MORE NUMBERS

Here's a GREAT number - 15,000. As of today, that's how many visits there have been to my blog pages - fifteen thousand!!!!! I am quite seriously blown away by that. This blog is not even two years old, and has been on this site since the end of August 2009, just over a year and a half, so the count is actually from that point. Before then I had it on a site strictly for people traveling and, as my plans to do so long-term failed miserably and I ended up back home after five weeks, I didn't feel right continuing to blog on that site (although the blog is still there), you can take a look at it HERE if you like.

I was going to stop blogging entirely as the whole purpose was to document my adventures sailing around the Caribbean and didn't feel that my life back at home was interesting enough for anyone to want to read. But a few readers urged me to continue writing, one or two going so far as to saying it was like reading a good book that you never wanted to end. I have to admit, I was very flattered by those comments and so felt very encouraged. I moved the blog here and - I can't say 'the rest is history' because that is way too pretentious, but ... here we are.

I have struggled a bit to figure out what the theme of this blog should be since coming home and decided it's just about whatever I am doing at the time I write it. Mostly that has been about work and moaning about wanting to go back to the Caribbean. But, starting in two weeks, it will become all about the Caribbean again, at least for a month, as I travel back there finally. I am so looking forward to it... only 13 more days. Although, I won't be in the Caribbean until the week after but that's when I leave for the Mexico part of the trip. For that first week, my blog will be all about getting dental work done in Mexico. For now it's mostly about prepping for travel.

Another number today is ONE. One Peking duck and one bear on set today. A 'Cinnamon Bear'. The scariest animal I have worked with to date was about four years ago on Blood Ties with a black panther. The thing was huge - it had an enormous head. And glowing gold, sinister eyes. I expected the bear to be a lot scarier than the panther but he's actually really sweet and will do almost anything for a Tim Bit (doughnut hole).

This is a shot a crew member took of the panther on Blood Ties

I took this shot of the bears on our set - the real one is fairly obvious I would think

As I type this, I am sitting about 15 feet away from the cave set where the bear is. All that separates me from it is a thin set wall called a 'flat'. We have two trainers on set, one whose name is Houston. I do not want to hear 'Houston, we have a problem.'