Dog-piphany

It was Very Long, that Election Day, one where many of us were probably tuned into at least three time zones much of the time. Holding breath for too long, then remembering to force ourselves to exhale.

The evening hours were too early yet to be celebrating, making plans, or drawing sweeping conclusions. But we eventually passed that chronological threshold of pain experienced two years ago when, after being cheered by exit polls, we suddenly found clueless and useless mainstream media types trying to sell us on and make excuses for a shocking turnaround. That didn't happen last night - perhaps partly because this was no one-candidate event.

It's interesting to contemplate that aside from the expected and therefore relatively low-impact event of the Hussein sentence there was no really major Oct/Nov surprise. No Iran invasion. No trumped-up or wholly faked thwartings of terrorist chewing-gum attacks or such. No Bin-laden head on a pike. No code fluorescents.

Instead, it seems to have been the case that caring people, at least dubious of the administration's claims that thousands, never mind hundreds of thousands of deaths are necessary to save little george's face and pride have made a statement at the voting booths. We have comparatively generous control of the House, and late today marginal takeover of the Senate seemed almost certain as well. This is a dream most of us committed to facing reality as straight-on as we can stand on a daily basis would not previously have admitted to.

Late yesterday, after hours of growing tension punctuated with gotv calling, no actual feedback, and predictable internal turmoil, I decided it was time to indulge new running shoes, leading to minor bit of kismet that in hindsight briefly evoked that butterfly action in Beijing that mythically triggers major events in Mississippi or something. Well actually sort of the reverse of that. This wonderfully joggled my gray matter into a state quite different from the dulled condition caused by phone-slavery into one much more receptive to the flashflood of election reporting I'd be experiencing in the next few hours.

I'd already salved conscience by walking dogs. Both walk and run had to be closely scheduled around meteorology that had me seeking analogy for move to Chicago (a la Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks") appropriate to Seattle area. To be complete, my mythical destination had to involve not only avoiding deluge conditions (most rivers here projected to flood over the next several days - hard to fathom when tidewater is rarely more than 50 miles away), but also, per my take on song, better economic conditions. That latter is high standard if one is to stay in the NW. For purpose of exercise, we designated Spokane as high dry ground.

In short, dry windows for walks and runs yesterday were few.

Run started with me clumbering (as in spaniel of the same name) up a few hundred feet of elevation from our house and striking out for neighborhood that abuts a park. This was a bit of a stretch as last few runs have never exceeded 2-3 miles. I connected up with woodland trail inside park, seeking more leisurely saunter back to pavement with inspection for fungi as chance to catch breath. Suddenly I was overtaken by a wonderfully cute and energetic puppie, more or less the size of our small spaniels, but quite short-haired. He was not over-friendly but was conspicuously glad to meet up with me. I was able to make tactile by stopping, squatting, and calling. We made friends. Troublingly, no sign of other humans.

Dog headed on, looking back over shoulder. What was I to do but suspend walk and jog to keep up? So much for mushrooms. We did that for a bit, occasionally together, mostly with dog a ways ahead. When we reached pavement and my new friend felt need to shame me by picking up pace I began to worry about whether I was to be accompanied (ok, preceded) all the way home. Luckily, just as desperattion was setting in, with nary a human in sight, a resident pulled into driveway and agreed to tend pup while I returned to trail. Not too far back I encountered walker of two other dogs, out of breath and a little desperate after having chased up trail wondering where third had gone. Happy reunion ensued.

Now maybe if I'd not been there (or that butterfly had kept wings still) the dog would not have vamoosed. But I'm happier with the way it worked out - although it took several of us to put the pieces back together. My new friend was only a few months old, despite the confident swagger and run-ahead style he displayed. I can't really imagine that given how curious and mobile he was that it would have been easy to track him down as the light dwindled. Neighborhood resident certainly was a critical part of this. I was not comfortable abandoning pup even if he would have allowed it.

Euphoria from getting this little puzzle solved gave me a great kick-start for aerobic end to project that no longer really fit in category of "run."

Just a premonition of how things were going to be getting better with other parts of the universe as events last night unfolded. Connections and collaboration. The Ecology, you know. Taking care of each other.