BEES IN THE BONNET

I've been sick this week and debated whether or not I should go on our weekend ride. I figured the fresh air would do me good, so I headed out Saturday morning. It was a brisk start, 54 degrees, but I was dressed warmly enough.

It was a 40-mile ride and we were going at a pretty slow pace. Yet for some reason I kept on lagging behind. I just assumed my body wasn't recovered enough from being sick. We had to stop for a flat after 15 miles, and as I was taking a break and walking around, someone asked me "what's that squeaking noise?" Turns out my rear brakes were rubbing slightly against my wheel, which explained why I was struggling during the ride. It was a dumb oversight on my part, but the ride was obviously much easier after I fixed my brakes.

Since this is southern California in January, things warmed up a bit. It was 78 degrees when we finished. The warm weather brought an unexpected problem for us: bees.They were all along the river trail. One of our riders got stung in the back of the neck: not too serious, but it left quite a welt. As for me, I had a bizarre bee encounter: I was riding along and a bee flew into one of the vent in my helmet and smacked me in the head. Then somehow he got tangled up in my hair or got stuck under my helmet and couldn't get out. I'm not sure what it would feel like to get stung on the scalp, but I didn't want to agitate the bee and find out. I very quickly (and as calmly as possible) stopped my bike, took the hemet off and freed the bee. One of our riders is allergic to bee stings; we'll be making sure he carries his bee sting EpiPen from now on.