Thursday, October 2, 2008

Month of the Spider


Yesterday was a great day! My first day unemployed. I thought it would be weird, it wasn't it was perfect! The weather was great, it was beautiful all day, not to hot, just cool enough in the morning to make me shiver.

I started out the day by taking the dogs to McClellan for a nice long walk. As we wandered around the mostly deserted grounds, I was taking in all the beauty of the day. The sky was a magnificent shade of blue, the trees are just beginning to shift from green to rusty hues, the grass is still green and fragrant, the breeze was slightly chilly and it was great. While I was observing a particularly beautiful tree my gaze happened to pass through the power lines. There are two about 3 feet apart and strung between these lines was a HUGE spider web. The sun was hitting it just right, so I could see all the shiny spider strings and anchor points. It was quite impressive and cool. Well, I thought it was cool til moments latter when my dogs, which were leading me around because I was gazing around, not paying attention to them led me through a grassy area between a big tree (perfect for doggy elimination) and a stop sign. Apparently this was also the perfect place for another HUGE spider web. I noticed it mere seconds before I was plastered with webbing. I limbo-ed under the web, snapping a few of the anchor lines and having a minor panic attack. I recovered quickly, apologized to the spider, made sure no one saw my antics and paid attention for the rest of the walk. I think my dogs were laughing at me though. However, that wasn't the last spider encounter of the day.

After we returned home, I jumped right into a list of projects I have been looking forward to. A few were tied together because they involved straightening one spot so I could clean up another. I started with the car port, rearranging disheveled summer stuff, gathering all of the pool supplies to store int he basement for the winter, moving the bug and weed killer things like that. I gathered the pool stuff first, several foam noodles, a bucket of chemicals and headed to the basement. I had already avoided Brindle, who loves to chew anything, especially the foam noodles, (he ate an orange one earlier this summer, that was interesting) when I arrived at the basement door, I didn't know it yet but I was about to avoid something else. Yet another spider. this one had build, yes, a HUGE web that covered two-thirds of the entry area to the basement. The web was stretched from the awning above the door to the ground, tacked securly to the wall on the left and partially to the right wall. Well I didnt see it till on of the noodles was pulled strangely to the left by part of the bottom of the web. Again, I limbo-ed, sideways this time. I got the door open and deposited my arm full and proceeded to thrash around a bit, just to make sure the spider wasn't crawling on me somewhere. I checked the web for inhabitants, he was home, way up in the corner of the web and awning. He's one of those fat, furry spiders, the ones that look like the mask of The Predator. They have spiny looking things on their legs and look downright angry. This one was staring at me, two legs poised and ready for, well ready for whatever a nickle size arachnid can do. Again I apologized for damaging his home, web, net, trap, dinner catcher, he gave me a "you jerk, do you have any idea how long it takes me to build this thing" look. I had to break a few of his anchor lines, because I knew I was going to come and go from the basement several time. He stayed in his corner, I stayed in mine.

I tried to take his picture, to feature here in this blog, he denied my request, said I had disrupted his day enough as it was. So I name this, the Month of the Spider, appropriate for October. I'm going back to the basement today, I bet he rebuild his web to cover the whole door this time, probably going to see if he can catch a human. Maybe he just wants to see me do the stupid human 'I got a spider on me' dance again. Stop laughing....!

1 comment:

Liesa said...

Good for you, Lori! The mini and leaving the job... I envy you :)