Perspective

Yesterday may very well be remembered as one of my favorite days. Even after a night of very little sleep. We had arrived much earlier at our camp site and after what seemed like a long day we settled into to go to sleep. Had a movie on our kindle, watching it, getting tired and ready to sleep. Then our tent neighbors pull in, it's after 10:30 p.m. (10 p.m. is the curfew for noise, doesn't everyone know this?) They proceed to set up their tent and start crumbling up newspaper for a fire. I had to unzip our window and look to see if they weren't right next to us, but it appeared that the direction that their bodies faced and our tent location just funneled all the sounds into our tent! I guess this was to be our own private radio game show? The guy, "Name 3 places we visited while here last time". The girl, with lots of detail that I can no longer remember nor want to,"...blah, blah, blah, do you remember the time we stayed up all night and watched the stars?" "Oh no, I think, please don't do that tonight". On it went, while they drank and the story began to have even more facts, questions and tidbits about what seemed their entire couple experienceive! "Harump, newly weds I suppose!" It must have been after 1 a.m. when I finally fell asleep but things (our dogs) for one keep waking me up, Dozer our 1 year old black Labrador kept putting himself between Joe and I. This had the effect of shorting us of our covers. The temperature was dropping and it was cold. We had to push his heavy, 80 lb., sleeping body with our feet to one side or the other. At some point after Joe went to sleep both dogs clamored near me and the dogs and I remained motionless, listening to breathing, yep definitely breathing outside of the tent. Me, thinking for a moment, those people must have not liked Joe's comment earlier at, you know, 11:00, 11:30ish and they are upset with us now. But the couple had seemed to sort of get it in part and had turned off their music. As the dogs and I sat there quietly I thought I heard the animal shuffle away. Then the hair began to stand on the back of my neck, I realized that the dogs never barked and I swear that I heard the animal snort, similar to the bear. Hmmm. Of course the signs on all the picnic tables contain warnings about black bears and them scrounging for food. Could this fact have drifted into my dreams, am I dreaming? I do not think so, I am sitting up! Drifting back to sleep, again a noise, a women's scream, which seemed to be part of a dream I was having but wait, someone did scream, I know I heard it. Did she just see or hear the bear? Goodness, how am I ever going to sleep with a bear foraging for food? "Breathe, if it's going to get you, it's going to get you, not much you can do but go back to sleep, I tell myself."Just about to finally fall asleep, the birds begin to tweet, their songs which really are so very lovely but that means it's after 4 a.m. Where did the night go? At some point I got up, the dogs are crazy in the morning, bouncing with energy inside our tent. I get them in their collars, trying to get my chacos on which have a toe strap, the temperature is probably in the 30's making this strap difficult to get around my cold toes much less the rest of the sandal on my foot. Shoes on, dog's leashes hooked to their collars. Leashes in hand, still struggling a bit with my Chacos, I unzip the tent, get out, stand up and the dogs are loose! Yikes they are running over to check out the festivities from the night before at the tent of our talking neighbors. Poetic justice? I do have to say, I only felt a little bad for rousting the love birds. I think the dogs were also doing a bit of their own payback. At one point while the couple were reminiscing, our older dog Libbee looked at me as if to say, "THEY ARE STILL TALKING", her expression mirroring my own, exasperation! However, the new day brightened as did the landscape. Joe and I were able to witness the mountains getting their first kiss of sun's light. We were able to take the kayak out onto the water and watch the sun rays sparking and dancing upon the reservoir. The dogs got their 4th walk in 2 days! The sunlight revealed timid fish skirting and darting away from the boat, Canadian geese gathered breakfast and one hummingbird darted in to say hello and offer a reminder of a friend. I am learning to appreciate these moments, even when I find myself listening to happy couples whom I inadvertently share an evening with!