Creepy... yet interesting

Ok, so I've had an odd number of encounters with arachnids this week. I'm not really sure what that's all about, but I thought I'd take a minute to tell you about a couple of them... in case you wanted to hear about spiders. Take this guy for example:

Don't get me wrong. I'm no spider-lover. But I have to give this little dude some mad props. Let me tell you a little bit about what this guy has gone through. Monday morning I came out to my truck and noticed that this spider had built a web on my back glass. I thought about smashing it... but then I decided (as I was about to head to Pulaski Tech) that it would be more fun to watch it try to hold on for dear life as I drove down the interstate. 

Well, I did watch it cling desperately to it's web as we hit 70 mph... and believe it or not, the spider, and it's web, stayed in tact. The whole way there, and the whole way back, this little spider stayed with me. So when I got back to Metro, I decided that he'd been through enough and left him there on the back window of my truck... well, I did destroy his web. But the spider stayed.

The next day we went through the same routine. However, his new web was built between the antenna and the windshield... right out in the open. "Hahaha!" I chuckled to myself, "He doesn't stand a chance now!"

I couldn't have been more wrong. Not only did he hang on to the antenna of my truck at 70 mph, there and back, but he actually caught a bug and enjoyed himself a snack while he did it...

Ok. It was obviously beyond me to dispose of this spider at this point. So I picked up a stick, scraped him off the antenna, and put him in the flower bed at Metro (I figured that he deserved a little respect... that little soldier).

And that's not even the end of the story! Last night Brooke and I were headed out to the store, and guess who we bumped into! The same spider... who has now built an impressive web in the spot where I left him in the flower bed (I'm talking 15ft tall and probably 6ft wide). So we took his picture and shared his story with you all. Take your hats off to this dude... he's a survivor.

And then there's this one:

Oooh, she was a nasty one. Not only was she about 2-1/2 inches long, but she was absolutely covered in her offspring! (This one's for you Chrissa)

We found her on our way in to get the camera to take a picture of the other one. haha.

Anyways... we certainly couldn't let all these nasty wolf spiders live... they might eat us. So we went inside and got the high power insect poison. Then I unleashed a fury never before seen on the face of this earth! (I'm not kidding... I dumped so much poison on that spider that Brooke even felt sorry for her and asked me to stop spraying her... repeatedly)

The babies scattered instantly... well, they tried. They were met by unfriendly fire in every direction... eh-hem. Anyways, mama spider turned toward me and gave me the look of death... and not her's, mine! She quickly made her way down the wall and started after us! Look for yourself:

In fact, I was having trouble figuring out why she wasn't dead at this point. She was so soaked in bug killer that she was actually getting that rubber mat in the picture wet. Man she was mad! So we continued taking pictures until the poison took it's toll.

She keeled over... dead. Victory was ours! Humanity could now go on, safe from the evil that lurked outside the Metro BCM building.

No but seriously, we should probably honor this little creature too. She was so devoted to her babies that she not only carried the nastly little things around on her back (wolf spiders actually carry the egg-sac around too), but she fiercly defended them against insurmountable odds. I take my hat off to you - nasty, mean, creepy-eyed wolf spider. You deserve it.

Man these pictures give me the creeps. I hope you all "enjoy" them as much as we have.