There’s been a big colony of honeybees in the park near my house for the past year at least.

When I was at work yesterday, more than 1000 of them set up camp on the roof gutter over my 2nd floor balcony.

They looked like harmless honeybees. Feeling guilt over my mass killing of wood wasps (not at all aggressive, but look scary) a few years ago, I hired a beekeeper to do a live removal. He confirmed they are honeybees. Cost will be $175, and turnaround is less than 24 hours from call to removal.

On that topic, last Thanksgiving my grandmother was stung by a bee for the first time in her life at age 91 as she was prewashing dishes before putting them into the dishwasher.

I couldn’t believe it at first. But I’ve only been stung twice in my 23 years as an adult, both times stepping on one barefoot. The other few times were when I went to a tiny private elementary school in a forested area that had lots of bees that aggressively bothered you if you had any food, and frequently got inside. Probably had five stings over 3 years.