Today I was out for a ride and got hit by a bee, stinger-first into my lip. Fortunately, I wore my mirrorized glasses today. These came in handy for pulling out the stinger, which was a difficult task considering my whole lip was numb and bleeding. I haven’t been wearing mirrorized glasses much lately, but now I have found out they are a useful tool for emergency facial surgery.
My lip was quickly swelling and I turned to head home, since I was fairly close to a shortcut. Then, my bike suddenly turned back around on the original course to finish my ride. There is something very unsatisfying about prematurely ending a bike ride. I’ve done this on several occasions. Rather then use common sense to go home early (like the times I’ve been cold or out of energy), I talk myself into continuing the ride. Although I wouldn’t advise others to do this, I’ve found that often the bike has healing powers. I’ve ridden on through near bonks, body pain, cold, and mechanical problems to finish a ride feeling good. Usually the rain storms get me though. In this case, the swelling subsided and the pain went away by the end of the ride.
