Tag: animals

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Eek! There’s a Spider in My Blog!

Over the summer, we had a big brown spider in residence between our top kitchen window and the storm window. I shuddered every time I saw this spider, but it was impossible to get at unless I totally took our windows out. Two weeks ago, I finally did take the windows out, cleaned up the cobwebs and killed that spider. Then this morning, I saw THIS perched in my window!

She had just started building her messy web in between the window and the screen. On my freshly WASHED window!

Well, this was war. I didn’t shirk; I opened the window, killed that spider with a fly swatter, and cleaned up that web!

This isn’t the only time I’ve had a spider conflict. Here’s an email I received from an old adversary many years ago:

Dear Ginny,

I imagine you’re surprised to hear from me. You should be. I’m still pretty po’d at you. Throwing me in the garbage like that really ticked me off. I mean, who the &#$@ do you think you are? So I took off. I made it back to Des Plaines with Ed. It was freakin’ cold on that roof rack (not that you would care). Ed let me come inside with him (and he didn’t throw me in the ~&@*ing garbage, unlike some people I know). I was just hangin’ around (get it?) when I fell into Ed’s computer. Now I’m stuck in cyberspace. It’s like I’m in freakin’ TRON. I keep getting bombarded with junk e-mails (mostly get-rich-quick gimmicks, if you must know), and I’m thinking maybe the garbage at Ginny’s wasn’t so bad after all. I suppose I did kind of sneak up on you. Maybe I did startle you a bit. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m sorry.

Sincerely,

Little Spider

That’s the last I ever heard from Little Spider…or is it?

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Animal Sightings

This may not be the best list, but I’ve posted a list for the last seven Mondays and I don’t want to break a good habit. I really missed blogging while I was in Iowa, and the more I blog, the better I become. (Allow me this delusion!) Naturally, I’m creating this list illegally, on Sunday evening, because blogging on a Monday morning with two cranky children is nearly impossible. I spent many hours on the road with said cranky children today, and I just want to get in my flannel pajamas and crawl into bed with a good book.

Ed and I love to vacation in state and national parks; to hike, camp, eat outdoors, and possibly have some wildlife sightings. During our six hour drive from Chicago to Des Moines and back again, we spied a variety of wildlife from the car. I have never seen so many animals on this trip, which we make frequently.

  1. I saw at least fifteen red-tailed hawks, both flying and perched in trees.
  2. We saw too many deer to count. Lily was thrilled to see two of them, since Bambi is her all time favorite movie.
  3. A flock of wild turkeys was sitting in a field right next to a herd of deer.
  4. As we crossed the Mississippi River, my cousin and I spotted three huge birds. I assumed they were turkey vultures, but my cousin said no, they were eagles. Sure enough, I looked more closely, and I saw their white feathered heads. It was amazing to see three bald eagles, close to the highway, in Illinois!!
  5. As we neared home, a small possum was venturing out of the forest preserve and walking in the grass by the road. Let’s not assume anything bad happened; he was very cute!

There are more clever lists at abdpbt!

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