Yeeowtch!

Beautiful fall weather, good music with friends, and delicious food all conspired to make for a pretty terrific time on Saturday last. I started out the day playing tunes for the Gateway Greening Harvest Fair, mentioned elswhere in these pages. About half a dozen of us showed up with banjos, fiddles, guitars, and mandolins in tow. A few people danced a little and all seemed to be having a great time. If it hadn't been for the bees getting their two-cents in, things would have been about perfect.

About the time that the pot-luck lunch started being served, the bees became very interested in what we humans were up to. Bill, our fiddler got a sting on his bow hand. Not enough of a problem to keep him from playing, but from all reports it stung pretty good for the rest of the day. Then I took a drink of home made cider. It tasted so good! Unfortunately, it had a little extra kick to it; a bee had been drinking out of the cup and took objection to my drinking him! Yeeowtch! A bee sting to the tongue! I don't recommend it.



My tongue hurt like heck for a few minutes, then swelled up to twice its normal size. I couldn't talk clearly, couldn't swallow. Then it got numb for a while. Then the pain came back even worse. Someone mentioned that Benedryl would reduce the swelling, so I traipsed over to the local drug store and picked some up. It did help, but made me so sleepy that I had to follow it with large doses of coffee and a really nasty tasting "energy drink" to stay awake.

Could have been worse, though I suppose. It didn't stop me from playing a real nice gig in the afternoon with the Mound City Slickers and special guests. We played for a church group out at a horse farm in far western St. Louis County. The people were all as nice as could be and they seemed to enjoy dancing. Mac McKeever called the dances. He's an expert at getting people up on their feet and calling dances that are fun and make them want to dance some more. We're always glad to play for a dance with Mac calling.

Again, the weather couldn't have been nicer; sunny, cool, crisp, but not too cold to play comfortably. Here's hoping for a lot more days like this and a lot more time to play fiddle tunes.