Goodbye, Bear.... and Football

I hate to report this, but the young black bear that I met pretty much face-to-face last Friday is dead.  She kept hanging around the neighborhood and several families to the west of our subdivision were frightened by her.  The Department of Wildlife came out and shot her with a tranquilizer dart - but she reacted energetically and broke through the circle of observers.  They lost track of her.  Thirty minutes later, she was found, dead, in a drainage ditch.  The tranquilizer had kicked in and she had gone to sleep - in the bottom of a drainage ditch with four inches of water in it.  She went to sleep, her head fell under the water, and she drowned.  The necropsy showed that she was about two years old, weighed 115 pounds, and had not yet had any cubs.  At least her accidental death did not mean the starvation of cubs, also.  It just goes to show that sometimes, even with good intentions, bad things can happen.  If the tranquilization and capture had gone as planned, she would have been released in the middle of a National Forest, with no human habitations within 10 miles of her.  It's sad.

Once I finish my blog entries for today, I am going to open all my move-in boxes and find my dUSB cord for my camera.  I still haven't looked at the photos I took while in Virginia and Maryland.  I've been busy, but not that busy, and I'm kind of disgusted with myself for letting it go for so long.  

   At least my college football season got off to a good start yesterday.  Even though it wasn't a "pretty" win, the South Carolina Gamecocks defeated the North Carolina Tar Heels, to get me and Coach Spurrier on a winning streak.  Following that game, both the Broncos and the Eagles lost their final pre-season games.  It looks as if I'll be following two pro teams this year - the local Denver Broncos, and, since it looks like Tim Tebow will be on the Eagles' roster, I'll have to tune in for their games, as well.  And, today, the Eagles traded the other quarterback that was battling with Tebow for a spot on the team.  I very rarely positively like a professional quarterback - but I'm all for both Tim Tebow and Peyton Manning.