Of Not Listening & Mountain Lions
Of Mal-Listening & Mountain Lions
When we arrived in the evening, none of us brought cash with us.
This was a problem since there was a small metal box you were supposed to drop $5 into in order to use a camping spot.
The other adult I was with suggested we camp just outside of the designated camping area since we didn’t have cash.
I mal-listened to him, meaning I followed his suggestion when I should not have.
(Mal-listening is defined…by me…as listening to someone when you shouldn’t have. This is different than mis-listening which I did when my Dad told me not to move a wall while he was gone on a business trip. I agreed and the minute his car was out of the driveway, I moved all the books, clothes and shelves off the makeshift wall, then stayed up all night, pushing, lifting, and reattaching that wall in order to make more room for my fiance who moved in a few weeks later, after we were married.)
So, we set up camp. Built a fire. Ate dinner (one of the youth had brought a large bag of Starbursts for his dinner). Then we roasted marshmallows.
After making dinner over the fire and enjoying snacks afterward, when it was dark, we heard a twig snap behind us.
We all pointed our flashlights behind us and up the slope of the mountain we were on.
Two reflective eyes didn’t move or try to hide. Those eyes looked back at us and we realized that was a mountain lion / cougar.
Those eyes did not retreat when we discovered them, so…we did.
We spent the rest of the night sleeping in the vehicles we drove up there in.
I had borrowed my uncle-in-law’s Ford F-150, a truly beautiful machine and decidedly and thankfully different from my older brother’s Ford Escort which was always fun to push around town, as it usually was Found On the Road Daily (FORD) or Fixed and Repaired Daily (also FORD).
The bottom line:
- Try not to mal-listen as it leads to less than desirable outcomes like spending the night trying to sleep but not really doing that effectively. Or if you’re going to mal-listen, bring Melatonin
2. Some wildlife are nice to see at Zoo’s (local zoo ticket prices and discounts via Groupon) and in shows like Blue Planet, One Strange Rock, and National Geographic
3. HOMEMAIDE helps you sell your style and buy the things that make you smile, seamlessly. For example, if you wrote an article like this, then shared the link on your existing social media accounts, your friends would likely read it, peruse it, or skim through it. When they saw something they liked (Starbursts, Mountain Lion art, Ford F-150 trucks, Melatonin, Blue Planet (nature) documentaries), HOMEMAIDE lets them buy the item they like and YOU earn a commission from every one of thier purchases. AND, your freinds can also decide to donate part fo the purchase price to a cause they care about (World Wildlife Fund, Green Peace, Save the Whales, etc.). That’s the magic of Homemaide!