Monday, July 16, 2012

Today I Practically Held Hands with a Bee.

Elle and I went to Idaho Falls this evening to go to the mall, make some returns, go to Target, and get our weekly groceries at Walmart (I reeeeeally miss Costco!).  I had just turned off our road, had the window down, with my hand out - catching the cool air, when a bug hit my wrist hard!  I immediately pulled my hand in and starting wondering if having the windows up might not be safer since it could easily be a rock next.  So, even though I didn't want to turn on the air conditioning,  I went ahead and rolled up my window. 

About two minutes later I heard some loud buzzing right by my ear and look over to see a honey bee, madly climbing the window, less than a foot away from my FACE!  Yikes!  I'm lucky I didn't drive off the road in my haste to get the window back down and that insect out!

(stock photo)

That reminds me of another story.  So, here's my tangent.  Several years ago, when I was pregnant with Ash, Tony and I were going out somewhere, driving along with the windows down, and a bee flew into the car.  It was basically in Tony's space and it totally freaked him out.  He turned the wheel of the car, in a thoughtless attempt to get away from the bug and drove us onto the wrong side of the road and almost into the ditch!  I had to grab the wheel to keep us from crashing!  It was pretty crazy.  Ok, tangent over.

I'm just glad that the bee, that got into our car today, wasn't a wasp or a hornet because those stinging insects are mean!  And Elle was in the back seat.  I'm not looking forward to my childrens' first stings.  My maternal grandfather is allergic to bees so it may have been passed down genetically.  Scary stuff there.  But honey bees don't want to sting.  And this one that happened to get into my car just wanted out.  It did frighten me though.

But this story isn't over.

Elle and I ran all our errands, our last stop being Walmart, and when I got into the car to go home, I look over and there is a BEE!  Climbing my window AGAIN!  I swear it wasn't the same bee.  I saw the first one go out of my window!  I did!  What are the odds?!?  So, down my window went yet again to let out another bee.  Craziness. 

I'm not afraid of bees.  But I am afraid of wasps, yellow jackets and hornets.  I don't kill bees because they make honey and they don't want to sting and aren't aggressive like their non-honey-making cousins.  Plus, female bees DIE if they sting mammals so I know they aren't gonna sting unless they have to, right?  Whereas, hornets have chased me before. 

I also think bumblebees are adorable. 

8 comments:

Amy said...

It's because you're so sweet. :)
I'm not scared of bees either, but I'm not allergic to them.

Becky said...

Thats really funny because that happened to me today too! There was only one bee but I had to stop and realize that driving the car is a lot more important than avoiding a bee! Thanks for sharing!

Saimi said...

Man reminds me of when a bee was in the back of our minivan and my young son at the time, killed it with his hand. To say the least, his hand swelled up, it was huge!

Not a good way to find out your allergic to bees.

Lea Marie said...

If it happens again, we're gonna start thinking of you as the bee lady :) I'm not afraid of bees ad I really appreciate the wasps because they keep some of the bugs from our garden (they are like little guard dogs that go up and down the leaves - awesome). The others I do not care for!

Myrnie said...

You've read Chalice, right? Robin McKinley? Read Chalice right away if you haven't ;)

An Apel a Day said...

Buzz, buzz, buzz!!! I'm glad they didn't sting you or Elle! YIKES!

Isaak got stung in the nose during family pictures once! http://theapels.blogspot.com/2010/06/stung.html

I've gotten stung 2 or 3 times. Once when I was helping my Dad unload hay, another time one was trapped in the car and I was pregnant with Mica and lastly one was in our house and a bee stung me under my pj top. They all took me so off guard. It's like I didn't know what was going on!

I just read an article that most honey isn't made with pollen any longer! CRAZY! http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/11/tests-show-most-store-honey-isnt-honey/

Eat To Live said...

I have had a few brushes with bees in the past. I have found if I remain calm I usually don't get stung...but one time I ran and they got me good. Hope your bee problems are over for awhile

mun said...

I think it is cool that you can identify so many types of bees by sight. I don't think I can.