And to return the favor, Pat is a very insightful, intelligent guy whose sens of hospitality was amazing. A friend had arranged a free stay at the Extended Stays hotel chain, a perk of his being a long time employee of that chain. Well, I am mobility impaired (very bad right knee) so I asked for a 1st floor room. They said they could accommodate me. But the pet rooms, for some MORONIC reason, are on the 3rd floor. (WHY put pets on the 3rd floor knowing they have to go outside for bathroom breaks?) Now, my dog is blind and old, and those 2 flights of stairs are not even within the realm of possibility for her. I have to carry her up and down any more stairs than the 4 she knows from memory here at her home. So I thought, okay, I'll see how this looks. I would have needed to make 4 steps up and down those stairs to get moved into the room. Pat graciously offered, and I gladly accepted, to bring up what I needed to stay overnight. After giving the dog some food, she always goes outside immediately, meaning I had to carry her back to the 1st floor so she could pee, then back up again. When she finished, he again offered to let me stay at his house, and I accepted his offer. I went into the office to check out and he cleared the room for me. This is really a good guy right here. He didn't have to do any of that, and he did it without thinking twice.

Then we got to his house, and his Pippie took about an hour to warm up to my Scruff. About an hour into the visit, I looked behind where I was sitting and Pippie was sleeping in her bed, and Scruff was on the floor with their faces less than a foot apart. 2 mellow dogs. I couldn't tell if Pippie sensed that Scruff is blind or not, but he seemed to be kind of helping her find the potty spots outside and such.

This was in addition to a quick overview of the city should I choose to move down that way. And I might. Because....

You know how you really love Brussels sprouts because you have never had anything but Brussels sprouts, but then you try broccoli and when you go back to Brussels sprouts you realize they kind of suck? After spending time in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, then coming back to Ohio, I realized that Ohio really the Brussels sprouts of states. The weather here is awful 7 months a year, the roads, by comparison, are bad when compared to those southern states because they don't get the weather beating the roads up north get. With nobody here, why wouldn't I move? Even if I went to a place where I know absolutely nobody, the 4 friends I do have here I don't see that much and we communicate mainly via text and email. They can text and email if I am elsewhere, right?

So I am going to start doing more intense research about some southern areas. Even the places that are hot in the summer, well, I live inside NOW, so.....

Last edited by eddie1261; 02/06/19 10:25 AM.