The bear has now been seen out by the Grand Rapids airport.  I guess the bear is moving into the high rent district.

The bear went over the mountain.  Or, at least, that is what it seems.

A bear sighting was reported in Lowell yesterday.  But, the question is did the Greenville bear move 15 miles south or is this another bear?  Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter as we now have a bear in the area.

I wonder if we will see an increase in the number of missing pet posters?

For years, the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) has denied that there were bears in the area.  And even videos of the animals were dismissed with skepticism.  Then last fall, one was hit and killed on the expressway in Grand Rapids.

Just last night, a bear was spotted and videotaped in Greenville.  The DNR was called but again, I guess they were skeptical as they were not prepared to deal with the animal.  After several attempts to scare it off, they decided to tranquilize it.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have the equipment that they needed and so they left to get it.  The bear, on the other hand, got tired of waiting for the DNR to return and decided just to leave.

So, now we still have a bear loose in the area but the DNR is offering advice on what to do if you should happen to encounter the animal.

Well OK!  I know that I feel better.

I like to check out audio books from the local library.  I listen to them when I am out walking.  In fact, listening to books is my incentive for walking.  So, I make sure that the books that I check out are worth while.

When I check out books, the library allows me 3 week to complete them.  At the end of 3 weeks, I can renew them for another 3 weeks.  And, given the length of the book and the amount of time I spend walking, it takes me about 6 week to finish a book.

Well the other day, I checked out a murder mystery that was absolutely captivating.  So, when my first 3 weeks were up, I was eager to renew it.  But, when I called the automated renewal line, the machine told me that I could not renew the book.

Rats!  I was only half finished with the book and it was a good story.  So, my first thought was to just keep the book and pay any fines that I might incur.  But, my conscience got the better of me.  After all, my actions would be unfair to the other users of the library.

Maybe I could just return the book in the morning and then check it out again in a few hours.  But then again, maybe I could return it and then check it out again immediately.  Why wait?

When I arrived at the library, I took my plan one step further.  What if I just rescan the book on the automated system?  Would it renew me automatically?  So, I gave it a shot and it worked!  I now have my book for another 3 weeks and didn’t have to worry about being a social misfit for not returning my book on time.

A Russian airplane manufacturer was trying to sell their product to Indonesia.  Unfortunately, the airplane crashed during the demo flight killing all 47 people on board.

I suspect that sales of this product are going to be really slow in the future.

It was just over a year ago that my car was totaled from a rear end collision.  It seems like it was just yesterday.  Every time that I look at the pictures, I am amazed that I was not hurt.  I thank that I was able to walk away unharmed.

I miss Kathy, my wife, very very much.  I am adjusting to coming home to an empty house.  I am adjusting to eating by my self.  I am adjusting to maintaining the house.  But, when I stay up late listening to music at night, I keep expecting Kathy to come down the stairs and tell me to go to bed.  I haven’t adjusted to that.

No, this is not a Clint Eastwood movie.  But, it was a very real event many years ago.

It seems that one of the local residents decided to install an in-ground swimming pool.  And this pool, was the very first private body of water to be installed in the community.

Now, the community had a lake just down the road so the community was unsure as to why anyone needed their own private body of water. But, more to the point, that pool was going to be a death trap!!

“A death trap! A death trap I tell you!”.  That was the mantra of the residence.  Teens to toddlers were going to find their way into that pool and drown!

Each day the perceived body count would grow.  It went from 1 to 10 to 100 to the entire community to the surrounding communities.  They were all going to die.  Fence or no fence, it didn’t matter.  That pool was a death trap.

There were even those who were circulating a petition to close the pool.  But, to no avail.  The pool remained open but no one, repeat, no one died in the pool.

Sorry, Lake Odessa.

I have some spammers who think that ????? will get them a spot somewhere on my blog.   Well, in actuality, ?????? gets you nowhere.  Sorry Dude, or is it dud?  ????????

I have a Gas Buddy app. on my iPhone.  I would be lost without it and the money that I save on gas off sets my data package.

Since I travel between Lansing and Grand Rapids, I can check gas prices while on the road and determine the cheapest prices as I go.  This makes it convenient when I need gas.

The other day as I was heading home, I could see that the price of gas was going up by $.25 cents in Lansing but not in Lowell.  So, when I got to Lowell, I checked my iPhone and discovered that the price of gas was going up by $.25 there also.

But there was still one station that had cheap gas.  Knowing that this wouldn’t last long, I headed for the station.  Sure enough, they still had cheap gas.  So, I filled up and saved $5.00!

While I realize that $5.00 isn’t the national debt, every little bit helps.