johan's Journal

Back when i started riding bicycles, i remember seeing a cartoon post card that had a picture of a guy and some bicyclists and the caption was, "Last night i had a dream that thousands of bicyclists took over the world, empowered by their shiny, black shorts."
And i thought that was pretty funny, because it seems so pretentious to wear such clothing. But then i started bicycling and realized the useful properties of such shorts:

• The "skin tightness" helps keep clothing from snagging on handle bars and seat horns.
  
• Most bicycle shorts have padding in the crotch, which any normal person will want if they are sitting on a bicycle seat for an hour or more.
  

But this morning, while riding into work in cut-off stripey fatigue surplus shorts, i discovered a brand new benefit to bicycle shorts.
I was riding to campus through Hyde Park, and i felt something like a little pinch on uh... well, what can only be described as "my inner thigh." Inside the shorts, which are cut off at about knee length. And this didn't really alarm me, but then it started hurting more, and more, and finally i pulled over (and rolled up the leg... i didn't rip my shorts off in someone's front yard...), and as near as i can figure, i got bit on the leg, inside my shorts by a wasp or a bee. A wasp or a bee that had flown into my shorts, up the leg... while i was cruising along at about 10 MPH. Like maybe sucked in by some weird bellowing effect... hell, i don't know. nadreck was kind (and wise) enough to offer some baking soda he'd put in the work frig, and the swelling has gone down.
But damn, i never though i'd have to worry about bees flying into my shorts while i was riding a bicycle, though i doubt it would have happened if i had been wearing my pretentious nylon-lycra, bicycling shorts...