My hips hurt.

At noon today it was absolutely beautiful outside. I looked down at Cricket and asked her if she would prefer to enjoy it working on the new garden or going for a good long walk?

We hooked her up to her leash and headed down the street with the poop bag.

Off we went, headed toward the lake. I wanted to walk by the beach as I haven't been that way in quite a while. Once we got there, I decided to take the path along the shoreline from the beach to the marina. We got about 1/4 of the way around the point when I started to wonder if I might stumble across any of the "drunken town folk" that prefer these little off the beaten path places hidden by the little stretchs of woods we have here and there. I was trying to decide how I would handle the situation when I noticed a strange looking barefoot footprint in the mud on the path. I stopped there to stare at this rather large, weirdish-shaped print, and while multi-tasking my brain over this new puzzle and at the same time, the old one of how to handle a very possible meeting of a bum, I saw a branch a few feet above me snap back into place out of the corner of my eye.

I instantly imagined a bird as I whipped my head around to see what it was before it flew off and my heart jumped up the back of my throat. I was facing a black bear about 7 feet away.

He wasn't very big, and he looked pretty freaked out himself, but I wasn't wasting any time getting to know him. I think I said "Hello." and I casually sauntered away down the trail with my eyes on my caboose and made a lot of noise until I found the first way back up to the street above. I am sure Cricket never noticed him at all because if she did, she would certainly have barked. I am really glad she didn't as that could have turned a nice walk into a horrible, horrible day.

I saw quite a few other tracks along the trail as I put as much distance between us as I could, but those ones looked like bear tracks were supposed to look like. The first one I saw looked almost exactly like a human footprint but like the foot was very flat. There was no indentation like a human footprint has.

My heart has settled down now, but my hips are sore from the long walk.

Hey y'all!!

It's that time again. I am willing to take on the family Christmas gift exchange organizing this year. You have until October 11th to make your wishes, demands, hopes, dreams, budgets known to me.

If I don't hear from you, I will decide EVERYTHING for you. This may be what you want, if so, just wait until Oct 12th and I will let you know what you are doing. IF NOT, you must let me know by Oct 11th. You can email me (preferred method on my end) you can phone me (good luck, you might not actually reach me by October 11th, but go ahead and try) or you can send me a letter.

If you put your plans in the letter and include a $5.00 cdn bill, you will absolutely get your way, whatever it is. I GUARANTEE IT.

If I have 2 or more plans submitted with conflicting requests, the one with the most money wins.

THIS IS THE ONLY NOTICE YOU WILL GET

Sincerely yours,
Monarch