I talked with my daughter today. It was so good to hear from her. I do miss her very nuch but I'm so glad that she's doing what she wants. She just got back from backpacking in the Appalachians with her boyfriend. They had to hang their food in the trees to keep it from bears, but she said the bears have figured out that food is attached to the ropes and now chew through the ropes unless you tie them very high up.

I've only slept in my truck in bear country. That's one thing that scares me. I've had a black bear come through a camp when I was camping but I just kept very quiet and just watched him rummage through a car that did not have the windows rolled up far enough. She had a couple of cubs with her and that was even scarier.

I wandered through a few garage sales and thrift shops today but didn't find any rugs that I wanted. There are always some things that there are so many of, that it makes you wonder why they were bought in the first place only to be discarded. I remember all the things that I've bought and discarded too, though. We are like lemmings and we all buy the same thing and then it's old. Remember when a color of clothing or a car was so wonderful, but a few years later was just so boring?

We discard enough to outfit entire households in some countries. I say to myself that I'll just buy things second hand or not get them at all but it's so easy to get sucked in and buy things that a few months later I don't even care about or use. We are such an unsatisfied species. We always want more than we have.