I took sweet pea for a walk on the edge of the woods this mostly. Well, my plan was to stay mostly on the edge since the sentry told me that she had a seen a mother bear and cubs in the woods behind her cabin
so I took sweet pea, through this wooded path to get to a quite street where we could wander to a dirt street which is no longer accessible to vehicles (unless you have some kind of off road all terrain thing). I’m feeling a bit tired despite the cup of coffee my friend brewed which is allegedly so strong it has a skull and cross bones on the label and is most definitely the darkest colored brew I’ve ever seen. And because of that tired and also because the sun was shining I decided to forgo my heavy tripod. I even slid the little travel umbrella out of my camera bag in an attempt to lighten the load. 10 minutes in to the hike the skies clouded up so I was a bit bummed not to have my tripod, but I forged ahead, climbing a mountain which is covered in gravel. (The next sentence will surprise exactly no one) naturally, my foot rolled on some gravel and I went down seriously hard. I hit on the right slamming the camera down on its bottom and scraping the $&@! Out of my left palm heel and right knee. I rolled into a sitting position and felt the burn of scrape and throb of impact and began to cry. Then I realized no one would hear a thing and I could just let loose and not have to explain myself. So I sat there bawling my eyes out like a gigantic baby as sweet pea stood dutifully near by eating grass and waiting out my hysteria. Once I began to get a grip on myself sweet pea came over and gave me a comforting lick and I said a prayer and rolled to see what kind of damage I had inflicted on my camera.
Folks. Some angel reached down just in the nick of time and switched my camera off. I was shocked to see that it was off. Then I was shocked to see it working perfectly. Had I been carrying the camera attached to the tripod it would have come down as if I was swinging a baseball bat to the ground. I shudder to think of the damage that’s ould have done. Dodged that bullet. Big time. I dusted myself off and continued on our journey. Sweet pea and I made to the untraveled road and began to climb it. I walked slowly and with much pain as I could feel my aching leg swelling up. We were getting close to the dirt road when suddenly a bear steps into the road. I kid you not.
Luckily by this part of the walk sweet pea was hot and walking right beside me. I told her No No No I lifted my camera up to my face, got off a couple of shots for proof and decided to retreat back down the hill towards safety. She stayed quietly beside me the entire time. Best dog ever.
Long story- I limped back to the car, noticed the skies getting dark got back into the house and within 10 minutes the sky opened up and it poured. Recalling that I had removed the umbrella from my camera bag, I can not even begin to tell you how thankful (and feeling foolish) I was to have avoided the torrential hot summer rain. Also, it made me wonder. My camera was spared because it was not on the tripod. I sat and cried for a long time. If I had not done a long cleansing cry it was possible that we would have directly crossed into paths with that bear and not just seen it farther down the road. Maybe my spirit guides took me down to protect me. If that bear had not appeared I would have been far from car on the dirt road when the skies opened up. Maybe the bear was sent to cross my path to send me back. I dunno. I just felt like even though my leg hurts like a SOB that this might just be case of multiple divine intervention. It could have been so much worse