First Sting 7/2/09

I'm a marked woman. Or at least my head is. I went into both hives between the raindrops on 7/2/09 because I needed to replace the syrup since we were leaving on vacation for a week and a half. We'd taken it off the weekend before, but were advised to put it back on due to the weather and the fact that they still had comb to build (we put on a super each, knowing we wouldn't be back in for a week). Because I was just doing the syrup, I went with my usual "eh, veil, schmeil" attitude. This was probably my first mistake, since I had grumpy, hungry bees, most of whom were cooped up in the hive due to the weather. But still, I got my sugar topped off just fine, half the job done. I went the long way around our yew tree so as not to get in the middle of the bee highway as they madly dashed to the flowers between raindrops, and stood on the "lawn side" (or between the hives) of Joel's hive. Oh, bother. His sugar can was on the OPPOSITE side of his hive. This time, I got lazy, and crossed the beeline. I think this was my fatal mistake. What I think happened was that one of his mad dashers ran PLUNK! into my unveiled head, got stuck in my hair, panicked and stung me right on top of my head, about 5 inches above my right brow. YOWZA. And off went the pheromones of the stinging bee, which may have accounted for the several more that landed on me. I could hear at least one still in my hair, and I stumbled into the front yard where my husband was performing some last minute repairs on the RV. I think I yelled every four letter word, and then some, so that the folks in Mansfield must have heard me. That finally got his attention, and he came to my rescue, brushing off the rest of the bees and disentangling the one from my head.

So, well, I guess the upside is that I know I'm not allergic now. And my kids appreciated that I couldn't raise my eyebrow at their antics for 24 hours. BOY did it hurt, though, and I think my veil will see a lot more use from now on!!