posted by Evi on Jan 8
My Mom stopped by yesterday for coffee on her way back from the supermarket. While chatting, we got on the subject of my irrational fear of spiders and how over the years she tried to desensitize me by – hmmm, let me see now – plopping me down in a giant web spun by some sort of creepy garden spider when I was just a little girl, and placing fake spiders between the sheets when I’d come visit her on my semi-annual treks to Florida before moving here. (To be fair, it wasn’t spiders all the time – try rubber cockroaches and those little fur covered toy mice for cats.)
I never knew what would turn up under the covers and after a while I became immune to these offerings. None of this helped me overcome my fear, though. If nothing else, it made it even worse. When confronted with a spider, especially the big black, hairy ones down here in Florida, I still go into shock. My heart pounds and my knees want to buckle right out from under me.
While living in Florida I’ve had three major spider confrontations (so far) that will stick in my mind for all eternity.
Anyway, this is what a spider looks like to someone with acute arachniphobia. In reality the legs were probably only an inch and a half long with a body the size of a penny.
The spider skittered off the door and into the bedroom. I panicked and grabbed the cat then slammed the door shut, closing the spider off in the bedroom. Uh, oh – what did I just do? Oh, no. . .
I grabbed my car keys, tear-assed out the door and scoured the park for Bill. Needless to say, when I did find him he wasn’t too happy being called off duty for something as mundane as a spider. He also wanted to know why I shut the spider in the bedroom. I, in my hysteria, probably said something unintelligible, then told him if he didn’t catch the spider, I was running away from home and sleeping elsewhere.
I spent the night across the street at our friends’ house in their spare bedroom. Al and Dee still haven’t let me forget the incident.
I came home the following day. Bill and Smoochie Cat were up until after two in the morning hunting for the spider, to no avail. That night I was in our spare room playing on the computer – all night if I had to. No way was I going to bed with a giant spider on the loose.
Suddenly Bill came to the room and said, “Don’t move. Just stay where you are.” Then, whack! He intercepted the spider just as it was about to enter the room I was in. My hero!
I put the dead spider in a baggie (don’t worry, my eyes were closed) and showed it to an exterminator the following day. He confirmed it was a wolf spider and quite harmless. Still. . . a spider is a spider!
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