Pollen Collecting Finals

The Pollen Pavilion here at the Wildwood AOG Venue in California was abuzz as the finals took place. It was feared that this much anticipated event wouldn't take place as large portions of the venue were destroyed by fire, but the Pollen Pavilion had priority as the building team worked tirelessly to restore it to its former glory. With some careful nurturing and the application of grey water from the shower there was plenty of pollen to test the athletes.

Many athletes themselves were stricken by neonicotinoid pesticide poisoning, the application of which causes a horrible death in bees and is considered to be a major cause of the great bee die-off of 2020. Fortunately this venue is free of pesticides and a young bee population is returning to compete.

The finals were further marred by several false starts which rattled nerves further but a clean start was eventually achieved, and Honey Bee, seen here was declared the winner with a record time of thirty two minutes, .005 seconds when she became so loaded with pollen that she could barely fly over the finish line.

In other contests, the third heat in the Hummingbird hovering competition had to be when several pairs were so busy attacking each other (and this reporter who almost lost an eye to one of these 'flying hypodermics) that the heat was cancelled and all contestants were disqualified. 

The human conversation taking place on our sofa last night was, 'what one earth are the Japanese going to do with all the beautiful venues?'  stadiums and gyms that were built to accommodate cheering crowds who aren't allowed because of the Covid pandemic once again rearing its ugly head. Spectators are now shown via the miracle of television at 'watch parties' all over the United States. I loved the videos from the high school in Seward Alaska, home of 17 year old Lydia Jacoby who won the gold medal in the women's 100 meter breastroke. There is only one Olympic sized swimming pool in the entire state of Alaska....