Re: st-digest V2001 #78

["Phil Gurney" <p.gurney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My worst experience with a bee was with a full face helmet (I love my flip
up helmet) - going from Bath to Blandford Forum in the UK (my regular
40-mile commute at the time) one summer's day I hit a bee just as you are
coming into Blandford on a downhill stretch with traffic lights at the end.
I hate bees at the best of times, and I've been known to run when I hear one
buzzing around me (skips long story of beehive on a farm where I spent
summer as a kid) so I wasn't happy, but it seemed to have smacked into me
then bounced off, and I did a quick check at the lights - no problems.

A minute or so later, just where the road goes up to crest, at the same time
curving to the left, and there's a blind entrance to a field on the left
side of the road, the bee, which had in fact only fallen into my beard,
revived, and started crawling about.  I panicked, lost control, went up over
the crest on the wrong (right) side of the road, then managed to pull over
to the left and stop, drop the bike, and run around like a mad thing trying
to work out how to get the helmet off without angering the bee - being an
irrational fear I didn't care if I got stung, I just wanted the damn thing
to go away.  In the end I managed, but the people passing, seeing someone
with a dropped bike running around like a madman on the side of the road
clawing at his helmet must have wondered what was going on...  If only I'd
had my N100 then...

On a side note, someone crashed their car just outside Melbourne yesterday -
and when the emergency services got there, they found that he was covered in
snake bites (Tiger snake) - couldn't decide if the guy was bitten as he was
driving (causing the crash) or if he was bitten before, and decided to make
a dash for the hospital, and couldn't make it.

Phil


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