We Haz Bears, or, rather, the Governor Does

Check it out:

I have lived here for almost 10 years and I have yet to see a bear. That's okay with me - I'm not in any hurry whatsoever to see a bear outside the Nature Center - but I'm kind of blown away by the sheer number of bears hanging out at the Governor's Western Residence. I mean, even assuming that that's the same bear over and over, that's a lotta bears. Three. Four, maybe. Hanging out together, even. I thought bears were solitary but this lot is downright social. Also, I thought they were still asleep but no: I venture to believe that these bears are not somnambulating. This is kind of a drag, since I'm always nervous about walking the dogs out at Bent Creek after the bears wake up, although bears don't like dogs and my dogs are too dumb, except possibly Perdita (who isn't mine! No! She is not! She belongs to YOU! Yes! You need to adopt her!) to even notice a bear unless it is right in front of them. Witness the fact that I've never seen a bear while out with the dogs. Yet.

The Governor's Western Residence up on Town Mountain Road, if you've never been there, is where the Governor is supposed to sleep on those days that s/he leaves Raleigh by post coach and arrives in Asheville several days or weeks later. It is a harrowing journey across our great state and the dangers cannot be overestimated. Therefore, you would think that the house would be older. Since the house was very clearly designed by Mike Brady (architect and father of six rapscallion kids, remarkably psychologically unscathed by the loss of their other parent, also Oliver, who had a great haircut but was otherwise sort of inexplicable) you know that modern methods of transportation, to say nothing of TV, have been available to the Governor since the Residence was built, thus rendering the Residence even stranger. It's already pretty strange. It is a large split level, is what it is, and not beautiful, but full of nifty gifts that the Governor has no room for in Raleigh. Also, it has a kickass view and some gardens and a really small kitchen. Presumably the Governor mostly orders pizza although, wait, this is Asheville and pizza delivery is hard to come by. Who knows? Something tasty is in that dumpster, apparently.

Anyway, I found this video on Ashevegas, so props to him, and also, hey, I see it was originally posted by the Governor. Good, I'm all for the Governor spending her workdays uploading bear videos to Youtube. It's an excellent use of her time and my tax dollars and if I had security cameras and footage like that around my house (coyotes, coyotes, they live nearby) you can bet that I would also put it up on Youtube and show all my friends. Even if I was the Governor.