In Which I Evict a Spider

Trigger warning: There is a picture of a not-small spider in this post, so if that bothers you, please skip today’s post. I can assure you that nothing of import happened yesterday.

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I spent most of yesterday in town. I won’t complain about the summer traffic other than to say that I thought it couldn’t get worse but I was wrong. And now my eyebrows are shaped, my mouth is back together, and my hair is under control. I bought new hose fittings and some groceries. I have to go back to town today to get the summer tires put on the Jeep and then I am hoping to be able to stay home until next week. I want to get the rest of the garden planted. We got a few thunderstorms yesterday afternoon and I appreciate the rain on the plants that are in the ground.

The peas are up:

I know the ground looks like concrete but it’s the same spot where I grow peas every year because there is a permanent trellis there.

I moved Charlotte out to the greenhouse. I said to the husband that I think I traumatized her because she didn’t move from where I put her—although I know she is still alive—and he reminded me that the sum total of her activity was to sit in her web, unmoving, for days at a time. I’ll check on her this morning. She usually spun her new webs overnight when it was dark.

This is Charlotte. Her body is about the size of a nickel.

I kind of miss her, but forest animals belong outside, even if they would prefer to live in my house. I looked up at the corner of the kitchen out of habit this morning when I came downstairs and then remembered that she wasn’t there. And I have no doubt that the universe will send me some other poor creature to take care of. Let’s just hope it’s not a bear cub.

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I came out of the greenhouse yesterday after moving Charlotte and found the husband standing next to the rental house, looking at the deck. He has a particular stance when he is considering a project, one that I call the “What do I do with this hole in the back of my house?” stance because I have a photo somewhere of him looking that way after he and my father took the back wall off our house in Pennsylvania 30+ years ago. I asked him why he was looking at the deck and he said he is planning to replace it soon. I thought that project was going to wait until the fall, but apparently, the front of the deck is in pretty bad shape. Fortunately, that is the part of the deck that doesn’t get used often. Our friends arrive on June 15 to stay for a month, so he wants to have it done by then. I reminded him that the Architectural Review Committee (me) would like to have a ramp incorporated into the deck design.

When the husband decides to work on a project, he focuses on that project and gets it done, so I expect there to be a new deck on the rental house in short order.