Please, Bear With Me…

August 9, 2012 ~ JodiLea ~ 1 Comment

Black Bear sitting on tree stump While I freak out!

I looked out my dining room window this morning and choked on my coffee. I was afraid to move or make any sound. I figured if I could see out my glass dining room, he could see in. Not that I wanted to jump up and get it, but I still have not found my damn camera. We all know it’s in that #$%&@! box..

This photo, taken through a window screen, with my iPhone, as I am shaking, is the only proof I have for my argument: there ARE bears in these woods! An argument I didn’t particularly want to win, nevertheless, being right is always such a rush for me. (I can’t help this, it’s genetic -ask any McGuire.)

Why, oh why, didn’t I order that bear repellent I saw online? I listened to hubby’s opinion that it was a crock, and there was “no such thing as bear repellent”, – that’s why. This is the same man who told me “it hardly ever snows in Arnold”. And yet I’m still listening to him… Just one example of how love makes you stupid.

After staring through the window for five minutes, I began to suspect Mr. Bear was asleep. He was not moving around, or taking any notice of the occasional man-made noises. Does a bear meditate in the woods? I made a mental note to Google search on bears, as soon as I was free to move.

Speaking of moving – I have to risk it because I seriously have to pee (More like PEE). I quietly roll out of the chair and on the carpet. On all fours, the wall hides me from view and I make it to the guest bathroom in time.

My guess is that Mr. Bear is a Black Bear. Black Bears are vegetarians, who like to meditate (apparently). Unlike their carnivore cousins, the Grizzly Bears. I would bet money Grizzlies don’t meditate in the woods, or anywhere else.

Regardless, when I crawled back to the dinning room and peeked out the window, Mr. Bear was gone. I kept an eye out for him all day, but didn’t see him.

Whew!

The Big Move: Day 2

August 1, 2012 ~ JodiLea ~ 4 Comments

Saturday, July 21st – The Big Day

After the moving truck left, we locked up and drove our heavy laden vehicles to the mountains. My car was weighed down with books, files, a large ice-chest, loaded suitcases, and my precious computer, Hercules, and all his peripherals. My poor little Honda does not like going uphill with just me inside, so me + another ton went uphill about as fast as a pot-smoking snail.

Hubby, up ahead driving his Big Ass Truck with lots of horsepower, has no clue how frustrated and irritated I am becoming. Add the 99° F temperature to this equation, along with severe nicotine cravings courtesy of The Bitch, and I am approaching lift-off.

We beat the moving truck up the mountain. I wanted to relax and simply enjoy being here, before the movers arrived, but all Hell broke loose instead.

We heard a helicopter approaching, then two of them circled over the forest area. I thought that they were either hunting down fugitives or part of an Air Show. One of my new neighbors clued me in. The helicopter’s were “spotters”, searching for small fires splitting off from the main fire. Fire??? Next on the scene would be the small planes called “dumpers” or “bombers”. These would make repeated runs over the fire, dumping fire-retardant or water, depending on the circumstances. Neighbor Lady was very knowledgeable, but I had lost touch with what she was saying because my brain was too busy with There is a FIRE and it’s burning in the forest next to my new house!!

If you think I’m being over dramatic, this article is from the County’s website :

Fire Update….Vegetation Fire on Forest Service Land Behind Arnold
Posted by: John_Hamilton on 07/21/2012 04:51 PM

Sheep Ranch CA…Crews are responding to a vegetation fire on Mountain Ranch Road and Armstrong Road. This is a full wildfire response including all aircraft from Columbia. More to follow…..Update as of 5:35pm…This fire is actually closer to Arnold than Mountain Ranch on USFS property. The good…fire is still small and doesn’t seem to be spreading much. The bad is that this fire is in heavy fuels. Update as of 5:51pm…Initially the responding engines were accessing off of Sheep Ranch Road. Now they are rerouting engines around White Pines Lake and take Manuel Mill behind Arnold. Update as of 6:13pm…ground units have been on scene for a few minutes. One of the tankers has been released and Helicopter 404 is refueling now and Tanker 82 will probably be released as soon as 404 returns to the fire. Unless something drastically changes they should be able to get this knocked down as soon as the additional ground units arrive. Update as of Sunday Morning…We checked in with the TCU Command Center and the fire was held to less than an acre. In the photos below, the one on the right was taken at 6:55pm last night and you could already tell the plume was significantly reduced…

Forest Fire

Fire Out

Thank you, Mother Nature, for that warm welcome.

Got Valium?

July 1, 2012 ~ JodiLea

Forget the milk.

I spent the past week trying to get through 954 emails that had piled up in my mail box at work, during the 2 weeks I was out. I scheduled a meeting with our department’s top management to formally give them my retirement date (July 19th). Only 13 more working days to go – and I can’t stop smiling!

At home there isn’t nearly as much smiling. So much to go through and weed out – still! Haven’t I been doing this for months? Not much sorting got accomplished last week – too busy interviewing moving company’s and trying to make up my mind how much packing we could reasonably do on our own to save money.

I put our old office furniture and the rolling cabinet for the microwave up for grabs on Craig’s List. So far not many queries. I probably did it wrong (this was my maiden voyage). I may have to find a charity that will pick up furniture.

To make the week more interesting, I got a call from my doctor’s office about test results that came back “positive” – which, unfortunately, is negative news. Now I must have a more invasive test that will put me out of commission for 1.5 days to overrule or confirm the earlier test. Like I have time for this …

Surprisingly, I am not freaking out. In fact, life has been so f#$%@!g crazy around here that I’m actually looking forward to it. I will be heavily medicated for the test, and that sounds soooo wonderful to me now….

Medications

photo credit: Robert S. Donovan via photo pin cc