Day of the bees
I’m not sure exactly why, but pretty much every time I’ve gone out on the bicycle this spring or summer I’ve ended up being rammed by a variety of winged buzzing insects, including lots of bumblebees (here I am, rolling along at 30 km/h, and then I see this small black and yellow blob shooting towards me, followed by a crack, thud, or smack.)
Today I had the most amusing variant of this; I heard the crack, then heard some indignant buzzing sounds from inside my helmet. I shook my head, but something still didn’t feel right, so I pulled over and stopped ~1km down the line, took off my helmet, and there was a stunned bumblebee trying to shakily clean herself off before either flying away or doing a suicide attack against my scalp. I helped her decide by blowing her out of my helmet into the weeds by the side of the road, and then rode off before she changed her mind and hopped back onto the xtracycle bus for the rest of the trip out to Rugg Road.
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In my case, I don’t think it’s the color of the jersey that’s the problem; I’ve got a whole bunch of shirts, and none of them are even close to yellow (if I want a light-colored wool jersey, I have to get one with pockets, and my vanity draws the line there) but the deadly rain of bestingered death comes down no matter which one I wear.
At least I’ve not eaten a bee yet; many of the rural roads around here serve as public houses for what passes for blackflies in this part of Oregon, and I don’t even want to think how many of those things have found their way into my mouth and nose as I go down the road.
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I had this ALL the time when I had a yellow jersey I loved…