On the way to church this morning I saw a bear. Yep. Right on the side of the road. He looked like he was sitting there munching on something....blueberries maybe? I slowed down and watched him as I went by. He looked at me and then slowly got up as I drove by. In my rear view mirror I saw him cross the road. No other cars behind me. It was an interesting sight to behold seeing this big black bear on all fours crossing a country road. Just me and the bear. Nobody else was around. A bit unusual to say the least. We were just talking about seeing bears the other day. Some see them almost daily. Not me. I see deer almost daily but not bears.
I heard a very loud coy dog right outside my living room window last night howling his head off. This happens from time to time and always around midnight. It's weird and very creepy. I'm always glad I'm in. I immediately check for the cat when this happens.
We had our VBS kickoff today. We do it up big. Really big. It really started weeks ago. We spent alot of time getting the church ready. Week by week the church slowly transforms into the theme that will be presented. This year it's a sports theme. We have everything imaginable from lockers to trophies to a hall of fame wall. One room is decorated in a football motif including green turf with white lines running down the whole room simulating a football field. Many of us dress up every year according to the theme. The order of the night tonight was visors, caps, whistles, jerseys and sneakers.
We do it for the kids. Every year we burn ourselves out. Every year we say "next year I'm taking off" and every year we come back and do it all over again. It's amazing all that gets done when we all put our heads together.
So today the church was packed. We almost ran out of chairs I found out later. Then at 4:30 we met back again for a potluck dinner with opening ceremonies to start at 6 pm. By 8:30 many happy kids were buzzing around. One down, four more to go. My part is recreation. So I have the fun stuff. I get to play games with the kids. I love to blow my whistle......ha! Nothing surprising there.
David got nabbed to play a goober on the stage as the worship team sang the songs. Every night we learn, with hand motions, two new songs. By the end of the week we're pretty good. So David's part I swear is to look foolish up there. He does it well. It's like he's trying to do the hand motions but he's seconds behind them trying to keep up with them. He comes by it easily. From what I understand he's comic relief. Ha! If that's what you call it.
Next week I'm going blueberrying with my gal friends like I do every year. Should I tell them my bear story? We will be deep in the woods where we have the best place to pick blueberries. We get there, look around and all we can see is blue. Everywhere. We sit down and just start picking. We usually pick enough to get us thru the long winter months. We make blueberry jam, muffins, pies and cakes. We've always wondered if we'd meet a bear someday, so we talk loudly on purpose and bang our pots occasionally as we walk into new territory. Just in case. You just never know.
All in a day's fun.