For some reason, unless they are poisonous or making a mess of my house, I don't really mind spiders. Which is kinda big, considering that below waking up in a burning building - roaches and crickets are my phobias.
When I was little, I remember watching jumping spiders climb on the curtains at my grandmother's house in the mornings. They seemed so brave - lurching at anything that moved despite the fact that they were about 1000th its size. They even have little faces - albeit angry faces.
During the earliest years of my life as a driver, I remember always having a "car-spider." It would leave little strips of silk across flat surfaces, but despite my desire that my car be mirror-clean at all times - I didn't really mind. I doubt it was always the same spider, but I'll never forget the little crab spider that lived in and on my Celica. It turns out - I have a car-spider in my Civic too ... though I don't see it very often.
At work, there has been a tiny spider living at my desk. It had to have been a baby at some point. I know that one day I opened a box of paper under our printer and saw teensie little spiders go running everywhere (much to my boss's chagrin, as he is horribly afraid of any spider). It wasn't long after that I started seeing one about the same size around my computer.
Over the last few months, he's slowly been getting bigger. I don't see him daily, but when I do I try to give him a wide berth to run away from any looming notebooks, pens, etc. The past couple of weeks, I haven't really been at my desk as I was doing some work in another building. So today when I went back to do a few things I had nearly forgotten about Tiny.
I decided to clean my desk, and that's when I saw him take off ... up and over the mouse, pausing at the edge of the mousepad, and a mad dash towards the CPU tower. I went about my cleaning and then got to work, assuming he was safe somewhere in the tangle of wires.
At lunch, I decided to check my email and dragged the keyboard toward me. When I picked it up to put it back, there was Tiny's crumpled little body. For some reason it made me profoundly sad to see him like that and know that I just brought his existence to what was probably, for him, a terrifying halt.
Granted, I've been a little touchy and sad today anyways. I know he's just a spider ... but God made that little spider too. Speaking of my uncharacteristically somber mood - I just love my devotional guide. After a rough night and starting the day on the wrong side of the bed, I opened my Bible to the prescribed chapter and verse, Isaiah 45:7 ... "I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.
So while I started the day feeling I was lost in darkness, God says that even that can be used to grow me in Him. What a terrific reminder. I know His light is coming, and that alone helps diffuse the edginess.
When I was little, I remember watching jumping spiders climb on the curtains at my grandmother's house in the mornings. They seemed so brave - lurching at anything that moved despite the fact that they were about 1000th its size. They even have little faces - albeit angry faces.
During the earliest years of my life as a driver, I remember always having a "car-spider." It would leave little strips of silk across flat surfaces, but despite my desire that my car be mirror-clean at all times - I didn't really mind. I doubt it was always the same spider, but I'll never forget the little crab spider that lived in and on my Celica. It turns out - I have a car-spider in my Civic too ... though I don't see it very often.
At work, there has been a tiny spider living at my desk. It had to have been a baby at some point. I know that one day I opened a box of paper under our printer and saw teensie little spiders go running everywhere (much to my boss's chagrin, as he is horribly afraid of any spider). It wasn't long after that I started seeing one about the same size around my computer.
Over the last few months, he's slowly been getting bigger. I don't see him daily, but when I do I try to give him a wide berth to run away from any looming notebooks, pens, etc. The past couple of weeks, I haven't really been at my desk as I was doing some work in another building. So today when I went back to do a few things I had nearly forgotten about Tiny.
I decided to clean my desk, and that's when I saw him take off ... up and over the mouse, pausing at the edge of the mousepad, and a mad dash towards the CPU tower. I went about my cleaning and then got to work, assuming he was safe somewhere in the tangle of wires.
At lunch, I decided to check my email and dragged the keyboard toward me. When I picked it up to put it back, there was Tiny's crumpled little body. For some reason it made me profoundly sad to see him like that and know that I just brought his existence to what was probably, for him, a terrifying halt.
Granted, I've been a little touchy and sad today anyways. I know he's just a spider ... but God made that little spider too. Speaking of my uncharacteristically somber mood - I just love my devotional guide. After a rough night and starting the day on the wrong side of the bed, I opened my Bible to the prescribed chapter and verse, Isaiah 45:7 ... "I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.
So while I started the day feeling I was lost in darkness, God says that even that can be used to grow me in Him. What a terrific reminder. I know His light is coming, and that alone helps diffuse the edginess.
Hi Amanda,
ReplyDeleteJeff is a link that has a blog where he also discusses spiders.
Puppet
We probably do want to keep spiders away from our CPU.:)
I hope all is well.
Russ
Interesting post.
ReplyDeleteJumping spiders are interesting.
The city I grew up in and lived most of my life in only had very small spiders. But when I moved to a new city, I got Arachnophobia, which I never had before. But that's because all the insects and the spiders were HUGE. My mom has spiders in her kitchen that are the size of your open hand. She also finds scorpions on her towels and other places. Where I live now, I have many spiders of all sorts. The spiders in and outside my house are not as big as the ones my mom has, but I have many black widows and brown widows, and those are dangerous. Their venom attacks the nervous system, and can kill elderly people or infants. Even a healthy person will need to go to the hospital. I have found black and/or brown widows in my garage, inside my mailbox, on my front porch, on the outside walls and windows of my house, etc. Thankfully, I have not found any inside my house yet, though there are other spiders that I have found inside my house.
I have colorful orb weavers just outside my screened-in porch that build large webs, and the spiders get about the size of the palm of your hand. Though they get big, I leave them alone, because they stay in their webs and are not a problem.
When I lived in an apartment in this same city, I found spiders in my shoes 2 or 3 times, and I was bitten by spiders twice. Once was when I was barefoot, sitting at my computer desk. I had 3 pairs of fang marks (holes) in my toe, in a circular fashion. My guess is that the spider may have been trapped by my foot or toe, and could only turn around in a circle. At first it itched a lot, then they formed red marks, then blisters, then the blisters popped. But it never hurt.
Another time, I was sitting at my computer desk, and I watched as a spider, maybe an inch long, walked right over my foot. Even though I watched him walk over my foot, I never felt a thing. I could not even feel him on my foot.
Several times I have found a spider inside my mailbox that is a little larger than a man's thumbnail. Though he is pretty big, he moves out of the way when I put my hand in to get my mail, so I leave him alone. He looks like a jumping spider, but I don't know if jumping spiders get that large (I have always only seen very small jumping spiders). Since he respects me by getting out of the way (or moving off my letters when I pull them out) instead of trying to attack me, I respect him, and let him stay in there as long as he wants.