Da Bears!

Two nights ago my wife was putting a check for our cleaning woman out under the mat on our front porch (our cleaning woman had forgotten to take it with her earlier in the week), when she called to me to come outside. I joined her on the porch where she nodded her head toward the street and said, "The bear is taking a walk." I looked across the street and, sure enough, a large brown bear was slowly sauntering down the street. We watched him or her for a minute or so before the bear veered off the street and disappeared in the brush across the street.

We don't have a swimming pool, but our neighbors who do have to contend with a couple of bears that love to swim at night. On Monday mornings some weeks a lot of us have to put our garbage back into our trash cans sitting at the curb as the bears walk down the street on Sunday nights and sample like it's a smorgasbord set out for their perusal.

I had a more intimate, more personal confrontation with one of the neighborhood bears about two years ago. Sometime soon I'll tell you all about it.