I hope. I hope. I hope.

I'm having a slow day at work, so I'm livestreaming the NY State Senate proceedings, hoping that one more Republican senator will find it in his heart to do the right thing & give NY State marriage equality. I hope.

The NYS Senate vote is obviously getting a lot of news coverage today, including a nasty little poll from radio station WBEN in Buffalo. Four choices out of five allow you to express exactly WHY gay marriage is icky, & the fifth choice lets you say "Eh, whatever". Despite that in-built bias, look at the results! I hope.

And then someone linked this incredible video, made from a speech made by Harvey Milk. And I'm nearly in tears, here at my desk. What would Harvey Milk have become if he hadn't been gunned down? He saw things so clearly - not just for LGBT issues, but for all the "us's" out there. And the hopeful part is - gunning him down didn't shut him up. Didn't work on Martin Luther King Jr. either. Maybe decency, & equality, & love are things that can't be gunned down, not for long. I hope.

Muscle memory.

Wow, weirdest dog walk ever.

I just took Shadeaux out for her final trip outside tonight. She was wearing her harness & a leash, but I took her off-leash near the end of the trip so we could do some quick obedience work on sit-down-stay-come. She was in a down-stay, when suddenly she bolted past me.

She had spotted one of the Indian residents in our community, one of the guys who are just terrified of dogs. So I lunged at Shadeaux as she was accelerating past me, & I just managed to grab the strap of her harness that runs over her back. But she had so much momentum that she pulled me off my feet. When I felt myself falling, I leapt toward her, gaining enough energy that I rocketed over her. Maintaining my grip on her harness, I went into a near-perfect aikido roll. I rolled down my right arm, over my right shoulder, my back, my left shoulder, & slapped the lawn with my left arm. Unfortunately, this meant my right arm (still hanging onto Shadeaux's harness) had a ton of speed. Shadeaux whipped over me & flew right out of her harness. She flew a good ten feet & bounced another six before coming to a halt, looking astonished.

I clambered to my knees & said, "Shadeaux, COME." She tottered to her feet & came right to me. I put her harness back on her with shaking hands. I remembered the cause of the whole fracas & turned back around. No sign of Indian Neighbor Guy. Reviewing the whole situation from his point of view, it must have looked like I threw my dog at him. No wonder he ran....

I haven't been on an aikido mat since 1998, when I broke up with Daaaaave. I am frankly amazed that I remember how to do a forward roll. It was pure muscle memory.

Edit:: Here's a YouTube video showing a forward roll. Just put a dog in the sensei's right hand & you'll have a good idea of what happened on last night's walk.