It occurred to me as I wrote a couple of posts over on Broken Forum that I have had several spider incidents recently and also read a story featuring a giant mechanical spider from outer space. So while the Discovery channel may have its Shark Week, I am dubbing this my Spider Week.
The two spider stories are recounted below, largely unchanged from their appearance on BF:
Two nights ago I went to get ice cream from the deep freezer we have on the deck (we live on the ground floor, it’s not as weird as it sounds) and a spider had built a large web in front of it and was happily perched in the middle of the web. I examined the deep freezer from multiple angles and concluded that the only way to the ice cream was to remove the web.
So I skipped the ice cream.
If I come back in several days to discover a very fat spider in its web and no ice cream in the deep freezer I will be very cross with it.
I generally defer to spiders given their overall beneficial qualities (black widows biting you in the back of the neck excepted) and this is why I chose to leave the spider that had taken up residence in front of the deep freezer alone. I think if I tried to unhook its web (the gentlest way of getting past the spider) I would have ended up wearing it, to the detriment of both the spider and myself.
The other night I went to brush my teeth and a spider was in the sink. It was having quite a bit of trouble navigating its way out and I lamented that it would never escape and that I would be forced to brush my teeth at a different sink. Just as I began to contemplate what to do next the spider disappeared into the drain. I waited what I felt was a respectable length of time then engaged the stopper so the spider could not change its mind. I brushed my teeth.
Afterward it occurred to me that the spider may not have come up from the drain originally but instead may have lowered itself into the sink, unaware of the impossibility of it getting out. If that was the case and my actions caused the spider’s demise in our sewer system, I apologize to all arachnids for my careless act. If, however, the spider mutates to giant size in the sewer and comes back to try to eat me or my neighbors, I’m going to be quite cross with it.