Autumn is settling in for my part of Texas.  The leaves haven't really started to change--that usually waits until mid-November--but the crisp chill is in the air, and I am starting to sleep more comfortably at night.  The summer was not too hot, but it was hot enough, and the air conditioner had started to smell dank from the humidity, even through constant filter changes. I've taken advantage of the cooler weather to get some work done in my yard, something I had put off for way too long. The yard was mowed as needed, but the weeds had taken over where the mower could not reach, and there was a pile of debris that was a huge eyesore.

Moving the bits of old lumber into the back of the pick-up, I stirred up several species of spiders, including a black widow who had cobbed her web in the square hole of a cinder block. For my own safety as well as my daughter's, I could not let her survive. She met a quick end with a squish from a shovel handle.

Other spiders moved on to make their webs under the porch.  I don't mind them, really. When the porch light is on, it attracts bugs, and it's pretty interesting to watch the spiders pounce on little moths and flies that get stuck in the web.  I guess I have a rather morbid fascination with them.

Monday morning, there was a big brown spider hanging underneath my side view mirror. I remarked about her to my hubby, and we glanced at her now and again as we pulled from the driveway to the highway.  I didn't expect her to last long because it was raining, the wind was gusting, and it's a 30 mile drive.  She moved from the bottom of the mirror, to the mirror itself, to stay out of the wind, stuck onto it with webs and holding on for dear life.  We stopped at the store, and then at the daycare, and she was still there as we got out of the car to go into work.

I was surprised to see her again when I went to lunch.  I stopped at the store to buy a few Halloween treats, then drove over to the sandwich shop.  I got it to go.  When I made it back out to my car, she had moved from her napping spot on the mirror to my door handle. The moment of our parting had come. 

I wasn't about to pick her up nicely and move her to safety.  She is a big girl. She'd gotten this far, and I wasn't up for a spider bite for all my trouble.  So like any squeamish woman, I took my little purse and knocked her onto the pavement with a little jump and the slightest breathy squeal.  A lady across the drive saw me jump and gave a chuckle at my expense. I smiled sheepishly, shooed the spider under the neighboring SUV, and got in the car. 

The driver of the SUV pulled out before I did. As I looked down at the pavement, I saw the little brown lady scrambling for the curb.  She made it onto the sidewalk, and then made a mad dash toward the door of a jewelry store.

I didn't watch her anymore.  Who knows what trouble she would stir up in there? I said a little prayer that she would find safety away from the bottoms of people's shoes and rolled up jewelry flyers.  I imagine her finding her way into some warm dark room in the back somewhere where she can lay some eggs and finish her life out killing crickets or something.  And maybe, just maybe, the screams will be heard this spring when the babies hatch and start crawling all over that nice little jewelry store, where they sell diamonds mined by poor African kids at extortionist rates.

*Sigh*  I am so very, very bad.