My Bad Bear...

    ...... is bad because he looks more like a Animal Cracker bear or maybe part African Lion  instead of a real bear. I don't know what's wrong but in my own defense I haven't made a bear in a decade or more. They'll get better, I hope. The thing is that each piece has to have an essential Bear-ness or Dophin-ness , whatever it is. And this bear doesn't have it.  Yet.

     Which reminds me of a funny bear story , well, funny or scary depending entirely on the soundtrack that's running. On a spring night a few years ago at around 9 at night my brother Jaimie was sitting with our mother when they heard a tapping on the window. They assumed it was Bhindi jumping up on the sill, that's how she would tell people she wanted in. So Jaimie goes outside , closes the door behind him and starts to say something like "hey , Bhindi-Boo " and Bhindi turns around and IT"S NOT BHINDI IT'S A BEAR. AARGHH !!!! Three feet from him ! and in order to get back inside he has to go toward the bear in order to open the door and get back inside. Well, it all goes downhill from there , probably swearing, crockery was thrown , I'm sure the bear was shocked. But nobody died. The bear ran off and Jaimie was scarred for life bear-wise, emotionally not literally luckily. And the whole thing was my fault because the bear was trying and succeeding at getting at a bird feeder that I had left up through winter. Moral of the Story , don't do that. You'll get bears. Not really a problem here in Staunton but still you never know.

My Day on the Lake.....

    ........went fast.  I went down to my big brother Jaimie and sister-in-law Joyce's house and communed on Smith Mountain Lake with Joyce's family and my sister Mary and brother-in-law Jeff.  The traffic had slowed down out on the lake so Jaimie and Sassy ( Jaimie and Joyce's GoldenRetriever ) and I were able to go jet-skiing, which is one of my most favorite things to do.  You wouldn't know it to look at me but I like speed.  Anyway, I was thinking , because I think things like this.  I wonder if Jaimie thinks it's funny that the "baby" , ( that's me, the 43 year-old baby) is following him on a jetski ?  Possibly I say this because when I left , Mary and Jaimie said the usual, be careful , watch out for cops-see above about speed, don't pick up hitchhikers, don't take candy from strangers etc.  So it may be when I'm 80 I'll still be the "baby". And that's just fine.