…sure blow through quickly. 

A few days ago, there were still many leaves on the trees outside on the hill that I’m queen of.  But a strong wind blew through last Wednesday night, and every since, the view outside my windows has been stark and depressing.  Ominous, even.  Grant would probably say the winds foretold of the arrival of his new Saxon Math 2, via UPS, on Thursday.  Tristan would say that they heralded the day he had to do the Mixed Practice instead of just the Lesson Practice in Saxon 6/5 on Friday. 

But I think the air of foreboding is more related to my annual attack of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).  I’m overcome with the need to paint every room in my house yellow (some of you have seen the results of previous annual attacks and their mixed results), to redecorate in a whole new style, to run to the health food store to buy happy light bulbs, to seek retail therapy, and many other things that will doubtless keep many an analyst in high cotton once my children come of age.  I like to think that a trip to the very sunny Greek Islands would help immensely... if only my rich uncle would hurry up and get out of the Poor House.  (A prize goes to the commentor who can count the most colloquialisms in this blog...)  But I'll have to settle for trying to get the baby bundled up and taking a little walk down to the creek or over to the neighbors' house.  That is, IF...

...I can convince the big boys to go.  As we drove out one day last week, we passed a neighbor who owns a huge farm walking down the road with 2 giant baby bottles under her arms. I stopped to inquire (since I feel *I'm* walking around with 2 giant baby bottles under *my* arms these days!) and she explained that the local pack of coyotes had gotten her new mommy cow and left a 4 day old calf for her to feed.  She described that the cow had cleverly run as far from her baby as possible and had made her heroic stand at the edge of the creek where the coyotes had just worn her down.  I was in tears, being a new mommy myself.  Would I make myself coyote-bait???  I hope I would.  Anyway, my big boys (10 and 7 years of age) were in the back of the van and couldn't help but hear the tale.  Since we had seen one of the coyotes [huge] standing, almost defiantly, in a field between our house and our neighbors house just a few days before, they've been less than enthused about walking outside ever since.  What can you say?  It could happen, although I've tried to impress upon them that they are safe as long as our big dog is with them.  HE might get eaten, but at least that would give them time to escape!  To add insult to injury, there have been many, many stories about what a bad year this is for bears (click on the video).  Some similar mountain neighborhoods that are fairly close have reported being haunted by bears of late, and one lady was even bitten within the last few weeks in Gatlinburg.  I don't recall such a bad bear year in recent history, but then, I've only been back in Paradise for 7.5 years now.

So, anyone have any advice on what you tell children that is both realistic and NOT scary and yet provides them with a degree of preparedness in case of the animal attack that is many times less likely to occur than an attack by the family dog?  (And if you've seen my dog, you know that seems pretty out-there to my kids...)

Disclaimer:  This is not actually Teddy, but would look just like him if he were bathed and uh, more pleasant to the olfactory receptors.

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Posted by SmallWorld

I have to say, I remember that fear well. We didn't have bears, but I can remember a pack of wild dogs that used to terrify me. I was scared of dogs in general, having been bitten as a 4-year-old, but what could be more terrifying than a PACK of dogs? Well, all I can say is, don't read The Wolves of Willoughby Chase this year. It won't help things any. ;-)

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