Picture this if you can. About 8 feet up a 20 foot aspen tree is a mature black bear, hind feet on one branch, front feet on another, munching the leaves from another. He/she is horizonal, not the way you see cubs up the tree for safety, hugging the trunk. This bear decides to climb higher, so turns vertical and starts to climb using branches like a ladder. Eating as it goes. In fact, stretching its neck to reach the next leaves. But trees get smaller as they get taller, and bears get heavier as they eat, sooo...the trunk snaps and down goes bear, kerplunk. Still eating. The tree has been snapped at the halfway point, and the good stuff at the top is now on the ground, so the bear is happily gobbling leaves as if that was the plan all along.
This is one of those times when I'd rather have been getting video than driving. I didn't get a chance to get a clear picture of any of this. The whole sequence was less than a minute.
Some days we have ships sailing at 5:00pm. We have no problem getting passengers back by 3:30-4:00 so they can board. They have all been cautioned that the ship waits for no one and they sometimes get antsy about getting back on time. Today was one of those days. I had half a bus on early ships. We were on schedule when we pull up to customs. More accurately we pull up behind a line of buses that extends around the curve from customs. 5 minutes, no movement in line. 10 minutes we have moved up one length. 20 minutes one more length, and it is now after 4:00. 4o minutes and it is 25 past 4 and last boarding is 4:30. No way we will make it. Our turn.
The problem is that a new rule was put in place that all passports of all passengers must be checked if the bus has been into Canada. All the 40-passenger busses have been to Canada. Apparently, no announcement had been made. The port of entry was staffed just as it always has been, one on duty.
Some busloads are better than others. Too often there is someone who wants to blame me for the delay. Everyone on this bus realizes that a snafu of this magnitude has been transmitted to the ships. Hundreds of passengers are going to be late, so they won't sail on time.
What are they saying? "Hey, we got to see a bear fall out of a tree!"
Some busloads are better than others.
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2 comments:
It would have been great to see the video, but your way with words is unsurpassed, and the description of the action is good too! Who knew that an aspen could break that "easily" or that a bear would just keep on munching once it did break? I didn't even know that black bears liked aspen leaves!
Yeah, I had to look it up, and apparently new leaves are on the spring diet. I'm afraid that tourists will be on the spring diet. I had to yell at a pair who got out of their rented RV, which they left in the middle of the road, not to approach the bear we were watching. They looked at me like I was the crazy one.
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