Posts for category ‘nature’s fury’

The weather has changed, and the spiders are taking that as an invitation to parade around our house as if they own it. In my old(er) age, I’m becoming slightly less concerned about immediately squishing them with 17 layers of paper towels. Lately I’ve been giving them a good look, marveling at the variety of body shape and size and color and texture and even, for a few seconds, thinking “maybe I should let it go.” When I come across box elder bugs or beetles or other visible insects in the house, I generally do scoop them up on a piece of paper and shake them out in the yard so they can go out and fulfil their destinies.

I’ve tried, over the years, to take a rational approach to my fear and tell myself they are just like other bugs, they just happen to have eight legs and two extra legs is no reason to get my adrenaline pumping. When I was a kid, I had the classic Margaret Bloy Graham book Be Nice to Spiders. It’s all about the wonderful ways spiders enrich our lives! Hooray! I think my mom hoped this book would help me not totally lose my shit every time I was within a ten-foot radius of a daddy long-legs. Alas. When my mom married my stepdad, I have to say I was happy to have a man around for spider-killing duties. If I found one in my room I went and got Ed, a WWII vet, who would kill it with his bare fingers and say, “I think I broke its back.” My husband acts calm when called upon to deal with spiders, but I can tell by the intensity of his shoe-grinding or tissue-squeezing that he’s really a little bit afraid, too.

The internet, which is always right, says that arachnophobia is the most common of the phobias. Suggested treatments include anti-anxiety medication, hypnosis, psychotherapy, and homeopathic herbs. I guess I should be grateful I don’t have the phobia so bad that I feel I require medication. It would be nice to see a spider as just another creature and not have my immediate impulse be KILL! KILL! KILL! Maybe I should just let them go. After all, usually when I spot them they’re making tracks to their hidey-holes. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Ignorance would probably be bliss. And I guess I should just glad I don’t live in in the southern hemisphere, where there are giant bird-eating spiders, as I learned from Justine Larbalestier’s blog. Which I’m not even going to link to because I don’t want you to see something you’re not prepared for.

Thanks for listening. And now, back to your regularly scheduled obsessing over the elections!

A few years ago, G. was going to the chiropractor for some major back trouble. His chiropractor had a mini-Liberty-bell-looking thing he called the Well Bell, and when patients finally got their crooked bodies straightened out, they got to ring it. When I woke up this morning, I could tell I was myself again. Whew. Not only did I work and gym and grocery shop today, I didn’t even nap, not a wink.

The audiobook for Sweethearts became available today in its CD form…the download is not available until August 12. Once I get my mental faculties up and running, I will be holding some sort of a contest with the Story of a Girl audiobook as the prize. Whoopee! Just give me some time to think. Creative contests are not my strength, especially when the most awesome contest ever has already been done.

The baby swallows are stressing me out. I have to close the blinds while I work because every time they crane their necks for food, half of them look like they’re going to fall out of the nest and I stare until they get their wings and heads all settled and safe-looking. Then, two seconds later, the mom comes with more food and it happens all over again. All. Day. It’s just like when my sister and I were hiking at Grand Canyon and parents didn’t seem to be paying enough attention to the children who frolicked immediately adjacent to the precipice. I just can’t mind my own business.

I had high hopes of returning to my former glory today, but the bod says no and if there’s one thing I learned in the last seven days is don’t make the bod do what the bod is not ready to. Three-hour naps (sometimes two) have been the norm.

One of the baby swallows fell out of the nest yesterday. It seemed uninjured other than the fact that it couldn’t get back to the nest, so after some discussion, G. and I decided to put it back in. I picked it up, climbed the ladder, and placed it back in there with its four siblings.  The internet confirmed it was a nestling and not a fledgling, and that it’s okay to do this, so…whew. They are very cute/strange/funny looking. I didn’t take this picture and it’s not of the nest here, but this is exactly what they look like right now:

When mom is flying by with regurgitated deliciousness -

When at rest -

I guess their huge, bright, funny lookin’ mouths are there to create an easy target for feeding. There are also goldfinches, regular finches, sparrows, and hummingbirds in the back yard. I’ve been taking or trying to take some pictures with the T-70 but haven’t sent the film off yet.

- Obtain a copy of E. Lockhart’s Dramarama. Rent or Netflix Stagedoor. Watch the documentary about a real performing arts camp first, then read E.’s book set at a made up one. Then put on your tap shoes!

- Spend a day YouTubing Harvey Korman, may he rest in peace. 

- Read the ARC of Andrew Auseon’s Jo-Jo and the Fiendish Lot that you picked up at BEA, and then send it to me.

- Stay indoors. No, really. I’m not kidding.

It is May 1. It is snowing. My tulips are craning their little necks, looking for the sun, only to be snowed upon.

(Okay, I know it doesn’t look that drastic, but trust me – big flakes are falling from the sky! They just aren’t really sticking.)

I took a little trip to the King’s English yesterday and picked up my shiny, shiny copy of The Adoration of Jenna Fox. I can’t wait! I also got Sarah Dessen’s Lock and Key, and The Collected Stories of Carson McCullers. Though The Member of the Wedding is one of my favorites, and I love The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, I’ve somehow never read any of her shorter stories. My friend Dawn has ordered me to read “The Sojourner,” and so I will. I always do what Dawn tells me to.

I’m headed out of Utah tomorrow morning for the weekend, without my laptop or any other real technology, so I’ll see you back here on Monday or possibly Tuesday. I’ll miss you!