Sluggish Attraction
I am attracted to sluggishness, or rather sluggishness is attracted to me.
Thinking back, I can recall an incident when I was in elementary school. I remember the coat I had, it was a pretty blue and rather bold for what I was used to. It was made from a nylon type fabric which to me was a very cool thing indeed. It was silky and soft, so smooth to the touch and just a hint of a shiny appearance with a thin padded filling with a lining out of the same material. It felt as soft and silky on the inside as the outside. It had silver snaps instead of a zipper or buttons. The pockets were big and roomy with their own flap and snap closures. The length was long enough to have a flap across the lower back with a silver snap there as well. I thought I was quite the fashion statement and I loved that coat. I remember that it must have been winter time because I had not worn the wonderful coat for several weeks while warmer gear was needed, the coat was idling its time on a hanger in the middle of the rack of coats by the front door during the cold snap.
One morning I was dressed and ready to head out the front door to the bus stop and grabbed that blue coat to slip it on before dashing out. Slipping my arm into the sleeve, I awoke a bee and was stung on the tip of my middle finger. Swelling and heat began immediately.
The bus came. My siblings got on but I did not for my hand and arm were much too painful to move. A day full of cool water baths between plasters made from baking soda along with gobbled aspirin kept me busy and comfortable until I could resume normal school activities the next day with only lingering swelling and discomfort. My teachers questioned me about getting stung in the winter time but a note from my Mom confirmed my plight.
Fast forward to current day.
I have been working through a crib of hardwood for our premium firewood bundles. This wood had been split and stacked during the heat of the summer and has been sitting either in the bull barn or the show barn since the beginning of the rain back in the fall. I had been noticing insects as been the norm, very slow moving flies and a couple of tuxedo bugs get disturbed as I jostle the wood pieces around. I casually smash them and discard quickly so I can continue with bundling. I also noticed more than the usual concentration of hibernating bees, they are typically found as individuals but do see them in clumps of 3 or 4 at a time. They have been finding a good comfy crib of stacked wood to be a nice place to hang around, and I squished several during my morning session of bundling.
The afternoon was busy with barn cleaning. Mike was running the tractors and I was keeping the heifers, steers, or cows out of the barn during his scooping time. Real easy work. While Mike was hauling loads of manure up the road to disperse in the far, far field I busied myself with cleaning up the bundling station. I moved the final few pieces of firewood from the premium crib, swept up the small pieces and tidied up. There must have been one snoozing bee in the middle of my cleaning up because he found me and stung right at the nape of my neck.
Bees that are this sluggish rarely sting and when they do they are not as potent as during the very hot summer months but this guy got me good and gave me an immediate headache. Benadryl was not too far away so swelling was practically non-existent (for my standards) but it was a good reminder not to be too far away from my antihistamine supply.
Most people don’t get stung during the sluggish time of year, I must be very attractive to those types.