The bear went over the mountain..

Well, the bear went over the road? Catchy tune? WE SAW THE BEAR AGAIN! Jessalyn and I had to go and deliver something in Warrens and were just getting ready to pull out onto the road from the driveway, when she started yelling Bear! Bear! Sure enough, there he was walking from the opposite side of the road over to our side about 200 feet away. We sat and watched him as I tried to call Will on the cell phone, so that he could bring the camera. He of course did not hear his phone because he was under the tub trying to fix the drain, that had decided to crack adding to the stress of his last post. I digress.

Since he did not answer, I left Jessa in the car and ran pretty dog gone fast into the house (I didn't even fall! Huge accomplishment for Mrs. Non-graceful). When I got into the house, I was yelling at the top of my lungs "BEAR! GET THE CAMERA!!!!" I didn't even look back to see if Will was coming, I knew he was. I grabbed the camera and ran for the car. He was right behind me. I almost tossed him the camera, ordered him to get into the back seat and turn the camera on (man am I bossy in sometimes) and away we went. Jessa had been watching and he had crossed back over the road again. So there we were looking into the dense woods for him. We drove slow, backed up, drove forward, backed up again, etc for about 5 minutes when Will tried to take a picture of what we thought was the bear, the camera's battery died. Great! The stupid things rule again.

Back to the house for batteries. Will ran in this time. Much more graceful than I am, even if he was in slippers. Back down the road we go...pull forward, back up....when all of a sudden Jessa's yelling "BEAR, BEAR" again. Here we are looking off to our right and slightly behind us and the dumb thing walks out onto the road in front of us, 100 feet away or so. I was slightly gratified by my husband's comments then. Up until now, I felt like a whimp by being so overwhelmed by this bear and the instant awe/fear it has caused me (ok, panic), but Will took it all in stride with a "holy cow" and a few other choice descriptive words. The line comes to me from the John Candy movie "Big Bear! Big, big Bear".

So....the chase was on!!! We drove down to take his picture with Will frantically turning buttons on, etc. Of course this is a digital camera and there is no hurry in them. By the time the thing cooperated, the bear was so far into the woods that we could see him, but it was not a clear picture. If fact after he downloaded them, they are actually pictures of black lumps in the woods. Part of me hopes the thing is gone but part of me hopes he comes around again, just so that we can get a picture of him. We assume it's a "HE" because there are no little ones in tow, but that could just mean that there were no available "he man bears " around. Anyway, it was a little excitement for our little family. Poor Jake he got off the bus just as we were pulling back into the yard after te chase.

We went to Jacob's final choir concert of the year last night. Really, really good. We are so proud of the boy. His choir teacher is gone after this year and we are so sad about it. She is a great teacher and has taken a group of boys with no training and made them into a fine choir. We will miss her next year.

School is winding down here. Jessa's on a safety patrol trip today to Wisconsin Dells. Water parks etc. Can you say sun burn? I send sun block, but you know the story...."I forgot" or the water washed it away. Jacob used it on his trip, but forgot to put it on his back because he could not see his back. I'm going to ask Jessa to wear a shirt over her suit.

I took the day off to try to find myself. I had a 6 hour meeting yesterday for Cranfest as well as this whole last week and the rest of this week is devoted to helping Jessalyn with her Social Studies project. She is building Independence Hall and it requires two sets of hands at least to hold things etc.
Bills and shopping this morning, with painting in the apartment this afternoon. Peggy went out of town on vacation and Amanda is working, so it is a perfect time for me to get in and finish the taping and painting in the apartment. Will wanted me to write a whole list of the things that I am doing right now for you, but I think that if I did, someone would send me to a "loonie bin". Let's just say that I need 12 more hours in the day and the energy to work all 12.

Working in my flower beds tonight. I think that is one of the things that helps to keep me sane or at least as close to sane as I get. I love to just sit there and pull weeds, enjoy the weather and watch my hummingbirds. Simple things. Air, dirt and nature. Does it get any better?

Been thinking about planning a hiking, camping adventure where we would only use what we could carry in back packs. I'm not so sure how the rest of the family would feel about it and since I try to be prepared for every instance when we camp, it would be difficult for me to pick and chose. All in all though, I think it might be a great experience. Have to think some more about it.

Have a great day!
dea