The Battle of the Bees ( or Yellowjackets)

  What a week.  While most of the team members were having food related challenges, I had a different challenge all together, Man Vs Nature.  I felt like I was in the middle of a really bad, really cheesy Sci - Fi Saturday night C rated classic movie made for TV-  titled YELLLOWJACKETS!

      Tuesday morning about 5AM I was awoken with a very sharp, very painful burning sensation about 5Am on my left arm.  I was in so much pain I was screaming and woke my wonderful wife up.  I turned on the light and there dug in deeply on the back of my left forearm was a yellowjacket that was stingging and stingging and stingging me repeatedly.  I think I was in so much 1- Shock and 2- Pain it took my brain a good 3- 5 minutes to realize I was being stung.  We got the wasp off of me (not much to do after that- I am so not allergic to stings) and dead.... but it pissed me off entirely.   The bedroom is supposed to be a secure place, a comfort zone, a place of peace and quiet, and .. well you get the picture.

    So over the weekend was the Sci Fi (sorry always will be Sci Fi to me, and not this new fangled sy-fry) battle of the yellowjackets, where the  hero pulls a MacGyver with a shoe string and some bubble gum.  I could have built a 20 foot flame hose thrower with a propane tank, that would have been a bit of overkill and most definetly would have set the house afire, though it would have most effectivly taken care of the yellowjackets thoroughly.

   The house that we own is an old Victoian with scallop shingles and I knew where the wasps were getting in to- so Saturday, I went to both my local orange and blue home improvement stores and got some supplies, and painted all day long on Saturday some 16 foot clap boards and Sunday I got the ladders out and started tearing out the rotted shingles on the house and went through two cans of bee spray and got most of the bastards ( I think) and put some luan back up to recreate the slope and put up some rubberized ice sheild to seal up the air gaps in the wood... I havent had a chance to put the clapboard back on the house yet, maybe this weekend....

    My wife Steph managed to vaccum up another 35 dead wasps in the bedroom, so not sure what that is all about, will have to dig into it some more this weekend by ripping out some sheet rock around the windows and checking behind it

      So what does this have to do with weight loss?  Sometimes, even with great planning and all the great intentions in the world, our plans tend to go out to left field, out the window and we have to deal with what those darn pesky Fates throw at us as a pitch.  The good news is that I was planning on a nice bike ride, and also working on the treadmill this weekend, the better news is there is less of a chance of me getting stung again and losing sleep.  We are not quitters and we are going to come up with some creative ideas and get to our goals and do what it takes to get the job done, no matter what it is.

Drew