Saturday, June 16, 2007

Life's little things...

Everyone and everything has survival instincts and a strong will to live. I witnessed 2 instances of this today, actually within moments of each other, right here in my very own home.

The first example is of a spider that has found his home in our master bathroom toilet closet. I call it that because that's literally what it is, a closet with a toilet in it. For about 2 weeks now this spider has lived in the corner of the t.c. hanging from a low lying web. He has not budged, apparently he's able to trap other insects into his web in order to survive. (Gosh, maybe it's time to call an exterminator??) He has grown about twice in size since I first saw him. My first instinct was to call for Tom to come and escort him outside but he looked so comfortable there (the spider, not Tom), and appeared non threatening nor was he grotesque (again talking about the spider.) His body is about the size of a cooked piece of rice and legs a bit thicker than one strand of dog fur so we decided to let him be.

I even say "Hello" to him throughout the day when I use the facility he occupies. Surprisingly, he doesn't appear to be threatened by my presence either. So this morning when I'm vacuuming the master bath I open the door to the toilet closet. The vacuum is buzzing, (it's one of those portable ones with a long extended hose) and I'm not even 3 feet from the spider and he starts FREAKING out. Both his body and web are violently pulsating and he's trying to scramble up to the top of the web but he's shaking so much that he's not really getting anywhere. He stops for a second (I assume to take a breath) and then frantically starts trying to climb up the web, only to end up in the exact same spot. I quickly shut off the vacuum, he calms down a bit and I tell him "Don't worry little guy, I won't hurt you." What amazes me was his strong will and determination to survive just like humans and animals. Here, this itsy bitsy spider that has a brain probably the size of what? A pea? No that doesn't fit in this scenario that would make him a GENIUS spider, but come to think of it do spiders even have brains? Thank God for google, you know what I'll be doing later...but here is this teeny tiny spider (with our without a brain) with the same core instincts as the rest of us. I decided not to vacuum the toilet closet for fear of giving the spider a heart attack, that is, if he has a heart.



Onto another one of nature's miracles...

My kitchen plants...They sit atop the counter in the window by the sink and bask in the rays of sunshine. Well this one little plant wasn't doing so well. Tom picked him out at Lowe's a couple months ago and I thought he might be on his last leaf. I usually water the plants on Tuesdays (just once a week) but today I thought that this little guy needed some extra hydration. Out comes the watering can and he gets quite a soaking. I don't think much of it and decide to go on about the day and then an hour or so later I return to the kitchen and gasp in amazement. Here is the plant that just moments before was wilting away to nothing...


I really wish I would have taken a before picture but I had no idea this guy would become the topic of a blog post. His flowers that were once shriveled up and dark brownish green are now vibrant and bright purple. And in this picture it looks like the flowers are craning their necks straight up to the sky, so proud to be alive. Again, another testament to nature's survival instincts.


Or maybe I'm reading into this too much and just need to water my plants more often.

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