Since I can’t show you Emily’s X-ray, here’s a view of the car that went splat.

Emily the Dog (as she is known at the pharmacy which filled her prescription for doggie-Valium) has broken a toe. I wish I had her X-ray to post here (it’s a really well-done break. I think the E-dog believes that anything worth doing is worth doing thoroughly) but failing that, I offer the afflicted pup in her new splint. The lovely tech at the vet not only put her in a red cast, but put (you can just see it in the photo) a little pink heart on the front. Puir wee doggie an aw’.

Okay, so it wasn’t The March on Washington, but today, my friends and neighbors stood together to try and stop the Biggest Retailer On The Earth from shoving a 24/7, 227,000 square-foot monstrosity down the throat of our neighborhoods.

We showed up and made a circle a mile long around the location where Wal-Mart wants to install its “super center.” (A fabulously oxymoronic designation if there ever was one.) More than 2,500 people showed up on this cold, grey morning. There were old people, middle-aged farts like us, children, dogs (though I’m pretty sure the dogs were in it solely for the butt sniffing), and the assorted Austin-weird.

It was a thing of beauty.

Yes, I know this isn’t the same as protesting the war, or a civil rights march, or any other kind of demonstration having to do with the larger things in life. However, after hearing so many people tell us we couldn’t fight Wal-Mart because, well, they’re Wal-Mart, it was a very satisfying, “Screw you.”

Sven, Krista, Bob, Maureen, Bud, Barb, and Brad came with me and The Dude to the protest. I really appreciated this as they don’t have a dog in this fight. None of them live near us, so this development won’t affect them directly. But in true Breakfast Bunch style, they showed up. Maybe it was for the kolaches. (Bribery is a potent weapon in rabble rousing.) Maybe it was for the idea. Whichever, I am deeply grateful they came along.

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