Saturday, August 23, 2008

I have to share a story with you all

I should preface this my current mental state...I just got home after working an 8 hour night shift. I took an ambien to get myself to sleep as soon as possible but wanted to try and post this first. So I'm already feeling the affects of my prescription sleep aid...I just don't know how long I'll last and what exactly I'll say. I guess I'll find out what when I wake up.

The story goes...the city of Anchorage butts up against millions of square miles of wild, untamed Alaska. Anchorage is an amazing place to live...not because you are in the wild, it's because of the close proximity to wild Alaska that most people will never experience. Sometimes, that close proximity overlaps when the wildlife gets a little too friendly with one of the outlying neigborhoods. This happens a half dozen to a dozen times year. It makes the news...you read about...you move on.

This latest story is a little different. A 700 pound grizzly bear followed one of the smaller trails all the way into midtown Anchorage. At 3:30am, he darted across one of the busiest streets in the state and was struck by a pickup truck. He was hurt and agitated so when the police arrived, they had to put him down.

Again, it's a story we've heard dozens of times before but this was the first that really caught our eye. This encounter happend IN Anchorage...on a main street that would have been clogged with traffic a couple hours later.

So you can read the article if you want more details.

Pretty amazing, eh?

I think some of you who have visited us would know that this is the exact spot where we watched the iditarod go through town. It's also on the trail that we walked for the March For Babies!!

You might be wondering how this affects us. Will we still take the girls on walks in the park? YES!! Absolutely. This is such a rare and unprecendented case. I can't imagine a bear hanging out where we walk. If we are going into bear country, we'll be prepared for any encounter. That's why God gave us two babies.

I'M KIDDING!!!!

I'm going to bed. I'll get back to the vacation photos later today.

1 comment:

Sambo said...

I think that with the two brown bears in your family... a single wild one would run away in fear.