I heard it snarl before I saw it. It was chasing a deer, noticed me, stopped and just sat there staring at me about 50 yds away across a little valley, not menacing towards me, more curious. I put my hands on my head to try to “look big”. After a while of us staring at each other, I lost my nerve and backed away and then sprinted away towards a nearby street. It didn’t chase. Based on the ease with which it leaped up that hill after the deer, it obviously could have caught me if it wanted to. Funnily enough I met someone else on the trail just afterwards, told him there was a mountain lion, and he was like "where?"and ran towards where I saw it… This was in southern California.

I’m the same way. I play music solely for fun, by myself. I love playing with others as well, but even in the times in my life when I was lucky enough to be able to do that I still would play music by myself. Common attitudes about music are really toxic imo. Music is at its best when it is free, live, amateur, and enjoyed alone or with close friends, not for an audience with outsized expectations based on the ubiquity of recorded professional music.