Our attorney lives on a small farm near here, and was doing some mowing yesterday. As Bill returned home, he passed under the low limbs of a holly tree and the roof of the partial cab of his tractor scooped off a swarm (which he had not seen) from its branches, dropping the cluster directly onto him and the hood of the tractor. He was stung about a hundred times on the face and arms. It could have been a real horror story, but Bill kept his wits about him. He lost his glasses, but got the tractor stopped and ran to his home, where his wife beat him with a towel to remove clinging bees. He then took 50 mg of benadryl. All the way to the hospital he was removing stingers. He said his head and shoulders were completely covered by the bees, and he was impressed at how heavy they were. It's unusual to have a swarm this late in the season, let along a big swarm. At the hospital, the emergency room was jammed up (holiday weekend), and he had to wait quite a while for attention. After waiting quite awhile, he was feeling better, so he came back home, took some more benadryl and went to bed. This morning, he went to church. The Lord was good to him. This man is extraordinarily intelligent and gifted, but the thing that impresses me even more is the way he handled this. I know some folks that would be ready to exterminate every bee in the universe, after such an incident. He has just accepted it as a freak accident, and lets it go at that. I told a tale on him at a meeting awhile back. I told how I had dreamed that I died and went to the pearly gates. St. Peter was sitting there in a folding chair, reading a newspaper. He didn't even put the paper down, just tilted it a bit so he could see me, and said, "Hi Dave. Come on in." Well I suppose I was glad about that, but the casualness kind of irritated me, and I stood there, thinking this over. Suddenly St. Peter jumped up and ran off. And a bunch of angels, in choir robes, with hymnals, appeared and began to assemble. St. Peter came back with a long red carpet and unrolled it. More angels joined up and began to play a fanfare with trumpets. The angels began to sing, and, to my amazement, up the red carpet comes Bill. After Bill had been welcomed like royalty and had gone on in, I was still standing there, as St. Peter came back to his folding chair. I told him I wasn't very happy about being almost ignored, while Bill got such a grand reception. He put his hand on my shoulder and looked me into the eye. He said. "I'm sorry, if it offended you, but face the facts. You've got to realize that guys like you are a dime-a-dozen. But this is the first lawyer we've ever had here!" [log in to unmask] Dave Green Hemingway, SC USA The Pollination Scene: http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html The Pollination Home Page: http://www.pollinator.com Jan's Sweetness and Light Shop (Varietal Honeys and Beeswax Candles) http://users.aol.com/SweetnessL/sweetlit.htm