It Looked Plenty Big

Y'all know how much I love nature, right? Especially our friends, the spiders and snakes?

I'm being sarcastic, folks.* I DO NOT like spiders and snakes, or the Jim Stafford song of the same name, because they are creepy. (Yes, I'm including the song in that description.)

However, I know that some of Mother Nature's creatures are our friends, and the orb-weaver spider that was building a web between Pearl's rear-view mirror and the driver side window is on that friend list. These enormous creatures not only doesn't bite and poison me, they traps mosquitoes and flies so the insects will not bite and poison me either. In fact, the world wide web (not to be confused with a spider's web) describes the risk from an orb-weaver thusly:

Venom toxicity - the bite of Orb-Weaving Spiders is of low risk (not toxic) to humans. They are a non-aggressive group of spiders. Seldom bite. Be careful not to walk into their webs at night - the fright of this spider crawling over one's face can be terrifying and may cause a heart attack, particularly to the susceptible over-40-year-olds.

So since it was broad daylight and I could keep the enormous arachnid in my sights, I gingerly got into the car and drove off. You have to give the spider credit for persistence. Here it is after I got to work:

"Wasn't that fun?" I can imagine her saying. "Can we go for another drive? And this time would you leave the window down because I would love to swing this web over and SIT ON YOUR SHOULDER WHILE YOU DRIVE."

Spiders have really sick senses of humor.


*Once one of the Boys said "Mom, could you let me know when you're being sarcastic? I can't always tell."