I have a Labor Day Bee story to share, but I need help making it not suck. Rooth kindly agreed to help with a few suggestions and I'm going to edit it. But in the meantime I thought I'd repeat another bee story. It's my "A" bee story. :)
I stay calm around bees because my grandpa assured me bees don’t want to sting us. If you stay calm and leave them alone, they will leave you alone. It works pretty well. I was good at the “calm” part, but once in a while I seemed to have trouble leaving them alone.
One painful encounter was made worse by who witnessed it (yes, it was a girl, sort of--you'll see). Anyway, weeds were growing out of sandstones piled on the side of the dirt road leading to our house--along the portion of road on the other side of the hill. The weeds scratched against cars as they went by, so my dad wanted me to trim them (using our whip—you swing it like a golf club, it has a blade on the end).
I started the job after school. As I walked up the hill, I noticed the very pretty young mom next door was on her porch. She waved and said hi, I tried to look cool--I had a little crush on her (I was 15). I started cutting weeds at the bottom of the hill on the other side and worked my way back towards my house (and neighbor). Soon I was half-way up the hill. I could see the top of her house, but I couldn’t see the porch yet because of the hill. I was distracted, so I didn’t think anything of the few bees I saw—bees are common in that area. I didn’t notice they were ground bees (yellow jackets). It never occurred to me there might be a nest in the rocks. I just kept swinging and cutting.
Before I knew it, I heard the unmistakable sound of MANY bees taking flight. One stung my arm and a few got under my shirt. Here's how my neighbor described (the next day) what she saw happen.
Her: What happened to you yesterday? I heard you yell and then I saw your whip fly up in the air over the top of the hill. Then your shirt flew up in the air…next you came running up over the hill waving your arms around your head. It looked like you'd gone crazy!!!
Me: Umm, I found a bee’s nest and they found me.
Her: ahahahahahaha!!!! Oh, I’m sorry, I hope you’re okay. But you just looked ridiculous!
Me: {dejected}
What hurt more, getting stung many times or looking like an idiot in front of miss cute (well, mrs. cute)? Definitely getting stung hurt more!!! But both were caused by stupid bees. BEES!!! *shakes fist*
That actually wasn't my worst encounter with bees and it may not have been my most embarrassing. Hopefully with Rooth's help I'll be able to share my "B" bee story someday.
Do you remember your first bee sting???
Hahahaha, I'm sorry to laugh but what I picture in my mind is a young man flailing about and it's quite amusing! Hopefully soon we will hear your B bee story.
ReplyDeleteI have never *knocks on wood* gotten stuck by a bee. I'm terrified I'm allergic and run in the other direction when I see one, especial yellow jackets. The fat furry ones don't bother me as much
It's okay, I laugh about it now too...I imagine what the neighbor saw--stuff flying up in the air and then seeing me running. lol! I hope you and bees continue to stay far apart.
DeleteI do remember. my great great great ... uncle (he was old) lived on a farm and had bees. in order to go into the woods behind his farm you had to either walk around half of the village or sneak through a gap in the fence right next to his bee hive. do I need to say more? I was terrified every time I had to pass the bees. nothing happened for a long time. but eventually one got me. I was five. screamed my head off. my aunt put a sugar cube on it which strangely enough did help. but needless to say, I ended up seeing a lot of the village while going into the woods from then on...
ReplyDeleteYikes! I'm glad you didn't get stung by more than one--one is awful all by itself. I've never seen that type of hive. That's interesting about the sugar. My family put an onion slice on stings when I was little--it did nothing (except make me smell like raw onion)! :)
DeleteKnock on wood, I have not yet been stung by a bee. My big question to you in the beginning of the post was "What's a sort of girl?" but it all made sense closer to the end. Ahh, I think men and women spend 80% of their effort trying to impress each other :)
ReplyDeleteI'm embarrassed I put any effort into impressing her. She was very pretty, but actually a rotten person. Later she found religion and became a rotten person in a different way. :)
DeleteFingers crossed your luck continues. Some bee stings are worse than others, but they all hurt.
I have never mastered the "stay calm" attitude towards bees and wasps. For some reason they seem to like me. The feeling is not mutual. Looking forward to your next bee story. Hopefully it doesn't involve a hospital visit!
ReplyDeleteOh no, being a bee magnet must be nerve-racking. I hope the stings have been few. The next bee story is extremely embarrassing and was extremely painful, but no hospital visit....although I did get a lot of visitors. :)
DeleteI squashed a few of them flying around in my lab a couple of days ago. I got pissed because they were circling over my head so I took out a bunch of papers and rolled them into a baseball bat and knocked a few over.
ReplyDeleteyeah..... i was pretty got at hitting things. I really wonder how they got into our lab. I'm pretty sure none of my colleagues are experimenting stuff that has anything to do with bees.... hmmmm.
Why am I now worried that Stiletto Girl is going to become Bee Girl??? With all the powers of a bee??? Although, the more I think about it, it could be pretty awesome.
DeletePS - keep (carefully) squashing those bees! :)
OMG... i hope i never get stung! Been in contact with some wasps and even that sent me running.
ReplyDeleteYay for not getting stung! I hope it stays that way. My other bee story is really awful...you might not want to read it. :)
DeleteWhat a story! I've never been stung by a bee fingers crossed!
ReplyDeletexx opinionslave.com
I'm surprised (but happy about it) that so many people have managed to avoid getting stung. Maybe I was unlucky because of where I grew up--lots of fruit trees and bees.
DeleteSomething similar (not really) happened to my cousin when we were younger. We were playing near some bushes and rocks at my aunt's lake house. Somehow he stirred up a bees nest and they all attacked him and stung him. We both ran into the house with our arms flailing. Amazingly, I didn't get stung. I've only been stung once, on my hand.. but I barely felt it, so maybe it doesn't count. :)
ReplyDeletexo, Yi-chia
Always Maylee
It really is amazing you didn't get stung. Perhaps the bees were smart enough to know who the trouble-maker was that day. :)
DeleteI'm not sure what to say about barely feeling it when you got stung on the hand. You must have a high tolerance for pain--which I hope never gets tested.
I have two other bee stories. Once I was at the top of a ladder picking apples and the honey bees objected--I never got down a ladder so fast in my life! My face and arm swelled...but by the time our doctor was willing to see me the danger had passed. I'm going to share the other story in a post--but it's kind of unsettling, you might want to skip that one.
Aw, how cute you had a crush on a young-mom neighbor! You totally would have looked crazy to me too, especially with the part about the tshirt flying off. So...did you ever get back to finishing weed whacking those weeds?
ReplyDeleteThe job had to be finished, but I waited until November when the bees wouldn't care. Now you know to be suspicious when teenage boys in the neighborhood are oddly polite to you. :)
DeleteOh, and I've only been stung once. Wasn't as glorious as your story.
ReplyDeletelol i got my first sting last month. it SUCKED. and haha i remember one time i saw my dad waving like crazy he looked so funny then later he came in all pissed off that he was stung like 7 times... that was NOT funny
ReplyDeleteEek! 7 times, that's a lot of bee stings! Thank goodness for slapstick comedy helping us laugh through these painful experiences. :)
DeleteIt was YOUR bee sting that reminded me of my other bee story--it was the worst. It was just one sting (and I've been swarmed like your dad was), but it was the worst.
Being stung by the bees and being stung by Mrs Cute's words would hurt in different ways. I've never gotten a bee sting before. I've always had the impression that one could die from it especially after watching so many shows on people dying from them. How did yours heal?
ReplyDelete