Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

I do not like bugs. I have never liked bugs. In Saudi Arabia we had cockroaches and ants and all sorts of leggy-creepy things. Hated ‘em. I don’t like things with too many legs, wings, and are just creepy. Hell, I don’t even like lady bugs. I REALLY don’t like anything that can land on me (peregrine falcons aside), fly at me, crawl over me, or do any other buggy things that bugs do. I hate bugs.

I don’t even like butterflies. Because they are just bugs with wings. Multi-colored wings, sure, but they are still bugs with wings. Many years ago I went with my brother and his family to a ‘butterfly house’ that was a big hot house, and all these different butterfly species hung out on plants, flew around, and well, landed on you. This was supposed to be some really ‘neat, interactive experience’. Interactive, sure. Neat? My ass. Bugs with big wings landing on you. Ugh. The kids thought it was cool. Me? I couldn’t get out of there fast enough and into my nearest chemical decontamination shower.

UGH.

The husband has really tried to convince me that spiders are good things. We’ve come to a compromise; I won’t whack them dead with a shoe, and I won’t remove spider webs, but when it comes to spiders In. My. Vicinity? He must remove them, and all other bugs in my vicinity.

Generally it works pretty well.

But today? I took Fiona on the (becoming) usual 2 mile jog. We had a few debates as to who was really in control (I finally won, but it took a while….), but it was all fairly uneventful. Gary and I had gone on a 9 mile bike ride just before the jog, so we were a bit more on the walk-jog side of things rather than just the jog side. Anyhoo…. We are about 3/4ths of the way down the closed road when I see this Big. Hairy. Spider. In. The. Middle. Of. The. Road.

I leapt about 16 feet sideways in one step, taking my faithful hound with me, while eyeing the Thing from a distance. Yep. It was a spider. A Big. Hairy. Spider. A Tarantula. A Tarantula?!? Eesh. A Tarantula. In. The. Wild.

Ugh. Not just a bug, but a Big. Hairy. Bug.

In hindsight, once I got my wits about me and remembered that tarantulas were very unlikely to jump up on me and start crawling all over me, I actually wished that I had brought my phone with me so I could have taken a picture of it. But still. A Tarantula?!?

EEEEESH.. I really don’t like spiders. And I REALLY, REALLY don’t like BIG HAIRY CREEPY-LOOKING SPIDERS.

So now I’ve got to keep my eyes open for the rock cliffs falling down on me

By drliz (For the record, the tarantula was about 10 yards past the bush on the left side of the road...)

But I’ve got to watch out for tarantulas, as well.


By drliz

And I thought it was tough enough, just getting myself up the road and back with dog and body intact…