Saying yes...

Apparently TypePad is now Helping Jennifer...

I can no longer comment on my own posts. This must be a sign... from TypePad... letting me know I gave up posting,... stopped blogging. Either that, or in a weary state, I marked myself as spam.

Helping Jennifer

Testing, testing... is this thing on?? I used to be able to operate this blog in my sleep, and did, for years.

So, as a favor to Thundra, who did me a favor, I am putting up a post. You see, Thundra actually helped me... identify a speedra.

We've had a large speedra living in our porch light for at least the past month. YL kept commenting on how fast it was and how LARGE it was. Whenever I looked up, I only saw insect remnants and a spider that looked no larger than a nickel, which to me, is big, but not terrifying, at least from that distance.  I pointed it out one evening, pretty sure she'd say yes, that was it. When I did, she said, "Oh no, Mom. That's nothing, this spider is BIG! And FAST!" I hated that spider... but it was outside, so I resisted the urge to give the lamp a Silkwood shower and left it alone.

I'd look though... whenever I passed by... not sure if I wanted to see it or not. I looked, mainly to see if I could see it right before it attacked me. I'd look when I got out of the car. I looked when I walked by. I looked, especially when unlocking the front door. One day, when YL and I were returning home, I was unlocking the door, but was not looking at the lock. Instead, I was looking off to the right, at the light. Was the speedra going to attack when my hands were full?? This was when I felt the knob turn in my heads and I uttered a gutteral, "Uhhhhhhh, oh my GOD!" I heard EL on the other side of the door, laughing. "You thought I was the spider, didn't you??" Yes, yes, I did. Somehow it made sense. The evil speedra had gotten inside and was waiting to welcome me home... to my death.

One night, last week, I finally saw the legs. Holy mother of gawd... I did not want to see what was attached to those legs. I knew it was outside, and it was doing the good that spiders do, but still, it's getting colder. I did not want that spider deciding to let itself in. I thought again of hosing it out, but nature beat me to it. Ah yes, late yesterday afternoon, we had a powerful storm where it rained sideways. I didn't give the lamp much thought, but was more concerned about the doorframe I had just painted. After the storm passed, Grizzled went out to check on something and realized YL had left an umbrella on the porch. He opened it to let it dry out when he saw something on it...

THE SPEEDRA!!!

The rain had come down (or sideways) and washed the spider out... onto the umbrella... Grizzled shook it off away from the house, but I wanted to be sure it would not be stalking us... me... I emailed Thundra... asking for help. Heh.

At first Thundra thought it might be a wolf speedra (I was afraid of that), but after me mentioning that although it prefered to hide behind the portion of the lamp attached to the house, there was a web. Wolf Speedras don't do webs, m'ok? Thundra then figured out it was a grass speedra... a grass speedra which is more afraid of humans than this human is afraid of it.

These spiders are docile and non-aggressive. They will flee at the first sign of a threat and will not bite unless they feel threatened without an option to escape. (e.g. - Trying to pick the spider up).

Thundra suspected I would not be trying to pick it up. He was, and is, correct. 

Reading further, I read that this one was most likely a female as they tend to stay on the web... males on the other hand "...spend most of their adult life wandering in search of a mate. Shortly after mating, the male often dies." 

Heh! Sucks to suck!

And speaking of speedras in search of luv... I'm really glad I don't live in CA right now!

This song springs to mind... :)

Heed the Orb!!!

Snag brew... spotted at Costco

One guess...

I had to clean out a rarely used cupboard over the fridge so we could rip the cupboard down. It seems the new "regular" refrigerators they sell now don't fit in "regular" old houses. Anyhow... all that aside... look what I found!!!

FYI... (non-blogging w/bonus photo)

No, I've got no time, but here's a photo... of my office window... looking out at the new bird feeder that is attracting all sorts of leetle birds... which are then attracting my neighbor's cat. Pffft. As bimler said on FB... it looks like I've got a cat feeder.

The animal feeder (rabbits are loving the stuff that falls on the ground) is filled with a "gourmet blend" for teeny-tiny birds... On Wednesday, I had my first real life encounter with an Indigo Bunting. I took a photo... through the screen... with my cell phone. It looked like crap and will not be posted. If you have not seen an Indigo Bunting... I hope at some point you do. It's like seeing a Blue Raspberry Slurpy flying around! It's like nothing should be that blue in nature and be REAL! But it was. It was glorious.

OK... back to no time...

 

“Be grateful for luck. Pay the thunder no mind - listen to the birds. And don't hate nobody.”

We had plenty of luck this past week... but none when it came to seeing thunder. I heard thunder (he sounded nicer than his political posts would have you believe)... but I did not see thunder. I guess that's right. You see lightning... but you will not see thunder... even if you're only 10 freaking miles away...  because your 21st Century technology will fail you. Thunder will be lurking... waiting for you, but you will go hurtling past.

I was also in the vicinity of BG... had I been doing this trip again, I would plan differently, remembering all of the people who might be in my path. Oh well.

A random sampling of quotes from the past week???

(this one to be said in very dry, ironic tones) "Wow... two first in 24 hours... an Applebee's and a thud toilet." -- EL

"Who wants to pull over for a ham/pickle roll-up and a Coke??" -- Grizzled

"Fuck Cabin John Parkway!!!" -- Grizzled and Jennifer... many times...

Blogging may or may not resume.

 

Too good not to share...

h/t Karla

Notice: Closed by Mental Health Dept. due to spring fever...

Someone asked me if I was so undone by the passing of Davy Jones that I could no longer post. :) No, that's not the case. Life has been calling in other directions and I've had little time or inclination to put stuff up here other than filler. While the occasional filler is ok... like breadcrumbs in a meatball... I found the blog was slowly being turned into a Pink Slime factory. Best to put it on pause.

Enjoy the weather!!!

Breaking a Sweat for Von...

Inspired by Substance's comment at Kathleen's... Kathleen, who is not breaking a sweat by training...