On another note, I had a nature encounter earlier this week that Mom has encouraged me to tell about. I was walking out the sunroom slider one morning looking for the dogs' red chewy toys when I walked right through a huge spider web that I didn't see. I must have gone right through the middle of it cause the threads were all tangled in my hair and face which I tried to brush away. I came inside the house, still trying to disentangle and I paused in front of the family room mirror, looking sideways at my reflection. And, there it was (sit down, Ben) -- the biggest spider I've seen in awhile was vigorously trying to scamper down the back of my shirt. I shrieked (not quite as girly as Ben), grabbed Boris and threw him to the floor immediately. I don't remember much after that - I think Mom escorted Boris outside where he belonged and the dogs were no help. That's my story and I'm sticking by it.
My brother Ben is terrified of spiders, FYI. One time there was a huge web with a gigantic hairy spider at the center (I'm guessing the same orange kind) that was set up right in front of our backyard light. You didn't see it until you came around the corner, and then it was right at your eye-level being illuminated by the light (this was at night). My dad discovered this one without walking into it, and decided to invite Ben out to see it without telling him what it was. Apparently Ben "shrieked like a girl" and jumped away when he saw the spider. I wish I could have been there.
**Update: found a picture of the species. It's a common Orb Weaving Spider, probably a Jewelled Araneus. They rarely bite, but I've read that their bites actually do some damage.**
5 comments:
Are you spamming your own site just to get comments, Ryan? Pathetic.
What the hell is this crap? I've never had this happen before!
DELETED! Do you have this problem, Jon?
Not like that. Once in a while I used to get one of those online casino gibberish comments but they were always on months-old posts. But never with this prefatory BS like "love your blog"!
By the way, whenever I walk under a low-hanging tree branch or between two trees at night, I reflexively raise my forearm in front of my face because many years ago I was on a walk with my Dad and I walked right through an intricate 5-foot web across the sidewalk. It really crackled as I broke through it.
Those webs really are strong. Remember the pre-9/11 Spider-Man teaser trailer in which a helicopter gets caught in a giant web spun between the WTC towers? Totally plausible.
We have a couple of these spiders building their webs outside our front door. We've been googling to find their name and yours was one of the pics that came up. Wish I could find a pic of the male! I've enjoyed shooting the web that one of these spiders has been maintaining. We're calling the web project outside our door "Rose Red" and have named them after characters from the movie. They just build and build and build!
Post a Comment