Arachnophobia

The other night (well, actually early morning) at about 1:30 a.m., I was up because we have these two dogs who seem to think that breakfast is served at that time of the morning. And, there is no way of changing their minds no matter what you do. So, up I get half asleep, let them outside to do their 'thing' and wonder into the kitchen to fill their dishes. After I put their dishes down so they wouldn't STARVE...heaven forbid that I should move any slower with them dancing on my toes. While they were gulping down their green beans and dog food (don't ask), I walked over to the patio door to look outside since I knew it was raining when I fell asleep and wanted to see if it had stopped. Well, I flipped on the outside deck light to look outside and came face-to-face with.......

Yep, that would be a huge spider web being guarded by spider which was anything but small and friendly looking. It was hanging right in front of our patio door. I could tell it wasn't attached to our door but it didn't matter because I wasn't about to open the door to say "Hi, how ya doin?" anyway. BUT...I did know one thing. I was going to get proof of this because Grandpa has a habit of thinking I imagine things. So, I grabbed my camera and snapped a picture. That didn't work because....dah....you can't take a flash picture at a window. All you get is a picture of the reflection of the flash going off. Nuts!! Ok, so I needed to open the door. I turned the knob (wasn't locked, they don't lock their doors in Tennessee ) and slowly opened the door. My mouth dropped open. There it hung in all its glory and spookiness. I took aim, snapped the picture and quickly (but carefully) closed the door again. Luckily, the spider didn't move but I wasn't taking any chances....I flipped the dead-bold lock.

By that time the dogs were done eating so I hustled back to bed, poked Grandpa and shoved the camera in his face. I think he opened one eye, took a look and uttered an unenthusiastic "Wow" and then rolled back over and went back to sleep. I didn't care....I had PROOF! I went back into the kitchen and left him a note on the counter to "Take care of the spider and his web". 

When I woke up, the web and spider was gone and Grandpa was walking back into the house carrying the morning paper. I said "Nice job" and he informed me that when he woke up at 6:00 a.m., the whole thing was gone!! What? I can understand if the spider was gone...you know, out hunting or something...but the whole web? I was beginning to feel like we were in the middle of an episode of "Animal Planet".

But, as long as it was gone I was happy and you know what made me even happier....I had PROOF!