Saturday, September 27, 2008

Arachnophobia




The other night, as I approached my car after song practice, I saw a fantastic, large economy-sized spider rising in the air (climbing its silk). I thought it would be great for Thomas to take to his entomology class. Didn't have a container of any kind in the car, so I went back in the church building, hoping to find a plastic cup or two, which I did. Still didn't know how I was going to reach the darn thing, but on my way out I came across three of Thomas' friends—all Boy Scouts—who were eager to lend a hand.

The spider was still there, but pretty high up, so two of the boys interlaced their fingers while the third stood on their hands and clapped the cups together, capturing the spider.

Now, of course the cups weren't stuck together, so I had to HOLD them together all the way home! Drove one-handed, turned the radio up so I couldn't hear the skritch-skritch noises coming from oh-so-near my hand and tried not to think about the extra passenger I'd taken on. (The creepy-crawlies are fascinating—from a distance!)

Unfortunately, in my excitement and haste, I was almost home when I realized I'd FORGOTTEN to PICK UP ALYX!! Don't know that she'd have wanted to be in the car, anyway. (I went back and got her after delivering the spider to Thomas. For some reason, she wasn't even surprised I'd forgotten her—sorry, Baby!)

I hoped Thomas would be as excited as I was, and he was. He identified the creature as an Orb Weaver—entirely harmless, but impressive nonetheless.

Now the challenge is keeping the sucker ALIVE for a week, until Thomas' next class. So it's in our fridge (to slow its metabolism). Just don't look in that paper bag...

3 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh you're the coolest mom ever. No way, wouldn't have done it.

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  2. Ewwww!!! You totally win. I could barely get close enough with my camera...!

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  3. So, did the spider survive long enough to amuse Thomas' class?

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