We were at the eye doctor to have Dorothy assessed for glasses. Dorothy was looking through the lenses, and asked, "Can I have a minute before I look with this eye? I'm still seeing the afterimage from when you shined the flashlight."
"I'm impressed that you know the word afterimage. Who's the scientist in your family?" the doctor asked.
"I like optical illusions," Dorothy explained, "and the illusions often involve afterimages."
Fair Bear Writing Competition
Once upon a time in Perry, Georgia, Fair Bear was just a normal American black bear. He was bounding along, hunting for a squirrel. The squirrel ran past the busy interstate called I-75, and Fair Bear stopped short. He saw a woman with a broken leg being loaded into an ambulance.
“What is that?” Fair Bear wondered. “I’ve got to get closer,” he thought.
He ran across the interstate until he got to the ambulance.
“Bear!” one of the paramedics screamed.
The ambulance started driving away, and Fair Bear started following it. He followed it all the way to the emergency room, where he was stopped by a security guard.
“Are you here to see anyone?” asked the security guard.
“Not really,” said Fair Bear. “I want to learn how to be a bear-amedic.”
“Paramedic, you mean,” corrected the guard.
Fair Bear asked, “Where can I get my training?”
“Central Georgia Technical College up the road,” answered the guard.
“No,” said Fair Bear. “Why don’t I just follow around a real paramedic today?”
“Just go to the college,” repeated the security guard.
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Fair Bear was amazed by the sheer size of the college. The biggest room he’d ever been in before today was a hollow tree trunk.
“Welcome everyone,” said the president of the college. “Men, women, and bear, you’ll train with us for three months before you’ll have a practical lesson and help our paramedics.”
Three months later, Fair Bear was ready. After learning about oxygen masks, IVs, and CPR, he pulled on his specialized bear uniform with a cutout for his tail and went outside for his practical lesson.
The paramedics had just gotten a call about a teenager who had been parachuting and fell into a tree and broke her leg. The paramedics were stumped about how to get her down, but they drove there anyway. It was incredible and incredibly loud for a bear to be in an ambulance with its siren on.
They arrived, and Fair Bear immediately saw a way to solve the problem. Without a word, he started climbing up the tree.
“What are you doing?” all the paramedics shouted.
The parachuter screamed. Fair Bear picked her up and started climbing back down the tree.
“Thank you,” said the parachuter and the paramedics.
Just then, three bear cubs came up to Fair Bear.
“Wow! You’re a real bear-achuter!” said the first one.
“And you’re a real bear-amedic!” said the second and third ones together.
“Paramedic,” corrected Fair Bear.
Sometimes I'll use a phrase, and Dorothy will respond, "Well, that explains a joke in..."
For example, I mentioned having a 24-hour stomach bug, and Dorothy asked what that meant. Then she followed-up, "Well, that explains a joke in the Hamster Princess book about 24-hour leprosy!"
I'd give myself grade of C for housekeeping, but I must score off-the-charts in supplying our house with paper products for the last decade. After a playdate recently, Dorothy came home wide-eyed and whispered, "Sallie needed some Kleenex but they were out, so she used toilet paper!"
