The Plague Diaries Day 85: So Much for Tom's Bird Feeders

Meanwhile, so much for the bird feeders:

Luckily Mom & Dad were volunteer park rangers in Katmai national park in Alaska. They trained park visitors how not to be idiots and get eaten by big-ass brown bears. My family expresses their enthusiasm and guesses our young friend's age:

I don't know about your general impression of the above, but it doesn't appear that anyone is overly concerned with our safety. 

I guess when you've been eyeball to eyeball with an honest to God Alaskan Grizzly Bear, you gain some perspective. Mom tells these stories about catching a salmon on a fishing pole and reeling in a fish attached to gaping bloody bear jaws. 

The most motherly concern we got is when Mom manages to work in the first rule from her park ranger training spiel: "Do not surprise a bear." We now have to look both ways before we stick a foot out the door. 

Photo Credit. There aren't any Brown Bears around here
so we don't have a rap song.

I think this rule might be included in Dad's "Bear Safety Rap." Yes, in his park ranger days, he made up a literal rap about bear safety. I kind of remember a verse fingerwagging ix nay on the bear urprise-say. Dad is a former educator who understands if you set the rules to music, people remember them better. Before you ask, yes, Dad wrote the rap himself. And yes, it's an actual rap. 

Here's another view of the culprit:

If I had known the bear was going to yank Tom's bird feeder right down from the tree branch, I would have forged the hook out of 1/2" steel bar instead of 1/4." Maybe 1" for Chrissakes. Live and learn.

We asked the neighbor if he happened to see our missing bird feeder rolling around in their yard. Ha ha. Unlikely. The bear took their bird feeder too. He's been busy. I wonder where his stash of bird feeders is.