It's another beautiful day here in France. This story is in response to Andrew Cross's blog "close encouter with a tent" which can be found acrossky.blogspot.com.

Andrew and I went hiking in the mountains of Alberta, CA and while we were thrilled at the magnificent visage to please the senses, we had to be cautious of the much-feared, much-acclaimed Grizzly bear; weighing in at @ 2000 lbs and featuring paws and claws big enough to strike fear into the heart of even John Bunyan. We were a tandem group, which was actually illegal since bears were known to be in the area, and there was really no way to avoid the bears seeing that the area we chose is the number 1 spot for grizzly bears in the entire world. I am deathly afraid of bears. To top things off, there was food wrappers right outside out tent(thank you Andrew) and my hiking partner did not seem to be as worried as I. In fact, he was pure optimism impersonated. "Ah, don't worry about it, its a quick death anyway," was his attitude. I had the attitude; "I don't want to have to stumble 15 kilometers with one arm because a grizzly bear had the munchies. Anyway, we went to bed that night about dark and all night I kept hearing this sort of rooting around/ sort of rustling that I have mentally associated with imminent bear attack. I lay there, paralized in fear, wondering why it was taking the bear so long to follow the trail we so carelessly left him. After a few hours, when I was emotionally exhausted and could no longer force myself to be awake, I finally resigned myself to certain death, and having made my peace with God, I fell asleep. When I awoke in the morning, Andrew casually mentioned that for some reason whenever he uses the particular tent we were using, it always sounds like something is rooting around outside, but not to worry, its just the fabric. Thanks Andrew for not mentioning this earlier and allowing me to lose an extra 5 years off my life because of the mental trauma I endured.