Bear Meets Bear

I took the little wieners for a pre-breakfast walk to the end of the road, this morning. We turned to head home and I saw a large, black outline crossing the road ahead. At first, I thought dog, however this figure did not exhibit the movements of a large, annoying black dog left to roam freely sans owner. No, its back was rounded and its legs slowly swung forward as it made its way to my adjacent neighbor's property.

I stopped.

"That's a bear!" I thought to myself. "No, it can't be. Yet, I surely know perfectly well that it could be a bear." I decided it was a bear. It was a bear. It was a bear.

Ok, now that that was established, I turned to call my dogs toward home, but stopped as I saw Marji taking a poo and decided to simply stop and think for a moment. "Do I really want to head in that direction without a bike and with two obstinate wieners following? Not really." Then, I thought I really had no choice unless I wanted to walk for two or three more hours around my large, country block. I could've cut across the back of my property, but that was clearly where the bear was heading, and even worse, that is where millions of ticks could reside. I headed straight for home. I also stopped to look for bear tracks, but I really didn't know where the bear crossed and it was difficult to find footprints on my gravel road.

The wieners and I made it safely home and curled up on the couch together to read the other half a novel we started the night before. Actually, I read the novel. Cori and Marji just slept, barked to go outside, stared at me, and ran toward the walls whenever the vicious squirrels ran across my wood siding.

Like a Pack of Wild Dogs

. . . or two dachshunds and two beagles.

I just got back from an interesting trip to Marquette. It was supposed to be a trip filled with sledding, snowshoeing, and biking, but sickness set in again. It turned into a weekend of severe sore throats and earaches.

It was severely painful!

I did get some sledding in, however. I went to Crook's Hill Saturday night for some socializing. On Sunday, I sled for an hour. The rest of my weekend was spent at my friend Sandee's house trying to ease the pain. We played a mean game of Monopoly with her daughter, Kortney, and took it pretty easy.

The following pictures are the highlights of the weekend.


Giant snowman at Crook's Hill next to the warming shack.


Owner Steve playing the trumpet for the sledders as Cleo sings along.


The upper gate of the sled hill/luge run. The hill is usually so fast that traditional sleds are not allowed from the upper gate. Snowpants, couch cushions, cardboard, and plastic bags are.


Marjoram, Blossom, Shiloh, and Coriander.


Coriander and Kortney sleeping on the couch.