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Frickin' killer bees.

So, it was really dusty outside. Really, really dusty. So dusty that I had to go out with a hose and wet down the road outside so that the dust wouldn't completely fill the air when cars drove by.

Unfortunately, the road outside was huge, three lanes in either direction. I didn't have to hose it all down, thankfully, just the bit in front of the house, and, more specifically, just the upwind parts. If I had to do much more, it would have dried and became dusty again before I finished. I think Sysiphus had the wrong metaphor.

I turned around after finishing the far side of the road, and this bee was hanging in the air about six feet from me. When I say,'bee,' I mean,'huge frickin' yellowjacket,' but I may have been exaggerating a bit out of fear. He was definitely pointed at me, and started creeping toward me. Ever one to be afraid of bees, I backed away.

And fell down, driving my elbow into the soft earth at the side of the road. I rolled over and stood up, looking down at the hole I left in the ground. From which rose another frickin' yellowjacket.

Bastards.

The second bee (yes, I know, yellowjackets are hornets, not bees) kind of flew up to flank his buddy. I had read that squished yellowjackets release a pheromone that drives nearby yellowjackets into a stinging frenzy. This generally affects yellowjackets within about 15'. If there were a nest nearby, I really didn't want to smush either, or both, of these.

But, I did have a hose, so I tried to knock them out of the air with the stream of water. Not only did it not finish them or dissuade them, but the bloody things kept flying toward me, creeping really slowly in the air. I don't think I've ever seen bees fly that slowly, and in that controlled a fashion. I was backing away, concentrating on hitting them with the stream of water, when I had the strange notion that they were backing me into something. They weren't after me, but were trying to get me to walk into a big swarm of their buddies, or, as became very, very obvious to me, into the road, in front of a bus.

I turned around to see what I was backing into, and promptly woke up.

I hate bees.

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