Spiders in Central Oregon are in a heap of trouble, and so are you. I say that because of a recent article in The Bulletin regarding a woman and her son who allegedly were bitten by so-called hobo spiders in their rental home in Terrebonne.

It is time for the medical community and those who suffer from arachnophobia and other arthropod-tainted fears to get their act in shape.

I've lived in Central Oregon for over 50 years in homes filled with just about every species of "house spider" there is, and have never been "bitten." My children have been exposed to them from the time they were born, and they have never been bitten, chased or otherwise harmed by a spider, and neither have my neighbors or my neighbors' kids.

Thousands upon thousands of people are living here and never experience an alleged "spider bite." So let's get off it! Let us find out what those alleged "bites" really are and what is causing them.

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

By now every road bike geek in America is in a tizzy about the lawsuit- countersuit action between Greg Lemond and bicycle maker Trek. The situation is as exciting for rabid roadies as those Hollywood star split-ups are for celebrity worshipers.

For those of you who aren't in the know, here's how it all came down. On March 20, former Tour de France winner, and American cycling legend, Greg Lemond filed a 41-page lawsuit against bicycle maker Trek claiming, in essence, that Trek wasn't paying attention to the Lemond bike line. The suit can be read online at www.velonews.com.

Trek, which has manufactured the Lemond line of road bikes since 1995 and built it into a $15 million business, struck back with a counter-suit on April 8.

OK, people, listen up! Bees are our friends! Especially bumblebees. Got that? Without those big, scary-looking black and yellow (some orange) buzzers, almost every flowering plant in Central Oregon would have trouble making seeds for new plants.

Yes, soil, water and sunlight are what it takes to keep plants going, but without bumblebees (and other pollinators) plants could not reproduce their kind. So, the next time you have a bumblebee buzzing around your backyard please don't try to kill it, say "thank you," instead.

Bees, and a long list of other insects, depend on flowers to make a living. Commercial beekeepers travel thousands of miles in the spring hauling millions of bees back and forth between California and Canada pollinating everything from celery to peaches to ensure bigger seed crops and better fruit yield.

Your worst fears have been realized as I'm back to guest author this column for two weeks while regular columnist Kevin Grove is in Vietnam on business. What kind of business I don't know. Let's leave it at that.

Trail Talk

One of the best things to happened this past winter was an increase in the number of mountain bike riders riding the Maston Allotment trail. As a result, the trail has become, except for a couple of spots, much more packed and enjoyable.

And what with the cool weather extending so far into April, people looking for an easy, mostly flat, trail to start getting back into mountain bike riding shape should consider a Maston outing.