIRC they go to the coast. NC coast is much different from SC coast. I’m sure someone has already explained that. Also too, (again IIRC) JC’s parents are not always of the same political POV.
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
Yes. Most small form laptops don’t have room for an optical drive, so I gave up on looking for then and bought a couple of external drives we use to make MP3 disks, watch movies on DVD, etc.
dnfree
@khead: My mother’s family was from West Virginia, and my aunt once told me that in the 1950s the three Rs were reading, ‘riting, and the road to Akron. That’s where jobs were then.