A few things I learned this morning....
I can still run pretty fast.
Always wear the coat, gloves, and veil when working around the bee hives.
Don't bump the hive.
You can not put the lid back on the hive before the bees get agitated.
Face stings hurt.
I wonder if the neighbors thought I was dancing as I raced down the hill with my hands in the air waving them like I just didn't care.
You're still breathing so you must not be allergic to such things. When I was maybe 13 years old I watched a buddy dang near die from one sting from some sort of wasp-looking thing. Even after a quick trip to a doctor he looked like one giant case of poison ivy from head to toe.
Working in the hayfield in my youth must have helped to train me on the 900 best ways to not get stung. They can fly faster than you can run. Slapping at them with some sort of headgear only gets them more upset. The sneaky ones latch onto the headgear and wait for you to stop flailing around. A very short launch will get them from the headgear to your skin. There is always one more left after you are certain none are still around. One sting remedy is to pull the dipstick out of a hot engine and put a drop of that hot oil on the sting. Trust me when I say you won't be thinking about the sting anymore.
Uh...is that like hitting yourself on the head with a hammer because it feels so good when you stop?
When I got stung as a kid, my grandfather would take his chewing tobacco out of his mouth and hold it on the sting. Don't know what it is about tobacco juice, but it would stop the pain.
I'm glad you didn't mention screaming like a little 7 year old girl all the way...that would be embarrassing. :pinch:
> A few things I learned this morning....
>
> I can still run pretty fast.
>
> Always wear the coat, gloves, and veil when working around the bee hives.
>
> Don't bump the hive.
>
> You can not put the lid back on the hive before the bees get agitated.
>
> Face stings hurt.
>
> I wonder if the neighbors thought I was dancing as I raced down the hill with my hands in the air waving them like I just didn't care.
I thought I told you we always wear our suits around the hive. Away from the hive is a different story. 🙂
On a side note, I wrote this on February 17 of last year. 🙂
"Things I have learned from extracting honey from bees this weekend.
1. Smoke calms bees, hay field fires do not.
2. My friends on the fire department and church are top notch, especially with jokes.
3. Take tools to the hive.
4. When bees get in a "bee suit", there is an extreme pucker factor.
5. Have a place to process the honey away from the hive, and your house. 1500 bees coming be scent to their panel in your carport will put a strain on your wits, and marriage.
6. There is a reason honey isn't cheap, it's a lot of work.
7. My son gets me into the damnedest things, and I wouldn't trade it for anything! — with Melissa Mullinnix-Morgan and 6 others."
I keep bees, just as a hobby and because I'm a honey addict and require several daily fixes (or more). The pollen in raw honey is really good for people with allergies. Small daily doses of pollen seem to keep the body from over reacting when it's everywhere. Even if your not allergic to bee stings, a shot to the throat can cause your wind pipe to swell shut and that's not good. A shot to the eye can shut your eye for a few days and leave you with a nice shiner. Jack Daniels and bee keeping don't mix, trust me. Learned that the hard way. I looked like a mongoloid for a couple days after that lesson.
I've had lots and lots of small, painful lessons.
other small, painful lessons
Sometimes, while scooter riding, I like to chomp on an unlit cigarillo (for all you folks north of the 36th parallel that's a small cigar).
Every great once in a while if we all pull over I'll light it up and take a draw or two. Being the tight-wad I am, I hate to throw away a good stogie; so I'll "snipe" the fire off the end and stash it in my tee shirt pocket....(can anybody see where this is going?)
Small painful lesson: microscopic combustion is vigorously supported by fresh air rushing past your tee shirt pocket at 70 or 80 mph. And tee shirts burn just as good as cigar tobacco.
I didn't realize I was smouldering until I hit the top of third gear as I merged onto the busy freeway from the on-ramp. People will actually yield to someone on a motorsickle that is flailing and slapping like a madman...:pinch:
other small, painful lessons
Those T shirt pockets are located directly over some rather sensitive body parts to be ignited like that Paden. I recall back in my scooter days back before I'd used up the last of my 9 lives, getting impacted right between the eyes by a bumble bee while going 80 down the freeway and have a momentary flash containing my life in it's entirety up to that point.
I did the same thing with my children when I was still smoking a pipe. Really works. That's NOT burning tobacco.
other small, painful lessons
The worst part of hitting large insects on a scooter isn't the impact, it's the splattering guts or the stinging if they manage to survive and latch on.
I ducked to avoid catching a big fat juicy butterfly between the eyes. Instead I caught it with the visor on my helmet and ended up with my sunglasses and whole face covered in butterfly guts. I managed to rip off the glasses so I could see, then get the bike to the side of the road with out getting killed in the process.
I no longer wear shorts when riding due to the time that a large red wasp hit the front forks and crashed landed in the open leg of my cargo shorts. I lost count of the number of times that brain damaged beast stung me on the leg and hand before I got the bike stopped, my wife off the scooter, wasp out of my shorts, and dispatched him to the hereafter.:pinch: :pinch:
That is because nicotine is also a powerful pain killer. It is not used other than topically because it is so unpredictable.
B-)
other small, painful lessons
Bugs are standard procedure in Okieland this time of year for scooting, stinging and non-stinging. All you can do is wear enough "armor" to keep the pain at bay. God bless the man that rides without proper eye protection.
I was unfortunate enough once to take a blue jay hit at about 50mph in the ribs. I almost put the bike down on the asphalt. I sported one of those green and purple bruises the size of a Frisbee for a month!
I also know that a 3" grasshopper at 75 mph has the muzzle velocity of a 30-06. And yes, stinging insects have body parts that continue to function even if their head is detached (or dispatched).
BTW - Why in the world would you ride a bike wearing shorts? Possibly a death wish?
Sounds oh-so painful!!!:'(
other small, painful lessons
That was quite painful.
:excruciating:
other small, painful lessons
Young and stupid. Some lessons just have to be learned the hard way.:-D
Ride through the pain
As I learned in motorcycle school, you definitely want to ride through the temporary pain of an impact. It is much preferable to the alternative.
> That is because nicotine is also a powerful pain killer. It is not used other than topically because it is so unpredictable.
>
> B-)
It also acts as an astringent and "pulls" the venom from the bite. 🙂
Ride through the pain
Once in Illinois I was riding to work wearing a polo shirt. Some stinging insect hit me in the throat at around 40mph and dropped down the front of my shirt, where he commenced to stinging the bejesus out of me. I'm sure that once I got pulled over the passengers in the passing cars thought I was quite insane.
Living in Louisiana, I now have sacrificed the pleasure of the wind on the open road for the relative safety of a windshield, I'm not interested in eating a 4" dragonfly at 70 mph.
"Incoming" hostile fire on a motorcycle
Stinging insects are quite a threat while one is fellowshipping with his ride. But there are plenty of other things that can make your life miserable while riding on the highway:
A bull hauler...:bored:
A gravel or sand truck
Some pea-brained Okie named "tater" emptying his dip-cup out the window of his 4x4 Dodge Ram.
Stank road kill.
(I keep an eye out for carcasses cooking in the sun...but sometimes the vehicle in front of me re-positions the target. Pay attention!)
The smell can truly drive a buzzard off a night-soil wagon.
And speaking of truck loads of poop; watch out for the septic tank cleaner's tank truck. THAT will ruin your day.
And probably them most dangerous thing on the road, hands down: alligators.
Not the precious little snappers that Troy and Liz make their Christmas money catching..I'm talking about a 100 pound, 8 foot long stretch of tread that some Wal-Mart truck slung off his cheap retreads. The steel belt exposed on the edge can rip a man's leg off. Not to be trifled with, at all!
In town on the surface streets things are a little safer. Just don't get stuck behind a city bus at a long light. And watch out for bleached blonde soccer moms driving black Tahoes...they're ALWAYS talking on their damn cell phone. And why do they always have Texas plates?
