Lions and Tigers and Bears .. oh my

School starting again. I am going to be teaching three English 92 courses in New Iberia. This will make it fun when I go to New York in November, but oh well. Mother and Dad are trying to sell their house. They may have a buyer, which means they will be leaving here in the “Chateau” next to my grandparents house and me. Going to be some fun down by the bayou.

I have starting working on my thesis again, in an attempt to graduate.

Saturday:
Last night, I went to a concert and watched three bands: System of a Down, Bad Acid Trip, and The Mars Volta. System of a Down put on a hell of a show. The audience loved them, and they played for over 2 hours. The Mars Volta was phenomenal. They are extremely talented musicians. They played 4 songs, which lasted in total nearly 1 hour. They moved from one song to the next with such ease and the jam sessions were wonderful. They remind me of the Doors with their ability to follow each other. At least their singer doesnt take the spotlight all the time. They actually share the stage really well. Bad Acid Trip was exactly what can be expected from a band called Bad Acid Trip. They were a heavy punk band: the singer sang in exagerated tones (such as the death metal rasp or a high pitch screech) and the musicians played their instruments as loud and as fast as they could. They were talented, but I couldnt make out a single word of what they were trying to say, even when they were just talking to the crowd. The Mars Volta was the highlight of the show for me. I kind of got tired of System of a Down about 1/2 way through, which doesnt mean they were good, just I didnt know the songs as well as the rest of the audience, so I got lost a lot of times. Plus, I was too busy keeping the “mosh” pit from running over a 12 year old in the audience. He was there with his older brother, but his brother was not very big and was having trouble keeping the moshers away.

Then we have Sunday. I came in early this morning from Houston and the concert. Took a shower, because I was covered in sweat, went to bed and work up around noon. Watched some movies and played a few games with Amanda. I have been trying to finish one called Resident Evil 4 for a few months now. I gave up after a really bad turn of events in the game. Amanda loves watching me play because the game is a horror title and she loves those. I had been successfully progressing in the game and finally made it to the second disc. (Amanda joked that she didnt know there was a second disc and damnit it had taken long enough to get to it.) Unfortunately, I have gotten to the part were the “super” bad guys appear. Each Resident Evil has pushed the limit of how hard the “super” bad guys were. In the 1st, they were jumping reptile monsters that could slice your head off. In the 2nd game, they were skinless wall/ceiling climbing freaks with long tongues called lickers (though they appeared pretty quickly in the game.) In the 3rd game, one creature chased you throughout the game. (Cant remember RE:Code Named Veronicas “super” creatures. I refused to finish that game. It was such a horrible game.) RE4’s bad guys are super-regenerating hopping around after their arms and legs cut off demon looking greyed deformed humanoid son of a fucking mother fuckers. They fucking suck.

Well, they are so creeping and scary that Amanda actually asked me to stop playing the game. I did, and we were watching some MST3K, when we heard a loud noise outside. Remember we live in the country, so loud noises means we have an animal getting into something. So I turned on all the outside lights and grabbed a flashlight and opened the door to see what was making the noise. As I open the door and look out, I notice a white bag laying in the driveway and suddenly a large black creature runs off behind a tree in the front yard. I thought damnit, fucking dogs getting into the trash. I shined the light following after the black “dog” and when the light hit the tree I noticed something was odd. There were a set of yellow eyes looking back at me. But they werent at the level of a dog. They were 5 feet above the ground and looking back at me. I thought is that a huge racoon that climbed up the tree. Then I realized it wasnt climbing the tree. It was standing up. Oh shit, its a fucking black bear staring back at me.
I knew there were reports of bears being seen in Vermilion parish. Amanda’s younger brother has had bears around his house in Erath, which really is only 15 miles away. I just never thought I would see one this close. When I mean close it was standing about 15 yards from me. (For the ones familiar, it was standing behind the tree that is next to where fritz’s dog house use to be.)
SO, its standing there look at me. Now I was ready to slam the door shut and lock it, but it wasnt acting like it was going to run for me. I waited a few moments and then it must have decided not to chance anything and started to run off back towards the river, right past the storage buildings. I told Amanda to get her gun (first time I ever asked her to get it). She came to the door and we waited for a few moments to see if the bear was coming back or if I could see its eyes in the outlining trees. I decided I had to at least pick up the trash bag and put it back into the trashcan and move the trashcan away from the house. Amanda watched as I walked out to the bag threw it into the can, dragged it about 15 yards from the house and put a huge rock on top of it. I know, the bear will find that funny. I called the sheriff who referred me to the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, who should come out tomorrow.

So now I have to keep my eye out for bears while I am also looking out for snakes and nutria rats and wolves and wild dogs and spiders and flying insects. God sometimes I love the great outdoors and living in the swamps of Louisiana.

Wilbur