Wednesday, February 29, 2012

[Mostly] Wordless Wednesday & I've Been Tagged!

I was tagged by Jeremy over at Geeky Tendencies. Jeremy is participating in the A-to-Z Challenge, and has been a great proponent, helping us get the word out. He also answered the Getting to Know You questions we co-hosts are answering for the A-to-Z, which was great fun! You'll find my answers to his questions below the [Mostly] Wordless Wednesday photos.

A friend recently announced she was moving into our area, and she mentioned that someone had told her she might see bears and deer. That made me laugh, because of course she will see them! This area's lousy with them! And I'm sort of missing hearing about sightings of mamas and their cubs around here, so how about a pic of a couple bears in my parents backyard. Well, they were in the neighbor's tree, but I got a call from my dad, who knew how much I wanted to get pics of the local wildlife (I'm sure mom was none too delighted with him giving me the opportunity), saying he'd had a run in with a bear and her cub, and that they were still out there if I wanted pics. (This is far from mostly wordless...sowwy). He had let their dogs out for a night time potty break and they'd gone berserk. It should be said those vicious little ruffians are some manner of tiny terrier. But they think they're tough. Dad walked down to figure out what they were barking at, looked up in the tree and saw bear booties. Yeah, he was standing right below the mama bear and her cub.

Only there wasn't one cub, which we didn't realize until I blew up the picture at home. She had a couple cubs with her. See if you can spot cub number two (we discovered there was a third, too, but I don't think it was in that tree).


"Hey, Ma, why's that crazy human standing there pointing some little black thing at us?"


"I don't know, Honey Bear. Humans are weird. I'll never understand them. Just ignore it."

Now for my tagging, the request is to answer the following questions:

1. What is your dream vacation?
Really, anywhere I can drag my camera and my family and have fun with both. I'd love to go to Australia, Egypt, England, Scotland, Yellowstone.

2. Are you spontaneous or do you like to plan ahead?
Uhhh...both. Maybe it's my ADHD, but I'm either a "plan well in advance and get all excited about something that may or not happen, despite the fact that I have it thoroughly planned" kinda' girl or a "I'm bored, let's go do this RIGHT NOW" kinda' girl. Either way, I'm sure I drive people nuts. When we schedule a vacation, for instance, I have it researched a year (or more) in advance.

3. Tell us one thing you want to do but don't dare do it.
Participate on Wipeout. It looks like fun. I have severe back and neck issues, though, and I don't see that show going well at all for my physical health. Pretty sure my Physical Therapist would smack me if I even suggested it.

4. What's your biggest phobia?

Sheesh, all I can think about is the one that Jeremy said (waking up in the middle of a surgery), but I can say I am freaked out by the thought of being on a boat in the middle of, say, the ocean. I feel like there's not much you can do for yourself should your ship go down, and I'm all about having an escape plan. My husband wants to go on a cruise to Alaska. I asked him if he'd like to watch Titanic again. I mean, we're going up there in the choppy Pacific to see ICEBERGS. Are you kidding!?

5. If you were stranded on a desert island-what three things would you want with you? (Not including your laptop or family)
I actually sort of hate this question, because...I don't bloody know! A water filtration system, tampons and my contacts? Because I can't see without those darned things. And, well, I'm not going to explain the other two. If you don't get it, you never will!

6. Name three blessings in your life.
My husband and my two children. I've got the best husband ever, and both of my babies are miracles; I wasn't supposed to be able to have them. :D I would call that a blessing, wouldn't you?

7. What was your nickname in High School?
I didn't really have one in H.S. unless you count my siblings calling me Sissy or one single friend calling me Non (which I explain in my Getting to Know You post on March 8th on the official A-to-Z Challenge blog.)

8. If you could meet the President of the United States, what would you say to him?
I imagine some people would have plenty of things to say to him, whether positive or negative, but, at this point, I'd just say hello.

9. If you could be any literary character, who would you be?
Oh man, I forgot that I meant to be thinking about this after I originally saw the question. I mean, I'm pretty happy being me. So the literary character I would be would be whichever one never has pain and whose life is just perfect. Is there one like that?

10. What is your favorite quote?
Anne Frank: "In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart." If that child, in that situation, can be so wise, hopeful and optimistic, everyone should be able to.

What do you think the bears are discussing in those photos? Care to answer any of these questions for me? How about your favorite quote or what literary character you'd want to be? Feel free to take these questions and run with them, but be sure to let me know you answered them, too, so I can stop by!

May you find your Muse.

7 comments:

M.J. Fifield said...

We have bears in my neighborhood too. One ate my herb garden. I never replanted it.

I loved your answer to the desert island question.

Andrew Leon said...

It seems to me that Bilbo had a pretty good life.

Rebecca said...

bears oh my

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I think you'd be safe in a big boat on a cruise. Safer than driving your car, remember?
And those bears really were in your backyard? Whoa...

Sarah Tokeley said...

I love that your parents have bears in their backyard - and that I can admire them from a very long distance :-)

Anonymous said...

Wow. The most we get in our yard is raccoons and deer.

That is a great quote!

Shannon Lawrence said...

M.J., I'm lucky in that they haven't eaten any of my garden before. The rabbits and birds on the other hand...

Ah, Andrew, good answer! You're right; he was very content.

Becca, we have lions (mountain lions), but no tigers!

Alex, oh I know the stats! And I've been involved in a fatal car accident (passenger), shudder. In fact, I've been in two car accidents. I think my problem is the lack of control on a plane or boat, yet I have no problem flying, so I give up on analyzing myself. ;-p

Sarah, indeed! They're mostly harmless, but my parents back up to a park, so they see more of them than I do.

Jeremy, I don't believe I've ever seen a raccoon, which is odd, eh? I know we have them...