Critters, Cremation and Things that visit you in your sleep and try to kill you

Recently some of you may have heard a shorter version of the spider-back porch incident on Sam’s facebook page. Let’s review, and get everyone else caught up, shall we?

So, there are some crazy big house spiders here, but we rarely see them. We don’t see them very often at all, but a few times they pop up and are straight out of a bad dream- especially for Atticus, who is scared of spiders (yet also enthralled by them). These suckers are pretty freaky though, the body is easily several inches in diameter and they have long, disgusting legs. They are quintessentially creepy crawly.

So one turned up a while ago in the bathroom. Naturally, Jon had to deal with it. (Despite our usual egalitarian and liberated household, nothing really resets the gender behaviors back to tradition quite like a bug or critter sighting.) So, Jon captured the spider, and then decided to light it on fire. Sam wholeheartedly did not approve and pointed out that this is the sort of thing serial killers do. It was dead before he burned it though, so it qualified as cremation (in his mind). Jon went to the back porch because that’s his little spot for setting things on fire. Soon, Atticus caught wind that fire was being used so he showed up. The burning of spider body was kind of cathartic for him we think.

Apparently though, spiders are not that flammable. Jon kept having to re-light it. Oh, and have we mentioned the lighter that we have plays a little electric tone song when you light it? It alternates between that song from Titanic and Fur Elise. Also, for a reason only he will ever know, Atticus felt it was appropriate to sing Oh Christmas Tree. Finally, with the help of some rubbing alcohol, the body was disposed of.

So, Sam is still convinced that some serious bad hoodoo was conjured up during all this. In fact, a quite similar situation as this might be the very premise for Freddy Kruger’s existence. Sam’s been keeping her eyes out for the spider’s revengeful return. Over the last week or so, we’ve had several close encounters with new little critters on the back porch. First, a dragonfly became obsessed with Jon and would not leave no matter what Jon did to drive it away. He just hung around all night and when Jon even threw him off the balcony, he came right back, landed on the balcony bars and just stared at Jon. Then, we have a new little tiktiki (gecko) that has been hanging around back there too. He likes to come out when we’re doing the dishes and he catches bugs. We like to watch him and kind of feel like we’ve bonded a little bit. So, despite the slightly nagging worry that maybe these are the spider coming back to burn us in his fire of wrath, the back porch has been transferred from a place of horror into one of cuteness and critter love. Sam took the opportunity to get some pics of our new little friends and play with some photos. Here they are.