Spiders and Alligators

The season has begun....... summer, that is, with all the creepy crawly things that go with it. Yesterday morning when we opened the front door, there was a spider web from one side of the front porch to the other. My husband nearly stepped right into the middle of it as he went out to walk Gracie.

Had I been the only one out on the porch, I would've gotten a broom to remove the spider, then stomped on that broom to make one flat spider. I don't mind spider webs, but I don't want them in a place where I can easily walk into them. My husband didn't stomp that spider...... he picked up one corner of the web and then the other, and re-located the spider to another part of the front garden. I'm hoping the spider doesn't move himself back to the front porch.

In this morning's Chronicle, there was a photo of an eight-foot-long alligator that's been in one of the nearby bayous. They're doing some construction near that bayou and the workmen are bringing food for the alligator, so in case the animal decides to crawl up on the shore, they can throw the food into the water so the alligator will change direction and chase after the food.

Did it ever occur to those workmen that they're conditioning the alligator to expect food when it comes up onto the shore of that particular bayou? Not to mention the fact that the bayou there is right next to the shopping strip that has the bookstore, the Hallmark store, the fabric store, and a few resale shops...... it's a busy shopping area, so I'm hoping that The Powers That Be take it upon themselves to catch the alligator and move it to a bayou in a less populated area.

A couple of weeks ago, there was talk of a twelve-foot-alligator in one of the bayous near our subdivision. Our young friends C and L told us that story, and we thought the girls were either exaggerating the length of the alligator or were just repeating a rumor started by the high-school kids. But soon after they told us that, that same alligator was on the pages of The Chronicle as well. It was like seeing an alligator on steroids.

There's a sign posted on the grounds of the complex where my husband works, which isn't that far from where we live. The sign states that "visitors should be aware" of the wildlife, such as alligators, coyotes, deer, ducks, turtles and birds. I guess that's their equivalent of a "Welcome" sign.

Pouring rain this morning...... we woke up to the sound of the rain on the porch roof, along with high winds that blew over the longer stems of my impatiens by the front walkway. I was out there a little while ago, after the rain quit, trying to make the flowers stand up straight again. It worked with some of them..... I'm waiting for the sun to come out, and hoping that the flowers will stretch up towards the sunlight.

I found out this morning that our friend J is in the hospital, with dangerously-high blood pressure. He feels just fine, but his doctor put him in the ICU for a couple of days. J is a very active person, and the confinement is driving him right up the wall. He misses his dog and his cats, which are being taken care of by a neighbor till he gets home, and he misses his antique shop, which is being taken care of by a couple of the dealers. He's been begging the doctor to let him go home since he got there, and the doctor is relenting a little bit....... J might be back home before the weekend is out.

J now has strict diet guidelines for his condition..... no more coffee, no more wine....... and a whole bunch of other things that he can no longer enjoy. I think the doctor gave him that same list last year when this happened, but J didn't pay attention to it. This time, the doctor told J that he was "five minutes and one breath away from a stroke." I think that diagnosis might have got J's attention.