Bee Swarms

Bay City, Texas

Weather: low 80 degrees, high 94 degrees, humid, muggy, evening showers

At 0900 hours this morning, the temperature was 85 degrees, but with the humidity it felt like 97 degrees. Double yuck!! Everyone working outside was being cautioned to drink plenty of fluids and pace their activities. At times like this, I'm glad most of my work is in an air conditioned space.

Today was spent fine tuning our planning for the upcoming shut down. The night shift people have changed to their assigned times, and my relief was at work early. At one time, it seemed as though I caught all of the night shifts. I'm glad to say that I haven't worked a night shift in about 12 years. There are a lot of people who thrive on nights, but I'm not one of them. When I did work nights, Carolyn used to comment that I might as well be sleeping in a cave because of the way I tried to stop any light from entering the bedroom. It seemed that if there was the slightest sliver of light, it was going to shine on me as I tried to sleep.

I have known and worked with Bill, the person who asked me to help the facility in the upcoming shut down, for about 20 years. Bill likes to work nights, and when he asked me to help him, he let me know that I couldn't work nights, since he was claiming that shift. Talk about making me happy! We've worked together so much, we understand what each of us likes to do, and the strengths of each. In all that time, I can't remember Bill working days in a shut down, although he probably did. At least once, you would think, but not that I recall.

Work in one area today was brought to a stop by a bee swarm. No one was bitten, and as soon as the bees settled down, the work resumed. If the swarm doesn't move on by itself, the site will have an expert collect them. Bee swarms are fairly common here. I remember one swarm in particular when my brother Terrell and I were on the eighth hole tee box at the golf course. Both of us heard a high pitched whine, but couldn't see what was causing the noise. Suddenly, both of us saw a bee swarm headed at us, about head high. We hit the ground and watched the swarm fly directly over us without slowing down. Whew! That was scary.

More later, be safe.

Today's Town - Jacksonville, Florida: The River City by the Sea

Not all who wander are lost.