This Might Seem a Mite Crazy

I will wrap up the Guess the Bears’ Name game tomorrow by posting the last photo of the set, but I just had to tell you what happened the other day.

I was sitting at my desk with my thinking cap on. I cannot move around too much while I am wearing it. I think that’s the purpose of it. You sort of have to sit in one place and think or it will fall off. Now it was an ordinary day – well, as ordinary as it ever is around here. And I was sitting there, like I told you, with my thinking cap on, when one of my bears wandered in.

He looked around a bit and asked me if I had one of those measuring things.
“What kind of measuring things?” I replied.
“Oh, you know the kind with little marks on it.”
I poked around in my desk and found a tape measure. “Here you go,” I said as I handed it over.
“What is this?” he asked incredulously.
“Why it is a tape measure,” I answered.
“That’s not what I was talking about. I need the one that is stiff.”
So I handed him a ruler.
“That’s not what I need either. We need one that is longer, a lot longer.” (He looked very frustrated with me.)
“Ah, you must want a yard stick.” I finally seemed to catch on.

Then he asked me if I had any gum. I asked him what kind and he said it didn’t matter. So, I found a container with some sugarless Juicy Fruit and handed him a couple of pieces. He looked at me kind of funny and then asked if I could be a little more generous. So, I doled out a couple more.

He looked up at me again and asked, “Now can you chew it for me?”
I know what you are thinking. I should have thought it was weird when he asked for the yard stick. But I was getting curious and I wanted to know what he and the other bears were plotting. So I complied. I chewed the gum and when I was good and squishy, I said, “Now what?”

“Stick it on the end of the stick,” he directed.
I did, he took the yard stick, thanked me and headed downstairs. I waited a few seconds and then took off my thinking cap. I wasn’t getting much thinking done anyway. I quietly rolled back my chair and tiptoed down the stairs after him.

What I found was a group of bears trying to manipulate this chewing gum/yard stick contraption from the top of the back of the sofa. I had to ask. You would have too.

“Uh, guys, what on earth are you doing?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” one of them answered.
“Not really. There’s not a whole lot behind that sofa but a few dust bunnies.”
“If you must know, we are looking for coins; any kind, big or little, doesn’t matter,” one of them said.
“If you should find said coins, what are you going to do with them?” I asked.
“Didn’t you say ‘every little bit helps’?” one of them said.
“Well, yeah, but what do you need money for?”

They patiently replied, “We want to send it to help the people that had the earthquake fall on them.”
“Oh, I see. Well then, perhaps I can help you. My reach is a little bit longer than yours, okay?”

While we are gathering up our coins and trying to sort out where we want to send them, the bears asked me to tell everyone here not to forget - Every little bit helps.

The American Red Cross
UMCOR
Amurt
UNICEF 
InterAction