Walking into the carport just barely doesn’t require me to bow down. Every time I went to and from Sassy the Subaru my head moved right under the entrance to that yellowjacket nest. My guardian angel finally just turned my face a few more feet away and made me look death in the face. Jaw dropped. Eyes wide. Slowly backing away. My guardian angel probably let it go for so long because I brag too much about situational awareness. I think my guardian angel likes to point out to me that he’s much better at it than I am. I’m good with that.
Anyway, I found my yellowjacket spray and waited until 4:30 AM the next morning. The one below, in the kitchen, followed me into the house after the spraying:
At daylight, I saw that these had dropped underneath the nest:
Although it was night, although I had sprayed them, a half-dozen+ others followed me to the door of the rectory, dropping to the ground as I went, too weak to sting because of the spray. But they tried. That morning I saw that the nest was half melted away, but that they were busy reconstructing it already. That got sprayed again, and then one more time.
There was a second one as well. Now gone as well.
Such beasts can be deadly to me, not because I’m allergic, but because of a hereditary malady. If they get me in the neck or face, that might well mean death.
It’s not that long ago that I happened upon a good friend who is deadly allergic, and he just got stung well over a hundred times, just as I pulled up to his house. I rushed him down the mountain and got hold of the police and EMTs. They gave him an EpiPen jab literally a few seconds away from death. Thank you guardian angel.
We might be staring death in the face anytime, anywhere, when least expected. Our guardian angels want us to be prepared for when the Lord calls.
You know what that means: Go to Confession! That’s where we thank our Lord for dying for us, you know, so that we could say:
- “Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).
I’m forever saying, “I wanna go to heaven!” But I think my guardian angel just rolls his eyes saying that I’m just so very not ready, not yet anyway. Perhaps when I am ready, he will just let a few well placed stings get through. Thanks, guardian angel.
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 
I had to google ‘yellow jackets’ and discovered that that is what we call ‘wasps’ in Britain. However the American ones do look considerably larger than our home grown wasps. >
I went to Mass Saturday morning. We also had a Diocese-wide Adoration scheduled with the Bishop and many Priests because we had zero Ordinations this year! I asked Father after morning Mass if he would be hearing Confessions, given the imminent Adoration, and he said “yes.” I said “good, I’m such a sinner!”
Silly me! I finally noticed there were signs all over the narthex informing all that there would be several extra sites for Confession during Adoration. Sometimes I wonder if I know anything at all.