Special Guest Blogger

(Well, he should have his own blog; then again, I think everybody should have her/his own blog.)

My brother the scientist sent us this e-mail:

Cynthia,
Harry Potter and the prisoner of . . .

We were attacked by
bees today! Actually it was more like we attacked some bees. They were new age
Zen Buddhist bees, definitely nonviolent. We were out on the Everglades to
retrieve a portable weather station. The bees had built a hive at the base of
the gizmo, in a box we use to protect the battery power source. First we decided
to take the hive (attached to the lid of the box) and throw it as far as we
could. That didn't upset the bees. Half stayed with the lid and the other half
began to build a new hive in the box: a very Zen response to adversity. However
we still could not get at our weather station. So we tied one end of a rope to a
cinder block, the other end to the bumper of our truck, threw the cinder block
in the box and attempted to drag the box away. The box disintegrated and the
bees . . . well they thought it was a blessing to learn the box was inadequate.
They began building a hive on the station itself. So now we have four humans,
males, and two groups of about 1000 bees peacefully coexisting. I'm OK and they
are OK. One smart human say 'if we only had some smoke we could pacify the bees
and remove the weather station'. Of coarse government vehicles always have a
fire extinguisher for safety reasons. That should make some smoke. So we tried
to fire extinguish them. It turned them all white and they buzzed angrily above
our heads (still very nonviolent and very Zen). Finally we sprayed some Deep
Woods Off on the station and the bees flew off to find the original hive. Total
damage no dead bees and two human bee stings. I was stung for hitting a bee with
my hat. The bee felt so bad he sat on my shoulder for five minutes until I
accepted his apology and offer of some honey.
buddy

To which Mommie responded:

Was the bee sting serious? Did you get treatment for it? I didn't know you had
such a dangerous job. At least you did not run in to any alligators.