The wife and I are approaching our fifth wedding anniversary. The past five years have been good, even when dealing with several health crises on the wife’s part.
Things started out a little crazy. I guess that should have been some indication on how things would turn out.
We went on our honeymoon to Lake Tahoe. It’s a nice little city, surrounded by lots of beautiful land. It’s also at 7,000+ feet above sea level. (This will become important later).
We stayed at a cozy hotel, bordering some woods. On the first night, we were in the living room of our little suite when I happened to look out the window into the courtyard. A large black bear was running through it. I got up and went to the window, trying to get a better look at the bear. I just managed to see its back end before it went around the corner of the building. A moment later, a guy went running through the courtyard, clapping and shouting. I wondered why he was doing this and what it had to do with the bear.
The next morning the wife and I walked across the courtyard to the main building to get breakfast. I saw the guy from the previous evening at the front desk. I went over and asked him about the bear. He said that the bears came through the property often. When they did, his job was to go out, make a lot of noise, and scare the bear away. He said black bears usually didn’t want any trouble and would run away if there was any commotion in the area.
After breakfast the wife and I went out to do a photo tour of the area. We had a guide who drove us around while the wife took photos of everything. I must admit it was some beautiful country. We spent the rest of the day doing tourist things, wandering around town, eating, and shopping. It was while we shopped at a T-shirt store that the wife started having chest pains. It turned out she had a heart attack and ended up in the ER. Since I couldn’t stay with her at the hospital I went back to the hotel.
The next morning I went across the courtyard and got breakfast. I didn’t feel like sitting in the dining room by myself so I opted to take my food back to my room. I headed to the doors in the lobby, stopping before I opened them. On the other side of the glass door was a baby brown bear, digging at the garbage can beside the door. If it wasn’t a baby, it was pretty young. Brown bears have a meaner temper than black bears and would rather maul you than run if you try to scare them away. I’m patient so I didn’t mind waiting for the bear to finish and leave. I couldn’t get my phone out and get a picture because my hands were full of breakfast boxes. Almost right away the bear started meandering away.
I was out the door and on my way to my room. I kept an eye out because if baby bear was around, I figured Mama bear might be nearby too. Fortunately, neither bothered me on the way to the room.
I went back to the hospital and talked to the wife’s doctor. He told me she had a heart attack due to the elevation (see, I told you it’d be important). It seems that happened a lot. Even though it happened a lot, the hospital didn’t have a cardiologist in residence. Seems rather odd. He told the wife to leave town and never come back. Fortunately, the wife had a friend who lived on the California coast at sea level so we spent the rest of our honeymoon there.
Thus started our non-stop episode of ‘I Love Lucy’ that is our marriage, my Hordeling. It hasn’t gotten any less crazy.
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