Okay, so a half hour ago I'm sitting here at the computer working and thinking May 4th has been a pretty fine day.

I'm working on my next book, and am happy with the progress.

I had fried platains for lunch and they were lovely.
 
We had thunderstorms and gorgeous, glittering sun showers.

Other good things happened.

And then, out of the blue, I hear a thumping noise outside the studio, near the patio. At first I think it's the stray cat I feed, because he has a bad habit of leaping up and clinging to the window screens when I'm late with the eats.

So I get up and head into the sunroom, and peer out the window to the patio, which is RIGHT THERE. At first I see nothing, but thanks to one of the lights and the fact that the window is cracked open, I hear thumping garbage can noises, so I look at the garbage cans -- also RIGHT THERE on the patio -- and tap on the window, thinking it's a possum or a racoon, and up pops a gigantic bear head, and looks right back at me.

Now at best, I'm ten, maybe twelve feet away. And he's BIG. Four hundred pound big.

Happily, I'm not a screamer but in my head I'm shouting BEAR! BEAR! because ever since I've been here, people have been asking me if I've seen any bears on my property yet, and I always have to say no. BUT NOW I'm staring straight at one, and he's ripping open my garbage bags and chowing down, and I'm just realizing what a weak, flimsy mortal I actually am.

So I run for back-up because I don't want to be the only one who sees the bear, and we stand at the window trying to take pictures through the glass and the screen, and of course we get nothing, so my boyfriend decides he's going to open the door and step out. 

He cracks the door and the bear stands up and looks at him.

It was a big bear.

The bear got spooked and grabbed a bag and trotted across the driveway. 

That's when I went outside after my boyfriend to see if I could 
get a decent picture with a ridiculous camera. Here it is:
See the eyeballs?

Then, while we're both out there like idiots trying to get two lame cameras with bad batteries and limited flash distance to DO SOMETHING, the bear turns and takes several steps toward us.

It was a very Three Stooges moment.

Once we were back inside, the bear came back for more eats, and we made obnoxious noises (no, it wasn't just me talking) and scared it away. But this puts a whole new light on a lot of things, like wandering around outside after dark and where in the world to keep the garbage now. 

May is a very cool month.