Sophia - would you at all be interested in text-banking? I ask because it is nice to have interactions with strangers who are in agreement. Also to have pre-written responses for the angries. It is helpful to me to just click a button and reply - "Thank you for your time" or "I am sorry that I have bothered you. Do you have any questions about election/candidate?" or "I can remove you from our list if you'd like." - all the while knowing that I am helping clean up engagement lists for Dem candidates and getting a few people involved that might otherwise not be.

Saw a picture of a bear on FB this morning, which prompts me to share a wacky mountain life story from this week. Note, it ends well.

So, earlier this week a friend posts a picture of a 19 year old woman who had gone for a jog, as was her habit, at 7PM and never returned home. Search parties and so forth. The next morning she is found making her way back. She was running a trail and inadvertently came between a mama bear and her cubs. Mama was not pleased and she panicked and climbed a tree. (Seriously bad move as bears can climb trees) The bear was in sight until dark so she stayed in the tree all night until she could see in the morning. 12 hours she hung out in the tree!! She was cold and exhausted and rescue folks took her to hospital to get checked out, but she is fine.

Anyway, I can only imagine what was happening in that girl's mind all night. Yikes. Also, for the record, if this happens to you, you are supposed to put your hands up and very slowly back away in the direction you came to let mama know you didn't intend to intrude.

Wow yeah, she got lucky but omg poor girl. All night in a tree!!!

This dog y'all. Slept from 10-4! But then up at 4,5,6...didn't want to go back to sleep after 5....barks his head off and I don't want the neighbors to hate me....

I've tried a couple different noise making bark deterrents. They kinda work, but it never stopped Skinner from starting to bark. One was a hand held noise thing that let out a blast, which was as annoying for the people as the dog. The 2nd one I tried was a collar that has 3 settings, first is a noise which is annoying to the dog, but not loud enough to disturb the general peace, next is a vibration which also annoys the dog, then is a shock which can be set at a whole range of powers. I only needed to use the noise and vibration. Much like the electric fence collars that first signal noise, then vibration, then shock, except this is manual. They also have automatic ones, but I never liked those in theory. I combine the noise/vibration with the command 'enough' to differentiate from the generic no.

I go back to work tomorrow, vacation over. I didn't really do anything and the last two days kind of went by in a kind of daze. M's mom is back. So the house is loud again, I miss how nice it was with just the two of us.

My brother and some 2nd cousins had a bear encounter. At some point when they were .. I want to say one summer in high school but I can't remember exactly when it was..at least when my brother was still in high school they decided to go hike along the Appalachian Trial and the plan was for them to get dropped off, the cousins' parents would then go and vacation and meet up with them at some designated point.

What happened is a couple of days into their hike they stopped at a shelter and had their stuff outside, one cousin was napping out there and all the sudden a bear showed up-- my cousin ran into the shelter and they stayed their while the bear tore threw and ate all of their food etc and destroyed their packs and stuff.

So then they had to hike back to the closest point where they could find a phone to call and arrange to be picked up.

I think their 2 week adventure ended up lasting like 5 days total.

I went to my first public event in forever last night, a small showing of Next to Normal that my crush was the male lead in. Quarters were closer than I'd have liked, but everyone was good about wearing masks and the person nearest me was a friend whose restaurant I buy take-out from, so if he's got the 'rona I'm screwed regardless. It was really enjoyable, the leading lady was great and sang her heart out on some of those songs.

In a weird coincidence it turned out to be my crush's birthday, so asking him if he had any plans after the show was a non-starter. But hey, I still got to see him in his underwear (along with the rest of the audience).

Woo for cutie underwear sighting!

My dad had a bear encounter when he was a kid. There were wild blueberries near the farm, and Dad went out to pick some. He saw a black bear eating them and decided the bear wanted them more than he did.

Well M's mom is back home so we are back to tvs constantly going and phone calls on speaker phone.

I didn't realize how much more relaxed I am around with it quiet until it's gone.