Scare me, bear

I'm sitting on my porch, writing this post, watching the river rippling by (in less than a month, the river will freeze and disappear beneath a blanket of snow). This is awesome, I think. In four years that we've lived here, this is the first time I've been able to get my router to work (it required a one hour phone call with my DSL provider and a very helpful young man who took control of my desktop and laptop) so that my laptop can connect online. But then, even more awesome, Kyra just dragged her purple plush Dora chair out onto the porch, carefully placed it next to mine, plopped herself in it, leaned back and said, "I sit down, too."

We don't say much to each other. We're enjoying the river, the brisk wind. I'm thinking, How cool is this? My daughter can finally hang out with me. She then, looks at me and points to my coffee cup, "MaMa, where's my drink?"

I tell her to go inside and ask her dad. Daddy, by the way, is on the couch watching football with Ethan (six weeks old). She returns with a plastic cup filled with juice (yes, daddy likes to spoil her), takes a long satsifying gulp, and places the cup inside my cup holder on my camping chair. Points to my coffee cup and says, "That's your juice." Then, she gives me very wet, juicy kiss!

Anyway, what Kyra really wants to do is run down our porch steps and play in the long grass, tearing up flower petals, collecting sticks and rocks. But this summer, we've had close encounters with three bears on our property. A grizzly strolled up our driveway and headed for the park behind our house on my birthday, June 27. That was the highlight of my bday. Unlike some of my friends who are petrified of bears, I moved to Alaska because I want to enjoy these magnificent creatures outside of a zoo. Around Ethan's birth, we spotted a black bear strolling down our driveway. Last Saturday, Thomas took Kyra to the park behind our house and they came home seconds later with Kyra screaming, "I go playground. Scare me, Bear." Thomas said that he was pumping up a basketball on the park bench when our neighbor's dog ran by barking and chasing something. Thomas looked over his shoulder and saw the backside of a grizzly not more than a few feet away. So, now we can't let Kyra play outside on her own. I suppose I understand why my friends are scared of bears. It doesn't help that there are headlines, such as "Attacks by Bears Put Anchorage on Edge" and this summer we have had several bear attacks in Anchorage.