Attack of the Killer Bees
We spent the next few days lazily enjoying the general area. D1 flew home and was replaced with my California cousin, and her DH; my Dad (a CA native) flew in from Texas the same day. After his arrival, Dad wanted to take a walk. We walked all the way to Clint Eastwood’s place, the Mission Ranch Inn, to meet the rest of the crew for dinner, which is probably 3 miles away. Dad is 81, but he walks fast, so fast it is hard for me to keep up. Still, I could tell that walk was a challenge for him. At least it was mostly level. For those of you not familiar with Carmel, it is a grid of quaint streets that are laid in a steep descent to the ocean below. Our rental is on the down side, only one street away from the ocean, which is a lovely walk after dinner in the evenings, but very challenging when going up to town. Dad would always insist on walking to town and would resist stopping to rest, which worried me, as I could tell he was working pretty hard. But he is stubborn.
DH flew home for several days to work on an important business deal, but I had my family here, so all was well. My cousin and her DH have bad knees, so one day they rebelled against the incline and insisted we drive up and park for lunch. That was fine, but it was a beautiful day, so after lunch I told them to go home without me so I could walk a bit and enjoy the sunshine and fresh air.
I was almost down to the bottom of town, when through my thin long sleeved shirt, I felt something stinging my arm. I looked down and saw a bee on my arm. When I tried to brush it off, I realized several bees were buzzing around me, stinging me repeatedly. I ran off, trying to get away, but a few followed me, seemingly quite angry/aggressive. One even got caught in my hair, which set me off in a panic. It finally managed to free itself and got me one last time before I was able to get away from them. I have no idea why they attacked me. I had not brushed up against any vegetation or stepped on a nest or anything. There were a lot of other people walking in my vicinity (this was “Car Week,” when the town is invaded by hundreds of classic cars, expensive sports cars, and tourists of many nationalities for a week of festivities), none of whom seemed to be bothered.
When I got home, my horrified family went to work, providing benadryl, an ice pack, and a heroine in the form of my cousin, who brought out the tweezers to pull out all the stingers. I had at least 8 stings, just on my arm. All of these interventions helped, and within hours, the stinging subsided a bit and the swelling decreased. As of today, several days later, my arm is covered with angry red patches, but they mainly just itch a bit. My cousin is an over packer, and she happened to have anti itch gel, which has helped greatly.
Cousin went home, and Dad and I explored the area a bit more and even made it out to the Monterey Aquarium. Another cousin came to visit (all of Dad’s family lives in CA), and everyone went home yesterday. I am enjoying the solitude. The only down side is that now I’m very wary when walking around town. Morbid thoughts of future bee stings and anaphylaxis bother me as I walk by the VAST amounts of floral vegetation that make Carmel so beautiful. All I need is another phobia. Sigh.
On a positive note, DH returns tomorrow for our last week here.