Dropped

Something that seemed incredible happened to me the other day, or maybe it's rather conceited of me to say that it happened to me. It happened to a spider, but it's fair to say that it happened because of me. I was headed out of the house when I noticed the spider right on the outside of my bedroom door. I thought at first that a roommate had placed a plastic spider as a joke of a joke, but the spider moved, and I was alarmed.

Knowing how beneficial spiders are to the environment, I was determined not to kill it (as I regrettably have others in the past, which is shameful for an Eagle Scout). I rushed to the kitchen for a paper towel section, and returned to the spot of the sighting. The spider had moved on, but I soon enough found him inside my room, further compounding his crimes. I apprehended him in the paper towel and hoped I wasn't applying too much pressure or too little.

Why Not?

This horse meat issue is rather interesting to me. An awful lot of people are concerned about unwittingly eating horsemeat due to lax practices. I guess that this has actually happened to someone somewhere. I know they found traces of horse meat in some meatballs meant for IKEA's stores in several European countries. I don't know if it's happened here in America or not. I can appreciate the worries to an extent.

I wouldn't want to eat horse thinking I was getting cow any more than I would want to eat one fish while thinking I was eating another, which happens all too often. The identification end of this controversy is not where you get a quarrel from me. I just wonder what the problem is with horse meat. It's taboo not because it's unsafe meat to eat or because it's illegal. In fact it became legal in the US just a couple of years ago. It's been slow to catch on.

Snake Your Way To Success

I was watching episodes of  "GI Joe" the other day. The main villain, known as Cobra Commander, speaks in a very serpentine manner, which stands to reason. There's a lot of hissing involved, and one wonders whether it is some form of natural speech impediment that he suffers from. If so, did he turn evil as a consequence in some manner inspired by the Book of Genesis, or was his heel turn a simple coincidence. Inquiring minds want to know.

It's an interesting noise to make or hear made. I feel as if it very seldom occurs outside of the intention to project quiet menace of some sort. As proof, I offer the fact that I myself seldom if ever hiss, although I must confess that I tend to draw out the final syllable whenever I say "Yes" as a sort of facetious reaction of happiness to things that don't necessarily justify such a reaction. Condemn me as evil for that if you will, readers.

Be Good Neighbors

It's a funny thing, this terrible fear that's been stricken into us about all the bees dying. I understand in a rational way the danger that there is of everything being adversely affected by the loss of bees. The bees are the glue holding together all the flowers, trees and crops, or so I understand. I would hate for all of that to fall  apart, and yet I don't know how sorry I would be, in a purely emotional sense, that the bees would no longer be around.

I grew up with the understanding that I was severely allergic to bees, and the one or two times that I was stung brought forth prodigious swelling and reddening of the skin. It was unpleasant, but the main effect of it was the fear that I felt about them all the time, and this was a crippling, paralyzing fear if a bee came near and, God forbid, alighted somewhere on my person. It was worst if it landed right there on my glasses where it couldn't be closer and yet couldn't be observed either.

Aiding And Abetting

In my neighborhood, like in so many urban neighborhoods across the country, there are pigeons. They are unpleasant, although they could be worse here than they are. The do not maraud or lay down coats of excrement to a really gratuitous degree. Still, they are far worse than they could be as well, since I don't see any reason for them to be here at all, nearly. Certainly under natural circumstances the place is not really hospitable to them.

Here is where the human element comes in. I don't get some people. You'll see how someone risked their life or even died to save a cat that wandered into the road, and just what is the upshot of such heroics? A mean, amorous night-owl of a cat that draws breath for another day. It's a similar story with the pigeons. They are loathsome creatures, and yet someone feeds them- desires that they hang around here!

Burial At Sea, I See

We were at the beach again the other day, and something happened to trigger a beach memory from childhood. I don't remember what year it must have been, but I was little. We were at the beach house in Florida, and this was a public beach. That was a sometimes regrettable fact, although often enough it was rather pleasant to have all sorts there. Nobody wants to hear about the times when it was all right though, I'm sure.

One day when we were at the beach, a carload of tourists (who I have to assume were from Ohio or Iowa or some such place) stopped out in front of the house. You could drive onto the beach there, I ought to note. They stopped because there was a dead sea turtle there. The family of tourists proceeded to horse around with and pose for pictures in front of the turtle. We were quietly quite incensed from a distance, but took no direct action.

Uncle Dogwalker

The neighbors have a dog, and it's the sweetest pit bull you can imagine. Her name is Gretta, and she is dangerous only in the sense that her enthusiasm for new friends sometimes is more powerful than her ability to control her bulky frame. She's just an adorable thing, and it's a real treat when, occasionally, she needs a walk that can't be provided by her loving owners. The kind of unconditional love that you get from a dog is priceless.

I have an ulterior motive. I've always had the idea that women are drawn to a man with a cute pet, or a less-than cute pet who highlights his sense of compassion. It's the sort of thing that softens an otherwise rough around the edges image. I can always use some softening, and so I stroll out with the dog in hopes that a lady who might not give me much of a glance will suddenly see fit to give me a glance and then some. That may be too much to ask.

They're Out There

When I am back home with my parents for some occasion or another, there are some things that are not generally part of my day-to-day life anymore with which I am momentarily reacquainted. There is the house (or what there is left of it that has not been changed), there is the ebb and flow of household life, and there is the incredible amount of food on hand at any given time. I'm never home long enough to fully return to the old routine, but some things come back.

Something that I think of little is the coyotes. There are hordes of them even in suburban Phoenix, to say nothing of the mountain preserves and further-out areas. They are hardly the only predator out there, and my mind turns to hawks, snakes and spiders immediately. It is the coyotes, though, that are the most outspoken foe. They can be heard to howl sometimes at night, and one guesses that they are in the process of creating some real heartache for some pet owner out there.

After One Dispute, Another

I may as well note that the grocery store strike I was so afraid of yesterday did not materialize, and a new labor deal appears to have been agreed upon. At such times I am less relieved about dodging a bullet and more angry at the notion that maybe I was meant to be scared into submission or compliance. In any case, that's over, and I can write about something less freighted with negative feelings and more fun. It's lucky that just such a thing came up.

I had just gotten home relatively late. One roommate and I were talking, and being considerate of our third roommate, we were talking as softly as we have ever managed. I was starting to wash a pot in order to cook something. A faint noise got my interlocutor's attention, and he went to the balcony to figure out what it was. Moments later, the other roommate emerged from his room (and, I assume, his slumber) to also investigate. They both went out to the balcony.

Spider's Revenge

I think that it is generally agreed that the plotting of 'Jaws: The Revenge' was awfully silly. We are to understand that a shark seeks vengeance on the family of the sheriff who played a key role in killing two different sharks years before. It's a laughable premise on its face, and yet perhaps I won't be laughing any more. You see, I have had an experience myself which makes me believe that it just might be possible for such a thing to happen.

As you will have read yesterday, a spider bit me a number of days ago. I believe I killed it quite inadvertently. It was a reflexive act, though I might well have done it with malice aforethought had circumstances been different. As it was, the probable killing removed any possibility of making a species ID. The opportunity to do so would have eased the anxiety I felt after, so this is no small thing. In any case, the offending spider is in all likelihood dead. That is why the next thing that happened seems remarkable.

O Awesome!

Being in the middle of the nation's second most populous city, the opportunities to observe the natural world that were so plentiful once upon a time back home are minimal. Human nature here is wild and wooly enough to make up for the lack of actual wild animals mostly, but there still is an unfilled void. Happily it is filled by the grace of God. It's something like how a flower or a clump of grass can grow through the crack in a paved road. Life has boundless determination, and will find a way.

A particular life form showed to a friend and I its zeal to exist as I walked with her to her car parked out on the street near my apartment building. It so happened that we found ourselves walking through the parking garage rather than the lobby. It was this providence that put us in a position to witness the seldom seen opossum that dwells in our parking garage. Having seen it before, I was not entirely shocked by its appearance as was my companion, but it was a kind of a surprise.

Bird And Sheep

I was walking from a nearby friend's building to my own late one Sunday night, listening to music but being observant of my surroundings. I had just gotten past this overgrown patch of vegetation in front of a vacant lot and was passing by the building which neighbors my own when I saw something lying on the ground in front of me. It was a little bird, and it was entirely motionless but seemingly alert on the driveway into the building's garage.

I was struck first by intrigue and then by concern. I expected that it would flee once I even came near. It didn't. I knelt and reached out to it with my hand, obtaining no reaction. I actually touched it, and it didn't budge. I had been afraid it would hurt me when I tried that, but it did nothing. It seemed that the bird must be hurt. I could think of no alternative explanation for its wakeful state and inactivity. I stood up and looked around, as if there would be someone there to take over or resolve the source of my worry. Nothing doing- I would have to shoulder this thing alone all the way.