I seem to have always disliked spiders. I'm no sure why. I don't remember any reason for disliking them, but for me they have always been on par with moths. I don't like moths either.
When I lived in Prague, the locals had a belief that spiders in a home brought the members of the household good luck. That little piece of their belief system helped moved the spiders up the ladder from dislike to a begrudging admiration. Not always, but most of the time.
It has helped me to become respectfully fascinated by springtime writing spiders we see, which prompts us to bring out "Charlotte's Web" (the original, though we enjoyed the live action one.) On the flip side, our house is covered with "Irish lace" or as our kids say, "our house looks old" and "look at all the spider webs." Lots and lots of spider webs. I have been doing my best to give them the wide berth and respect they need and they seemed to be giving us ours.
This was the weekend of the spiders.
Friday the kids were in their room and started screaming: SPIDER! And it was a spider. Great thick, long legs, petite body. A beautiful spider, but huge…. To be honest, I'm not sure why the kids were screaming. It was six feet away…I think they were just enjoying a good collegial scream.
Saturday I took a break from spiders and visited a new brick-house development in Leland (Grayson's Park) for a real estate profile story. Brand new homes. Not one spider visible…anywhere. I'd move there just for that alone!
But Sunday was (to me) "Spider Day." Philip and I spent the day cleaning out the garage. A compelling variety of spiders, rejected by their Irish lace cousins of the house, have been relegated to our garage, a repository for all the elements that one day will rightfully join their wood and drywall cousins in our house. So, in full disclosure, Sunday I spent more time sweeping an array of spiders out of the garage, swatting mosquitoes (they remain on my "I hate" list) and sweating than collecting Polly Pockets pieces. [Informal score card: Spiders 28, Polly Pockets 0.]
Mind you, the spiders are welcome to find temporary housing in our garage, but they definitely need to move on once we regain superior control over that space. (And I'll give them a tip: don't join your Irish lace cousins, because do we have plans for them!)
p.s. I'm sure you are glad my camera remains broken…or this, too, would have been documented.
I'd like to update this post by commenting on miserable fire ants and the mosquito. Both made their presence known to me this week and I'd like to move them up the ladder.
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