Do not stare into laser beam with one remaining eye

Before activation

After activation

Cats are dangerous, man.  Do not screw with them.  They will shoot you with fricking laser beams.  And don't try to take away their cigarettes.

I barely escaped with my life this morning.  Fricking lasers.

I came upon two relevant sentences today as I was searching my email.  I wrote them in 2003 in response to a coworker's message:

"While I like to shoot others, I respond poorly to being shot."

Pretty much sums up my feelings about violence.  But it does make me wonder exactly what was going on in our office.

This evening I bopped on out to see Pluto.  My back was being a little hinky and he wasn't being very helpful with standing by the new mounting block, so instead of riding I worked on ground tying and leading.  And on him not being a jerk.  (I had to get all up in his face after he bit me on my left lady lump.  Ow.)  It was fairly rewarding despite the not riding part.  It reminded me a lot of when I was teaching Playboy to heel, during the year that his back was healing from a bad fall.  Pluto's settled down enough to be able to pay attention, and he's cooperative enough to learn things that I actually want him to learn.  Probably also some things I don't want him to learn, but them's the breaks.

Tara confessed to being a bit nervous on Timber.  I think there was something in the air.  It was beautiful, though.  The moon was only a little past half full but intensely bright.  The air was still plenty warm, and the horses were galloping around in their pastures.  Walking around with a friend and our horses in the dark is a unique pleasure.  The darkness enhances all the smells and sounds.  Walking Pluto down to the arena, I was brought back to my earliest experiences leading horses in the dark.  I walked with a horse clip clopping beside me, and in the air the smells of dying leaves, freshly cut grass, and horse manure.  (Horse people like the smell of horse manure.  )  It reminded me of being a teenager in college, taking Oatmeal or Rollin out to the paddock after feeding.  In college, handling the horses was the simplest and most soul satisfying thing I did.  When I was doling out grain, leading a horse to his field, or cleaning a stall, I was at my most relaxed.  Being occupied with a definite physical task with a beginning and an end, and the reward of a horse nuzzle, was so much nicer than puzzling through physics problems or writing papers on the development of the steam engine.

When you use your brain a lot, (such as when you are in college), physical activity is the best way I know of to rest.  I guess if you don't use your brain a lot, you're free to sit on your butt.