Reality Becomes Cartoon

A few days ago I found the front door open about a foot. I thought about all the creepy crawlies that had probably used the opportunity to sleeze into the house and last night I saw one. I was sitting at the computer, decided it was time for bed, got up, turned around and across the bedroom-turned-office ran a huge wolf spider (we always call them garden spiders).

I grab my shoe to go after him and he happens upon a plastic baggy (my office looks like a natural disaster of papers and baggies are used to hold 3 X 5 index cards to name plants) sitting on the floor. He is at sonic speeds but when he hits that plastic, the legs are going 90 miles a second but the spider is spinning his wheels. He is ice skating on plastic. I started laughing so hard I couldn't get a good aim and he got away. I hate killing big monsters but then I don't like finding them crawling in my home. Maybe I'll find him again and use a glass and get him out during more daylight hours.

This spider is kind of fascinating - it does and can bite but I beleive you have to catch him/her and pinch the snot out of it to get the bite. The spider also carries its young for a while - if you come across a wolf spider and it's butt end looks huge and furry, that's a lot of babies clinging to its mom being protected by her. If you cause her to make a sudden move, a few of the babies will fall off and then run back to get on board again. I used to be terrified of these, don't like to be surprised by them still as they do become huge but if possible they go out - unless it is very late, I am dressed for bed and my only choice is to protect myself for the night. Just remember a spider is a gardening buddy - he's eating bugs that can do major damage.