Lily lily lily. Lily. Stop lunging and barking at cars Lily.

Please?

I need to take a week off from work and go to a dog and owner training camp.

Instead Lily and I put a couple miles on our shoes in the afternoons, then run through the woods with everybody else.

Rather than dealing with my life, I close the door on it, literally, and walk down to the truck to go to work.

That night a budget referendum finds me in the middle school gymnasium with thick varnish sitting like years and years of honey over a wooden floor. I remember eighth grade and the smell of the first day of school, when the halls and floors and gym all glistened and My hands and face were damp with fright.

Back in the middle school as the polls closed I learned the budget failed by 51 votes. Sorry I left you home for this one Lily! What's 51 votes? Not a margin or a sweep, not a gap. It's not even big enough to fit a piece of paper through it.

Lily, if we can scare up 52 friends and explain to them that for roughly the price of a large pizza per household, and maybe a large bottle of cola, we could have afforded the budget. Taxes hurt less than cuts.