"Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life's a spiders dream!"
-Rachel Manak age 4-present day
*Boat = old plastic container
*Stream = pool
*Dream = nightmare
Yes that is a tarantula, albeit a small one, perhaps a baby which makes one think, "where's the mother?"
Yes, that is a baby lizard in the boat with the spider. I guess tarantula's CAN swim, whereas lizards cannot. These two were discovered by Leah when she went out for a mid-morning swim over the weekend. She scooped them into the plastic container with much fan-fare! I was in my room and based on the cacophony of commotion, I knew to grab my camera as I headed out the door. Those dang things are hairy and awful and give me goosebumps!! You may remember this particular tarantula event that left a very permanent spider scar! (click on the highlighted words if you want to relive that fun night). Fortunately, even though the Reptile Spider Wrangler happens to be out of town this time too...I had two trusty, yet not-so-brave, wrangleresque children to scoop it out and toss it over the fence. Leah did the deed while Austin recorded it for his viewing pleasure. I just laughed the whole time...enjoying the comedy of the whole thing and relishing in the fact that I did not have it do it. Laughing, because the love of spiders doesn't fall far from the momma cart!
In other news...and it is now that I will say, I will not post the photo here, to spare you from the extreme grossness that this next story involves.
Disclaimer: Don't read this if you are eating. Don't read this if you gross things give you the creeps.
Yesterday morning I went out the front door to head out for some errands. As soon as I hit the heat of the day, I was also welcomed with a slight foul smell. At first, I thought it smelled of natural gas. But then, I thought perhaps propane. I had grilled the night before so I wondered if I had forgotten to turn off the grill, but I knew it would have run out long before morning. I went back in and asked Austin to check the grill just in case... it was in fact turned off. So, I asked them both to come out and see if they smelled something strange. Foul. They came out and sniffed the hot air but were really not sure. So, I headed out through the garage to get in my car. I could smell it a little more on that side of the garage.
As I was getting into my car, my eyes looked over to the large tubbie that I had set out under the downspout off the garage a couple of weeks ago. We had some rain and I like to capture some of it for later watering of a few plants. With a feeling of dread, I thought...Norma, you let it sit too long and now the water stinks! (Yes, Chuck, when you read this you will say I told you so...and yes I will admit you are right and I shouldn't leave that water sit that long.) But, as I walked up and peered over the edge of that tubbie, I was not prepared for the sight. Two very large, very bloated, very drowned pack rats were floating in what was now...rat soup.
Awful.
I went and got both of the kids to come out and see the source of the smell. I found a big scooped shovel and convinced Austin that he had to help with this horrible project. He managed to get them onto the shovel and I told him to take them down the driveway and fling them out into the open desert area. Some other creature will probably think it was their lucky day to find them. The visual of him running down the driveway, with this big shovel held as far away from his body was funny enough. But then, hearing the inherited Smith-family-gag-reflex retching-sound coming from deep within his lungs had me doing that... nervous-this-isn't-really-funny laugh. I shouted out "fling 'em as far as you can" just before he gave it a big heave-ho! (The contents of the shovel, not his breakfast). I could see those two big rats flying through the air until one smacked straight into a tall saguaro cactus, bouncing off and ricocheting another direction. The sight of that got Austin laughing too, forgetting about the gag which was a good thing. Those pack rats were disgusting. They were huge rats, probably 8-10 inches long. Yes, they were bloated and soggy, but they were long too. I'm hoping they were the rats the mechanic, who did my oil change a few weeks ago, said I had evidence of under the hood of my car. They are known to get under there and chew up the wires. He didn't think that had happened yet as it looked like they had only tucked some seed pods and such up in a corner. Sneaky little buggers.
We laughed about the idea of how long the drowned rat would have hung up on that saguaro if it had been speared by one of the cactus spines! You have to find humor in these situations.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but dream!
note: Rachel thought the lyrics to that little sing song were the way she sang it for years and years and years. We thought it was so cute, we never told her differently. Well, technically I'm sure she knows now, but it's a bit of childhood Rachelism's I like to hang on to.
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