I had known that the Washington State Senate had the 25 votes it needed to squeak [...]]]> I was in the kitchen preparing dinner and listening to the news on KUOW, our local NPR affiliate. G. went out to get firewood and when he came back in I was sobbing in the middle of the kitchen.

I had known that the Washington State Senate had the 25 votes it needed to squeak by with the majority, but this radio article at like 5:30pm announced that a 26th Senator had thought, and prayed, and despite the fact that it would make many of his friends hate him, he had decided that he must support SB 6239, the marriage equality bill. He did not have to — it would have passed without him — but he DID, and I started to cry. He didn’t have to but he did. He didn’t have to but he did, because it is the right thing.

It went to the vote tonight and I followed along via friend Genevieve’s Facebook — she was at the Capitol, watching — until suddenly Facebook exploded at just after 8pm, because the Washington State Senate passed SB 6239 with a 7-vote margin, at 28-21 — even better than the 26-vote clear win that set me to sobbing in the kitchen.

It goes to the House next, and the House is expected to pass it with no problem, and then to the Governor, who has said that she will sign it.

There will almost certainly be a voter initiative to repeal it, but I am hopeful that sense and love will prevail. Someone had some numbers on why it is OK to think that that is so, but I’m busy wiping my eyes and can’t find them now.

I have been abstaining from shampoo for several days now. G. didn’t notice and [...]]]> I have been getting some complaints (hi lagomorpho) about the lack of pictures in my posts. I will endeavor to fix that in cases where I am not just eating piles of neutrally-colored mush in a bowl (which is unfortunately often).

I have been abstaining from shampoo for several days now. G. didn’t notice and actually asked me recently if I had washed my hair since I gave it up. When I said yes, that was ten days ago, he said “huh, I guess it’s working then.” One interesting thing I’ve noticed is that my hair doesn’t so readily get that dent in the middle that happens when you put it up when it’s wet.

Anyway, the main interesting thing I’ve learned is that I have grey hairs coming in!! I wasn’t sure, because I first noticed at work, and the bathroom lights aren’t great, so when I got home I asked G. to check. He said “huh! Looks like you have highlights going all the way down to the root!”
… I haven’t had my hair highlighted (highlit? I hate this word) since like October.
I examined again later in the home bathroom mirror, and there they are! In the little tuft of hair that looks most like my mom, above my right temple, in the place that her hair goes crazy and mine does too, I have hairs going grey like hers first did too.

I’m kind of excited?

I mentioned that he had a scary episode that resolved itself. After that he started eating again mostly, but it was just a few — maybe six? weeks — before we noticed his appetite was declining and he was losing weight pretty severely. I blogged about [...]]]> So, I never said on this blog about Oscar.

I mentioned that he had a scary episode that resolved itself. After that he started eating again mostly, but it was just a few — maybe six? weeks — before we noticed his appetite was declining and he was losing weight pretty severely. I blogged about it over at the farm blog, which I figure if you read this blog you also read the farm blog, so you already know, but maybe you don’t. Oscar died at home with us, on his own terms, on June 26, 2011, and we are still very sad. I think we will be very sad for a long time. Oscar was an amazing, wonderful, one-of-a-kind dog.

I know everyone says this about their dog, but in this case it seems like everyone ELSE is saying this about THIS dog. People came out of the woodwork to say “I don’t really get dogs, but Oscar was a great dog” and “Oscar made me love dogs” (I’m one of those — he was such a gateway dog) and “I have had dogs forever, and that Oscar was some good dog.” etc.

G. had Oscar for about 11 years. I arrived when Oscar was about 5-ish. We went on an outing to the beach one time, when we (G. and I — Oscar was quite confident, as you will see) weren’t sure if we were on a date or not. It was all very awkward. We walked on the beach trails and then we sat down on opposite ends of a bench, because it was not-quite-a-date. G. was holding Oscar’s leash in his left hand, and I was sitting on the left side of the bench and G. was on the right side. Oscar assessed the situation, then casually walked around the bench to the left so that suddenly G.’s arm was behind me and basically around my shoulders, like G. had been a sneaky yawning teenager in a movie theater. At the time I thought “YOU TRAINED HIM TO DO THAT” and was kind of pissed, but I didn’t say anything out loud. I wasn’t able to verbally acknowledge that that had actually happened until we were at least a few weeks together, and I knew Oscar better. Then I figured out that it was all Oscar. He knew what he was up to, and he never did anything he didn’t want to.

When I was first on the scene, and I sat on one corner of G’s couch to watch tv, Oscar would sit and stare at me with big soulful eyes. I thought he was sad and envious that I had taken his spot on the couch. He did it when I sat at the kitchen table too. That took me a while to learn, too — that that was just Oscar. With the staring. He didn’t hate me. It was a loving staring. Oscar loved everyone.

Oscar had a really nice big neck scruff that you could put your whole face into. He had really soft ears, and spotty feets. He never licked you, and he would put his head on your lap and look at you with his big eyes. He would chase tennis balls, sometimes. He could fit Ruby’s whole head in his mouth, and did so regularly. When I got home from work and opened the gate, he would be so excited he would pounce on Ruby and make his wookiee noises, and then they would rassle. He didn’t like to come up on the couch much because he felt like he didn’t fit in the space he had, but sometimes he’d come up anyway so that we would be happy. We always gave him the dinner plate with more goodies (gravy, fat/meat bits, etc) than the one that Ruby got. He had a really fluffy tail and it went thump really loudly. You always knew when Oscar was happy, because of the thump.

It is pretty hard. There is a new kid, Fry, who will get his own blog post, and we love Fry, but it doesn’t make it less hard. I haven’t had to hasten myself to the bathroom at work in a few weeks, but a few times I’ve thought about it hard and decided to suppress. This whole thing is a first for me, and it really sucks a lot. I don’t really have a good conclusion to this but I guess it is its own conclusion. Life goes on for us without Oscar. It is sad and it is the way things go.

Each of those dark patches is a Great Blue Heron nest.

There were at least [...]]]> Today I learned where the Great Blue Herons nest on campus! The pics are kind of crappy because it turns out to be hard to take pictures of a bunch of dark blobs in a dark tree against a grey sky.

Each of those dark patches is a Great Blue Heron nest.

There were at least 12 nests, most of them either occupied or in the process of being built, with mom/dad actively swooping in with new twigs. I had no idea they nested in colonies like this, or that they would nest so far away from the water.